The Sea Glass Cottage

February 1, 2020
Thayne (The Cliff House, 2019) uses her tried-and-true, never trite or tired approach in her latest drama. Olivia Harper leaves her busy life in Seattle to head back to Cape Sanctuary, where her mother, Juliet, quite vibrant in her fifties, has been seriously injured in a fall from a ladder in the family garden center business. Olivia has a lot of baggage from her childhood. She felt abandoned after her father died in a fire, and her mother devoted herself to the business and coping with the problems of Olivia's older sister, who went off the deep end, using drugs, getting pregnant, dying of an overdose, and leaving behind a little girl, Caitlin, who is now in her teens. The three generations of Harper women are keeping secrets from themselves as well as from others. While Olivia hides the trauma she is suffering that stems from something that happened in Seattle, Caitlin searches for her unknown father, and Juliet's secret keeps her isolated from those who love her. Hope lies in steadfast male friends, who pose positive possibilities.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)