Every Time You Go Away

May 15, 2018
A benign ghost story in which a young widow is consoled (and prodded) by the spirit of her late husband.Willa Bennett's husband, Ben, succumbed to a rare heart condition at the age of 36. Three years have passed, and Willa, a schoolteacher who lives with her 17-year-old son, Jamie, in suburban Maryland, hasn't really moved on. What's more, she worries that while wallowing in her own grief, she has failed to provide Jamie with the support he needs. In the interest of jump-starting her life, Willa decides to fix up and sell the family beach house in Ocean City, which happens to be where Ben died. She enlists her best friend, Kristin, to help out; Jamie eventually joins them, as does Kristin's daughter, Kelsey. Ben shows up too, but in ghostly form, visible only to Willa. While assuring her of his undying love, he also tries to persuade her to carry on without him--even to the point of finding a new love. Harbison (If I Could Turn Back Time, 2016, etc.) alternates between Willa's story and Jamie's. She proves adept at plumbing the adolescent psyche: Jamie is an appealing, authentic character. Harbison's writing, meanwhile, is relaxed and conversational, enlivened with the occasional pop-culture reference ("We had been a happy family...we were the Cleavers, the Petries, the Flintstones without the rocks"). The narrative feels a little padded--apart from Ben's ghostly visitations, nothing much happens until the very end. By that time, the reader has a pretty good idea how things will play out. This is pathos light; a number of scenes--including Kristin's walking in on Willa chatting with her deceased husband--are played for laughs.Nothing unexpected or particularly original in this mild novel, but it's a pleasant, sometimes-comforting read.

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May 15, 2018
Three years have passed and still Willa mourns the sudden death of her husband, Ben. He died while working on their beach house in Ocean City, Maryland, leaving Willa to care for their teenage son, Jamie. Willa supports herself and Jamie on her salary, but selling the beach house would give her some much-needed financial security. Once she arrives in Ocean City to pack up and sell the beloved house, she is terrified to confront the decades of happy memories that were shared there. She isn't surprised to find that the house needs a few repairs, and the tedium of patching, painting, and packing helps calm some of the emotional chaos. But Ben's presence seems closer than ever in the old house . . . maybe too close. A heartwarming story about love transcending time and space, Harbison's (One Less Problem without You, 2016) latest will appeal to fans of Sarah Healy and Nancy Thayer. Drenching readers in Willa's salt- and sun-soaked memories, Harbison avoids melodrama, instead tempering tragedy with wry humor, heartfelt introspection, and an unexpected romance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2017

Jane Holcomb's cheating husband got the beach house in the divorce settlement, then died ten months after the papers were signed. So what's he doing back there, haunting her as she tries to clean up the house for sale? He's protesting that he realizes what a mistake he made--she was his one true love--and getting all huffy when she seems to be falling for the hunky contractor. From the New York Times best-selling author.

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