Morning Glory

September 9, 2013
Jio’s fifth novel, following The Last Camellia, explores the degree to which time and distance give comfort to those who have experienced loss. In 2008, Ada Santorini’s life in New York as deputy editor of Sunrise magazine is shaken by personal tragedy. She leaves her job and rents a houseboat on Seattle’s Lake Union, hoping a change of location will provide the healing she needs. Yet her new home has its own tragedy—the disappearance in 1959 of a local woman, Penny Wentworth, which no one in the small, tight-knit community will discuss. When Ada finds a trunk in her houseboat and realizes it belonged to the missing woman, she and her new friend Alex, a neighboring houseboat renter, decide to uncover the truth. The growth of Ada and Alex’s relationship as they work together is satisfying, but the beautifully rendered setting emerges as an equally important character. However, the flashbacks to 1959 are so strong that readers may lose patience with the present-day narrative, while the town’s secret is too easy to figure out. Fans of Jio’s previous works should find that the depth of feeling in her writing overcomes the drawbacks. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Weed Literary.

May 1, 2013
Jio (The Last Camellia, 2013, etc.) blends romance and mystery in a novel told from the alternating points of view of two women separated by decades but connected by place and circumstances. After losing her beloved husband and daughter in an accident for which she blames herself, Ada Santorini seeks help from a grief counselor. During one session, she tells him she wants to move far away from New York, where she works as a travel magazine writer, in order to dig herself out of her pit of despair. He reminds her that grief lives inside, not outside, and gives her information about a friend who has a houseboat for rent on Lake Union in Seattle. In June 2008, she takes out a lease on the houseboat and begins to establish relationships with neighbors. She discovers that the houseboat was once the home of a woman named Penny, who left a trunk full of souvenirs from her life; enough to inspire Ada's interest but not enough to completely enlighten Ada about Penny's disappearance back in 1959, a subject the neighbors won't discuss. Ada asks a friend back home who works for the NYPD to help her investigate the various people in Penny's life: husband, lover, a neighbor child. The author maintains a steady succession of questions, answers and more questions to create suspense. Tragedy and redemption mix in Jio's latest treat for fans.

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