Review: Be brave enough to love again
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 16, 2012
A Sea Change by Annette ReynoldsIn her second novel, Reynolds had penned an elegant and flawless contemporary love story set in a Puget Sound art colony.  Meet Maddy and Nick, first neighbors then lovers too soon, and after healing and howling their real love can burst into bloom.  The Greeks promised us three flavors of love - passion, family and divinity.  All three are exercised and exorcised here, including a wayward brother beyond redemption.The community of Salmon Beach comes alive in rich environmental detail.  Here beach homes hang on a cliff.  With the ocean as intimate neighbor, Maddy and Nick are drenched and buffeted to undergo a sea change of personal evolution.  Cue Jimmy Buffet to sing, "Mother Ocean I can hear your call."  Maddy, with camera in hand, communes  with a personal totem of renewal -- the mermaid on the rock. In the role of mentor and Madonna we have a grandmotherly tea-time potter whose nature is pure nurture.At times I might have locked these two in the bedroom until they worked it out by wrinkling the sheets. Alas, human nature is often more frail than that.  Struggle is the compost than makes people strong, capable of enduring love.  If you're a mother, a lover or on the rebound, then this love story is for you.With luck, human beings grow about as fast as house plants.  Reynolds enriches her characters with inner dialogs and revealing journal entries as they move through four  seasons of healing. Some need forgiveness; others must trust again or simply grow up.  Fractured and in emotional recovery, each gains a degree of solace before being brave to open their hearts anew. Oprah will love this book; Dr. Phil will ask what took you so long?The lesson here is that love cannot be rushed. It must be nurtured through the elements, protected from sleet and sun, until it can bloom again with a scent that captivates the spirit. Old baggage must be unpacked, processed and let go.  Salmon Beach holds a wonderful community of folks with whom to do so.  Five Stars.A Sea Change