By: Kristin Harper
Many thanks to Bookouture for the ARC of the book and the stop on the book tour.
ABOUT THE BOOK
When newly single and heartbroken Paige inherits an isolated cottage facing out to the wild sea on Dune Island from her great-aunt Violet, she is shocked. Paige never even met Violet, and she’s heard family stories about how a terrible incident involving the wealthy neighboring Hathaway family during World War Two led Violet to withdraw from everyone. But why would Violet leave everything to her?
Determined to clear out the cottage and sell it as quickly as possible, when Paige bumps into Seth Hathaway as he walks back from the beach, at first she’s guarded. But Seth’s easy smile makes her think that maybe the Hathaways can be trusted after all…
Then Paige finds an old envelope containing her aunt’s only piece of jewelry. The romantic message inscribed inside brings tears to her eyes, and Seth shows her how the initials match those carved with a heart into an ancient beech tree on her aunt’s property. Did Violet live her whole life yearning for the person who gave her the locket?
As Paige and Seth grow closer, she starts to wonder if she could find happiness right here on Dune Island. And if Paige discovers the identity of Violet’s lost love, can she finally clear her aunt’s name—or in this tight-knit island community, should some secrets be left in the past forever?
MY REVIEW
This is a wonderfully beautiful book. There are so many fulfilling elements that Harper has within this book. There’s the family dynamic between Violet’s family and the Hathaways, there’s the historical aspect, the family history aspect, family dynamics within the same family, and then there’s also a bit of romance.
I loved the ying and yang of the two families, how completely opposite they were. However, Seth did seem to be less of a true Hathaway and that was nice to see. I also really liked learning some history without it being too overwhelming and in your face. It was done in the right way.
Most authors that write books about a family member in the past will write alternating chapters of in the present and in the past. I LOVED that this book stayed in the present throughout the whole book. I appreciated Paige’s desire to learn about her Aunt Violet, and the steps she took to learn more about her and her life on the island. The way that the author was able to tell Violet’s story without having to make “past” chapters was amazing. It made me appreciate the book that much more. This is really the best part of the book.
There’s two romances that happen in the book: Violet’s and Paige’s. Both are not the center of the book, but provide the reader to feel happiness knowing that these characters had someone love them and take care of them.
There’s so much good here, and I could go on and on. I think you should just read the book.
Find it here!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ever since she was a young girl, there were few things Kristin liked more than creative writing and spending time on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with her family. Eventually (after a succession of jobs that bored her to tears), she found a way to combine those two passions by becoming a women’s fiction author whose stories occur in oceanside settings. While Kristin doesn’t live on the Cape year-round, she escapes to the beach whenever she can.
https://twitter.com/KHarperAuthor
https://www.kristinharperauthor.com
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