Annie Marlow has been through the worst. Rocked by tragedy, she heads to the one place that makes her happy: Oceanside in the Pacific Northwest, the destination of many family vacations when Annie was a teenager. Once there, Annie begins to restore her broken spirit, thanks in part to the folks she meets. [from front flap]
Debbie Macomber’s Cottage by the Sea drew me in at my first glance of the title. Most of my life I’ve dreamed of living in such a place. And it invited me into the tender story of Annie Marlow who is trying to reorient her life in this small town with happy memories after a terrible tragedy.
We are with Annie when she learns a horrific incident has struck her family. The telling is frustratingly slow, but that may be completely realistic. Having not experienced such a thing, I can’t say. But I did want to tell the speaker to spit it out. The devastation to Annie is clear and compelling.
The cast were all interesting characters, some with enjoyable, unusual quirks. And their interactions, for the most part, helped Annie take steps toward healing. Some of Macomber’s descriptions are delightful and bring the story alive:
~ Disapproval dripped from her words like melting wax.
~ “What do you want?” he demanded in a voice that rattled from years of tobacco use.
But a few issues slowed the story’s unfurling. In some spots character motivation either wasn’t clear or seemed contrived. Another issue for me was the author often repeated things in the first quarter of the book, explained something from a character’s past in an awkward way/time, and told us things that we’d just read the character doing.
I wanted to love this book. And there were many things I did like, but enough of the other to make reading at times trudging, not sailing, and prevent me from giving it 5 stars. I’m not sorry I read it, and the story is memorable. I just wish reading it had been smoother.
In chapter 53 Jacques ponders what makes people different and/or valuable. He comes to the conclusion that every person is amazing ~ and most people don’t realize that about themselves because of their perspective, “like a flower that looks down and thinks it is just a stem.”
Or describing a place near sunset: “There was a breathless hush to the air, neither any wind nor the faintest ripple to mar the ocean’s surface. The Pacific stretched out in blue-gold majesty to join with the cloudless horizon. The air was a mix of sunlit heat and the water’s biting chill. The result was a champagne headiness.”
Respite comes from fun, quirky characters and the pithy observations of Aunt Ingrid, the girls’ aunt who loves when she can but disappears into Alzheimer’s fog more and more often. Respite for the reader also comes from Ganshert’s skill with words. The grief she pens is achingly real, but so are the joy, faith, and encouragement that characters offer each other. And beautiful, evocative images such as this: “The clouds were dark purple bruises that stretched to the horizon.”
WHERE WE BELONG by Lynn Austin is an engaging story about Rebecca and Flora Hawes, two wealthy young ladies living in 19th century Chicago. They are determined people with boundless energy and optimism who go out of their way to evade the conventions of Victorian society. While seeking adventure and God’s will for their lives (some would say recklessly), they gather books, needy people, and ancient relics and manuscripts. At times Rebecca appears mischievous, but the misadventures she leads Flora on result from their high spirits, intelligence, curiosity, and belief that God wants them to use their talents and that He holds their days.
The sights, sounds, and smells of Chicago streets come alive under Austin’s pen. “These homes are where families live and children play … gesturing to the rickety tenements webbed with strings of flapping laundry … a pen with live sheep and pigs … a group of ragged children playing in a mud puddle beneath the community’s water spigot…” We learn about the railroad station. “The vast, rumbling space shook with … the locomotives thundering in and out; the air smelled of coal, and steam, and hot iron rails.”
Milbrandt weaves a marvelously creative, whimsical world where mountains have moods and some people can discern those moods, even hear the mountain. Where mountains have keepers to protect their hearts. And stone statues can be woken. This is a tale brimming with love, loyalty, and delight ~ where every person and thing is valuable.
You might think a story about statues who come to life would be frightening and morbid with people being tossed about like rag dolls until crushed. But when I finished reading Harrow, I was left amid a cloud of warmth and delight.
I’m absolutely crazy about young Tupper. Such a sensitive soul, he hears the needs of others ~ stone and otherwise ~ before they even make them known. Then, with utmost creativity and kindness, he finds solutions and adds abundance to all who live on Moonlit Mountain. Growing from child to teenager, he spends some time considering what characteristics he wants in a wife when the time finally comes. Having watched many silly, idle girls, one thing he’s decided: “He didn’t want a girl who didn’t pick her own lettuces.” The boy is practical as well as compassionate! And he is devoted to Freydolf, the master sculptor who hired him.
There isn’t much I don’t love about these stories. The characters and setting come boldly to life. And why shouldn’t a magic mountain and the varied, charming characters come to life. I mean—if statues awaken … And I’m fascinated by the varied ways in which the statues wake.
