In this novel a high-powered Manhattan attorney finds love, purpose, and the promise of a simpler life in her grandmother's hometown. Ellen Branford is going to fulfill her grandmother's dying wish, to find the hometown boy she once loved, and give him her last letter. Ellen leaves Manhattan and her Kennedy-esque fiancé for Beacon, Maine. What should be a one-day trip is quickly complicated when she almost drowns in the chilly bay and is saved by a local carpenter. The rescue turns Ellen into something of a local celebrity, which may or may not help her unravel the past her grandmother labored to keep hidden. As she learns about her grandmother and herself, it becomes clear that a 24-hour visit to Beacon may never be enough.
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This book was sweet and fairly predictable, with the only major surprise coming on behalf of the main character's grandmother 3/4 of the way through the novel. I don't always need to “like” the main character of a book, but in a romance novel it helps - if I don't like you, why do I care if you wind up happy? The biggest problem here, for me, was how long it took me to find Ellen anything but annoying. Her self-centeredness in every possibly situation made me wonder why anyone put up with her, frankly, and it wasn't until her (possibly even more self-centered) fiance' and mother showed up that she started to seem sympathetic in comparison.
That said, I was genuinely interested in finding out the secrets of her Grandmother's life - in fact, I would have loved much more of her grandmother's story. Reading how much she loved her Gran made me see the first glimpses of a woman I could root for, so I was thankful for those moments.
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