Friday, August 3, 2012

Just Jennifer

A Simple Thing by Kathleen McCleary (William Morrow Paperbacks, 2012)

When Susannah realizes her fourteen-year-old daughter Kate begins to engage in self-destructive behavior and her eleven-year-old son Quinn is being bullied in school she decides to move her children to the northwest to Sounder Island where life is simpler for a year.  Susannah doesn’t realize the toll her decision will take on herself, her children and her marriage to Matt, a man she has loved for most of her life.  On the island, Susannah meets Betty who has been living on the island refuge for almost fifty years.  Betty has seen the consequences of the decisions she made to live on the island and strikes up an unexpected relationship with Susannah which helps both women come to peace with their decisions and helps guide each toward forgiveness, most of all for themselves.  Isolated from almost everything, Susannah and her children learn about each other and themselves without the distractions of everyday life.  As new friendships are forged both women begin to heal and figure out what is most important to each in her life.  

Safe Within by Jean Reynolds Page (William Morrow Paperbacks, 2012)

Carson Forsyth is dying and he and his wife Elaine have returned to her child hood home, a tree house high above a North Carolina lake.  As Carson faces his approaching death, Elaine tries to envision a life without Carson.  What she doesn’t count on is Carson’s mother Greta, who has not spoken to Elaine in over twenty years.  Greta has just been arrested for setting a neighbor’s herd of alpacas loose and while Carson finds the situation hilarious, Elaine is not sure what to make of the woman who never accepted Elaine and Greta’s grandson Mick.  After Carson’s death, the three much must learn how to live without him and learn how they are to create a family.  When Mick learns his family may be larger than he expected after a summer relationship with a local girl, and Greta accuses Elaine that Mick is not Carson’s son, both Mick and Elaine find themselves questioning the lives they knew and the families they thought they had.  As the three grieve and learn to live with their grief, their family goes through a kaleidoscope of changes as they restructure their lives and relationships. 

Beach Colors by Shelley Noble (William Morrow Paperbacks, 2012)

Margaux Sullivan had dreamed of being a top designer since she read her first copy of a bridal magazine.  Her climb to the top has not come without cost, but she has finally made it and her designs, under the house of M Atelier have been featured in Vogue and Marie Claire.  Margaux, however, did not pay as much attention to her husband as she did to the details of her designs and is shocked to learn he has cleaned out their bank accounts and left.  She finds herself penniless except for one car, her business completely repossessed, her life a shambles and can think of only one place to retreat to lick her wounds, heal and refocus, the coastal town of Crescent Cove, Connecticut, where she summered with her family and where she had an annual crush on townie Nick Prescott who is now the interim chief of police of Crescent Cove.  Nick has also given up his dreams to return home to Crescent Cove where he is taking care of his now orphaned nephew, Connor.  Together, with the nurturing of their friends and families, these two lost souls will find their ways back to themselves and to each other, learning to forgive and asking for forgiveness along the way and learning what is really important.  When Margaux has a chance to have it all back again, she considers it until she realizes the cost of having it all, for herself and for others.  Shelley Noble has drawn a warm town that welcomes strangers and returnees looking for place.  She takes Margaux and Nick on a journey neither would have expected, of themselves or each other, and they both are surprised to find they are each exactly where they need to be. 

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