Review: really captured my attention
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 8, 2013
Maura is a beautiful college girl from a wealthy family who spent all her summers at her grandparent's island home. Nate, a handsome young island boy, is rich in all ways except the one most important to Maura's family. He is the poor son of their cook/maid/housekeeper. Maura and Nate are also best friends much to her family's dismay. "Nate was there - my best friend, my favorite person, the thing that made the beach what I dreamed about during the dull Charlotte winters." One summer, the summer she turned seventeen, that changed, something happened. Some unexplained, awful thing happened and Nate left the island, left Maura and left a huge hole in her heart. Five years later the hole is still there. ""I wonder how long it will take before every single reminder of him doesn't blow through me like some kind of natural disaster, taking away every vestige of happiness I was feeling the second before? Maura has come back to the island to be in her best friend's wedding...as has Nate. "I feel my stomach plummeting, my chest tightening....It's the prospect of seeing him, after five years of silence. It's finally happening, and I really have no choice in the matter." I loved experiencing the joy and sorrow of these two characters, discovering the reasons and misunderstandings that kept them apart and cheering them on as they attempted to regain their friendship and love. The delicious little twist at the end also helped me overcome my anger at some characters I will not name. I must say I am surprised this was Ms. O'Roark's first book. It captured my attention and I will definitely be on the lookout for more of her work.