Review: Undertow.  by Elizabeth O'Roark
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 24, 2013
I loved every page of this book.  It brought back so many memories of my youth and older teenage years.  The romance between Maura Pierce and Nate was in summary beautiful.  They were friends most of their lives.  Nate always looked after Maura as he loved her all his life.  Their were class differences in Paradise Cove  Maura lived in the affluent section of the beautiful island town and her parents were associated with the upper crust country club set.  Mothers were involved with club tennis, golf, cards and charity auctions, often at the expence of their children's care.  Maura had not a snooty bone in her lovely body.  She associated with all kids and treated them all with respect.  The affluent summer people came to open their luxurious grand island homes.  The townies were looked down on by the parents but the kids when left alone blended quite nicely, It was their  stuffy patients who  caused all the trouble and fed on the gossip, trying to interfere with their children's dates, schools, etc.  Maura's mother and Ethan's mother tried every trick in the book to throw their children together, hoping they would eventually marry when out of college.  Nate couldn't afford to attend college due to his mother living as a housekeeper for Maura's family.  Nate and his mother, Mary, lived in the carriage house over the garage.  Nate's mother, Mary loved Maura and approved of Nate and Maura's close relationship as teenagers.  Maura was 17-18 and Nate was a few years older.  He loved to build things and his lifelong desire was to become an archetecht.  He started school but had to drop out due to lack of funds. He made his living doing carpenter work and did it well.  Maura was going to law school at the University of Michigan which trouble Nate, thinking she would end up with her college boyfriend, Ethen, who her parent's preferred.  During the summer when Maura was home, she spent the majority of her day on the beach, sunning and partying with her friends.  Nate watched from afar and grew jealous of her friends, especially the young sophisticated Nathan, who had access to all his family's riches and a healthy allowance and loved Maura and treated her like the lovely lady she was.  Maura's grandfather liked Nate and believed in him and in his heart really hoped he would end up with his granddaughter he adored.  When he died, he left most of his large estate to  Maura, including the carriage house where Nate moved into following his mother's untimely death.  Maura and Nate could not stay apart and always managed to find some precious time together whenever they could.  To sum up the story, Maura and Nate ended up together after much time elapsed. Many interesting events happened between the summer and fall when Maura had to leave to start law school at the U of M.  Nate could not bear to be away from her and decided to follow her to Michigan and enrolled in architect school, finally fulfilling his life's dream.  Maura was shocked and overjoyed to know he cared enough to move north to be with her.  Their marriage was happy and fulfilled when in time their little daughter was born.  They named her Mary Rose after Nate's mother.  They wanted to raise their family in Paradise Cove where they grew up, hoping to have more children romping in their large yard.  They opened a local law office and architect firm. This was a delightful  read.I enjoyed it tremendously and I'm certain all who read it will enjoy it, too.Well done, Elizabeth O'Roarke!  I'll be checking for more of your books.Carole Beighey