A REVIEW
Naturally drawn to any book that’s set in, on or around the beach, this book, with it’s beautiful blue cover and simple Adirondack chair and beach umbrella cover design, caught my eye immediately. It has that beachy feel from the minute you pick it up. Between the covers is a story that cleverly weaves the lives of Nan, Michael, Daff, Daniel, and Bee together, as they fall under the magical spell of Nan’s home, Windermere, on the island of Nantucket.
Green’s way of injecting descriptive scene setting at Windermere had me Googling the location of Nantucket Island and it’s now somewhere that I would put onto my ‘to visit’ list if I were ever to travel to America. The appeal of staying in a true beach side cottage where I could fling open the living room doors and step out onto the beach, well, that’s one hell of an appeal to me. The small year-round population is appealing, the fluctuating tourist population, not so much.
Green’s style of writing is unlike my own, which made it a little more difficult for me to be drawn into the characters world. Reading a story unfolding in the present tense, compared to my writing in the past tense, left me feeling a little disjointed at times. However, this is the first book that I’ve truly noticed the writing style used, I can’t say whether it’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’, I can only say it is different. But I’m so glad that I stuck with it, and moved past the differences in writing styles, because once I met all the characters I needed to see where the story would take them. I did pick the main story line of Windermere becoming a boarding house and their lives connecting there and, if I had have turned over to the blurb prior to reading the book, that would have been revealed. I wish I had a Windermere of my own to live in as Green has created a simply extraordinary place.
I absolutely adored Nan and the way in which she viewed the world, she reminded me of the small town local ‘nanna’ who took all the kids under her wing, not just her own. She possessed many beautiful traits, she looked after everyone and ‘knew’ what they needed most, even if they themselves didn’t. Her heart, always in the right place, gave her a strength of character that saw her stand up for not just Windermere, but for herself and those she grew to love, in her own special way of course.
The tangled web of the characters and their interconnected stories represent a possible reality, none being so far-fetched that it leaves you going ‘nah, that would never happen’. I loved this storyline, from start to finish and found that I related the most to Daff, having been the single mum and all. A book for those who want to sit back and be submersed in a world where there’s a little drama, some romance, and an opportunity to let the imagination drift off into the magic of a little old island beachside house.
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