Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Depression era families were excellent secret keepers, and the smaller, more closely knit the community, the greater the chance of those secrets never seeing the light of day. But when the grandmother who raised Ivy Neale leaves her seaside cottage to Ivy, generations of family's secrets are slowly revealed. Ruth Wheeler grew up working at her parents' Seaside Resort in Nags Head, NC. Edna and Jake were always honest with Ruth about how they came to be her parents – thanks to a woman leaving a baby wrapped in a pink blanket at one of the resort’s cottages in the dark of night. Ivy Neale left Seaside Resort and Nags Head the day after her high school graduation. Only after her grandmother, Ruth, dies does Ivy return home. Ruth's cottage is cluttered with decades of jetsam from the closed Seaside Resort and personal effects collected over a lifetime. As Ivy sorts through the remains of a bygone era, the secrets of her family’s past begin to unravel, binding Ivy to the home she abandoned in ways she never could have imagined. Told primarily from a twelve-year-old Ruth and current-day Ivy's perspectives, we learn about pivotal events from the summer of 1950 that significantly impact Ivy's life. With shipwrecks, ghosts, and summer tourists, we find that family will go to greater lengths than we could ever imagine in the name of supporting and protecting each other. Once again, this masterful storyteller lures the reader in with a laid-back, comfortable style while doling out bits of information that leave the reader hanging on every word. She makes us long for simpler times while illuminating the importance of keeping family history alive for generations to come. Poignant, mesmerizing, and full of heart, this extraordinary saga of family, legacy, and home makes for an enticing reading escape and will be one of your absolute favorite reads this year.