I'll Be Your Blue Sky

January 8, 2018
Love and mystery surround a darker thread about the safety of women in this complex and moving tale by de los Santos (Love Walked In). The novel’s two plots begin, respectively, on the day of Edith Herron’s wedding to Joseph in 1950 and the day before Clare Hobbes’s marriage to Zach Barfield in the present. At the outset, Edith’s life is suffused with light, from the sun on the water near her beach home in Antioch Beach, Del., to the joy that she and Joseph share in their life together. Clare, on the other hand, is hesitant to wed Zach; she is given courage to call it off when, in a chance meeting, Edith advises her that “no one should live with someone who scares her.” Three weeks later, Clare escapes Zach by fleeing to Blue Sky House, left to her unexpectedly by Edith upon her death. It is there, with the help of Dev Tremain, Clare’s lifelong friend and onetime love, that Clare begins to piece together clues about Edith’s past and the fact that the house was once a secret shelter for women in abusive situations. In delving into Edith’s past at Blue Sky House, they also make more personal discoveries relevant to their present. The author doesn’t sugarcoat the violence that the women have suffered, but she balances those passages with soaring descriptions of everything from the saltwater marshes to Dev’s smile. This novel is both lovely and powerful.

Marisa de los Santos revisits characters from two previous novels, LOVE WALKED IN and BELONG TO ME, but new listeners can easily enjoy this installment as a stand-alone. Shifting between the 1950s and the present day, the story alternates between the voices of Edith and Clare--narrated by Angela Dawe and Erin Bennett. When the two women meet on the eve of Clare's wedding, it sets off a chain of events that will lead Clare to make some startling changes and discoveries. The dual narration, meant to distinguish Edith's voice from Clare's, doesn't add much to the listening experience, as both narrators have similar voices and reading styles. Nonetheless, the narration is natural and without artifice--a perfect fit for de los Santos's fluid and poetic prose. L.C.L. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

November 1, 2017

Clare Hobbes is at a Virginia hotel for her wedding to Zach. Her uncertainty must be showing because both her mother, Viviana, and her almost-mother Cornelia seem to be offering her a chance to opt out. But Clare loves Zach and knows that he is always trying to do the right thing. An elderly woman at the hotel clarifies things a bit more for Clare, who faces a huge decision. Edith Herron, whose own life unfolds in alternating chapters starting in 1949, was a young bride with a bright future when circumstances took a tragic turn. The story of Edith and Clare's connection slowly starts to take shape when Clare is bequeathed Edith's Delaware beachfront home, Blue Sky House, and its long-held secrets. VERDICT De los Santos (Love Walked In; Belong to Me) here revisits the next generation of her beloved characters, moving the family saga forward with this engrossing story of unshakable love, personal ethics, and a commitment to life's larger truths.--Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2018
Marital abuse is the central issue in de los Santos' (The Precious One, 2015, etc.) latest, which is made up of two intersecting stories: a contemporary woman is engaged to a man with possibly scary anger issues and, in the 1950s, another woman faces difficult choices after the death of her beloved husband.One day before Clare (who, along with other characters here, has appeared in previous de los Santos novels) is scheduled to marry good-looking lawyer Zach at a Virginia resort, an elderly stranger walks by while she's making centerpieces and says, "Courage, dear heart," which happens to be a quote from one of Clare's beloved Narnia books. The next morning, Clare finds herself talking in more depth to the stranger, Edith, who warns her not to live with someone who scares her. Already deeply apprehensive about marrying Zach because he has to work "so hard to be good," Clare takes Edith's advice and calls off the wedding. Edith dies shortly afterward and bequeaths her house on the Delaware coast to Clare. At loose ends after the non-wedding, Clare--who, unlike Zach, is naturally good as well as sensitive and loving--goes there to recover and to avoid Zach's borderline stalking. The novel moves back and forth between Clare's current romantic quandary and Edith's difficult life in the '50s: her idyllic but tragically brief marriage, her years as a young widow running a vacation boardinghouse, her affair with a handsome stranger from the city who involves her in his "relocation system" for women escaping abusive husbands, the risk she takes to help a young mother who has killed her violent husband in self-defense. Readers learn most of these details long before Clare figures them out, although her natural curiosity about Edith draws her and her best friend/former boyfriend, Dev, into Nancy Drew-like sleuthing. Their playful, increasingly romantic enjoyment of the adventure in uncovering Edith's past creates an odd contrast to the actual serious drama of Edith's life.De los Santos writes with disarming fluidity even when her plot takes far-fetched turns, but her heroine's inexhaustible perfection grows cloying.

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Starred review from February 1, 2018
Clare's wedding weekendthree days of perfect weather dappling every corner of a picturesque Blue Ridge resortwas filled with the people she loved the most. So why did she feel like she was on the verge of a huge mistake? After sneaking out of her bridal brunch to hide a panic attack, Clare bared her soul to Edith, a kindly older woman with the exact advice Clare needed to hear. The conversation crystallized something in Clare, who walked back into the resort and called off her wedding. Clare never thought she'd hear from Edith again, let alone be named as a beneficiary in her will, but Edith leaves Clare her house, a small beachfront inn in Delaware. Overwhelmed by Edith's generosity, Clare looks into the history of the old house and finds far more than she ever imagined. De los Santos (Connect the Stars, 2015; The Precious One, 2015) brings her signature style, wit, and charm while weaving in beloved characters from her previous novels. Fans of Suzanne Finnamore and Marian Keyes will fall in love with the clarity and poetry in de los Santos' voice. This tender, genuine, and joyful novel is one to savor.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)