Season of Salt and Honey

September 1, 2015

Frankie comes from a big, boisterous Italian family. She is poised to marry her high school sweetheart, Alex Gardner, a member of a small, reserved clan. She is convinced her mother-in-law-to-be doesn't like her, that her sister tried to take her fiance away from her, and that she will live happily ever after. When Alex drowns in a surfing accident, Frankie escapes to his family's rustic cabin to grieve. While there, she meets sympathetic and supportive neighbors, finds out the truth about her sister and her not-quite-mother-in-law, and gains some maturity about the world and her place in it. Tunnicliffe's second novel (after The Color of Tea) presents a central character who is remarkably naive and unrealistic until she is jolted into maturity. The inclusion of recipes for foods mentioned in the story seems somewhat out of place. VERDICT This book will have YA crossover appeal and will be relished by readers of light fiction.--Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence

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