New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe returns to her beloved Isle of Palms to tell the poignant, charming story of two women, one summer, and one very special beach house.
When Cara Rutledge rents out her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Wyatt for the entire summer, itтАЩs a win-win by any standard: CaraтАЩs generating income necessary to keep husband BrettтАЩs ecotourism boat business afloat, and anxiety-prone Heather, an young artist whoтАЩs been given a commission to paint birds on postage stamps, has a quiet space in which to work and tend to her pet canaries uninterrupted.
It isnтАЩt long, however, before both womenтАЩs idyllic summers are altered irrevocably: the alluring shorebirdsтАФand the man who rescues themтАФbegin to draw Heather out of the shell sheтАЩs cultivated toward a world of adventure, and maybe even love; at the same time, CaraтАЩs life reels with sudden tragedy, and she wishes only to return to the beach house that had once been her port amidst lifeтАЩs storms. When Heather refuses to budge from her newfound sanctuary, so begins the unlikeliest of rooming situations. While they start out as strangers, as everything around the women falls apart they learn that the only thing they can really rely on is each other.
And, like the migrating shorebirds that come to the island for the summer, these two women of different generations must rediscover their unique strengths so by summerтАЩs end they, too, can take flight in ways they never imagined possible.