Pieces of Blue

In screenwriter and YA novelist Holly Goldberg Sloan's charming first novel for adult readers, Pieces of Blue, a family moves to Hawai'i for a fresh start following a devastating tragedy. Lindsey Hill doesn't know what to do after her husband, Paul, drowns while surfing, leaving her with the scraps of a failed company, piles of debt, and three children to raise. When the life insurance payment arrives, Lindsey decides, perhaps recklessly, to buy a struggling but picturesque motel in Hawai'i. Her children--Olivia, Carlos, and Sena--adjust to their new lives and, respectively, develop a crush, foster a new persona, and protect the small things they can. Meanwhile, Lindsey finds herself falling for the handsome Chris, who inexplicably offers to be their handyman at no charge. But Chris may have his own investment in the Hill family that Lindsey isn't aware of, while off the coast a storm is brewing.

The big-hearted nature of Sloan's previous novels can also be found in this warm and welcoming story of a family's emotional and often humorous recovery. Sloan (Short; Appleblossom the Possum; Counting by 7s) skillfully balances the perspectives of Lindsey with each of her three children, imbuing the characters with the kind of personality details and gentle eccentricities that have made her family dramas shine. But undergirding these tender characters and their individual and collective turmoil is a winking sense of humor that reassures readers that things for the Hill family will work out--despite some unexpected (and they are unexpected) twists along the way. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor

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