By: Holly Chamberlin
ISBN: 9781496701527
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: 6/28/2016
Format: Paperback
My Rating: 3 Stars
A picturesque Maine beach town is the setting for Holly Chamberlin's touching and thought-provoking new novel, as a mother struggles to reconnect with her long lost daughter...
Every year on March 26th, Verity Peterson visits Ogunquit Beach, where she puts a handwritten message into a bottle and launches it into the waves. It's a ritual of remembrance for the daughter she hasn't seen in sixteen years—not since her baby's father, Alan, took two-month-old Gemma and disappeared. Verity keeps searching and hoping, sustained by the thought that someday she might get to be a mother to her own child. And finally, one phone call may change everything…
Verity learns that Alan is now in jail on abduction charges—and Marni Armstrong, born Gemma Peterson-Burns, is coming to live with Verity in Yorktide, Maine. But this isn't the joyful reunion Verity imagined. Gemma has been raised to believe Verity was an unfit mother who left Alan no choice but to take her out of harm's way. Over the course of one summer, Verity tries to reach a tough, wary young woman who's more stranger than daughter. And Gemma must reexamine everything she thought about her parents—and decide whether to trust in a relationship that, though delicate as a seashell on the surface, could prove to be just as beautiful and resilient.
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A special thank you to Kensington and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Praise for the novels of Holly Chamberlin
“Chamberlin's latest is a great summer read but with substance. It will find a wide audience in its exploration of sisterhood, family, and loss.” – Library Journal on Summer With My Sisters
“Nostalgia over real-life friendships lost and regained pulls readers into the story.” - USA Today on Summer Friends
About the Author
I live in Portland, Maine, with my husband Stephen (architect, photographer, and food writer) and our amazingly fabulous cats. When I’m not writing, I usually can be found with my head in a book. I try to read widely; still, I do play favorites with authors such as Peter Ackroyd and Patrick McGrath.
I was born and grew up in the Bronx and later lived in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I earned an undergraduate and graduate degree in English Literature at New York University before going on to work for about twelve years as an editor in publishing and packaging at Ballantine Books, Daniel Weiss Associates, Inc., and Kensington Publishing Corporation. Mostly I developed, acquired and edited projects, usually fiction, in Adult, Young Adult, and Middle Grade categories. Read More
