Another Summer by Rebecca Stevenson

ISBN: 978-1625260826

Published by: Solstice Publishing

Published: June 2014

Trade paperback, 154 pages

Literary agent Tracy Ratcliffe rents a cottage in charming Wentworth Cove, Maine, for a month, to “get away from it all” and relax. “Grayson Cottage was smaller, but more charming, than she’d imagined; a butter yellow clapboard with white trim, window boxes full of ruby red geraniums, pink and white dahlias lining a short curved stone walkway from the street to the front door.”

Tracy is charmed by the delightful town and its friendly people, but a certain feeling of unease begins to grow when a couple of the townspeople seem to recognize her.  She discovers a portrait that bears a striking resemblance to her. She wonders about the circumstances of her mother’s visit 30 years earlier – another summer. Enter tall, dark, handsome, but taciturn Nathan Norsworthy and the stage is set for an engaging read.

I felt that I knew Tracy personally and could relate to her as she muses “what was it about dark wooden shelves filled with books that made her heart skip a beat?”

I loved the descriptions of Maine with its quaint villages, sandy beaches, rocky coast, sunsets, and delicious clam chowder. And what a perfect book cover - a young woman looking out at the endless ocean!

It is an excellent debut novel with stories left untold, I think. I’d like to know more about Maggie and John.

The novel flows well, is a quick, easy read, and entirely clean.