Anne Bradford has come home to Folly Cove in Massachusetts, with her baby Lucy, after the abrupt end of her relationship with Lucy's father. Colin, it turned out, wasn't in the process of getting a divorce from his wife. Barbara and Colin show up at the restaurant where she cooks to drop the baby on her and let her know that Colin's going home again. Her boss is shocked that she was "that kind of girl" (so was she), and going home to Folly Cove seemed the only short-term option.
Her mother Sarah Bradford, concerned about maintaining the tone at the Folly Cove in, which has been their sole support since Neil Bradford left them behind. Her oldest sister Laura still believes her husband Jake's version of an encounter one night, when in fact it was Jake who came to her room and behaved, well, inappropriately. The fact that Lucy's father was married only confirms her poor opinion of Anne's behavior.
Then their middle sister Elly comes home, partly to act as a buffer, partly because she's simply hit a dry patch in in her work as a production designer in Hollywood, and needs a break from it.
The Bradford sisters, their mother Sarah, and their Aunt Flossie, their father Neil's sister, are about to get tangled up in the revelation of family secrets. While they're being rocked by the secrets Sarah told in building a secure life for herself and her daughters, they're also struggling with their own secrets. For Laura, it's the question of what's wrong in her relationship with Jake, and her own illicit communication with an old school friend, Tom, who contacted her again through Facebook. For Anne, it's what really happened with Jake, and her own cautious new friendship with her first love, Sebastian. For Elly, it's the panful end of her relationship with Hans, and the surgery that followed.
All the women are fascinating and compelling, and I loved their slow discovery of of just how deep their mutual attachments are. It's a family that always loved each other, but has been strained by the challenges they've faced, including, ironically, Sarah's determination to ensure her daughters had the safe, secure childhood she'd wanted for herself.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
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