Emily Wilson is a beautiful New Yorker, matched with a gorgeous husband and with a bestselling novel to her credit--until her world changes in an instant. After 10 years of marriage, husband Joel decides to leave her for another woman, and they are divorcing. Emily has had persistent writer's block, now she must add to that problem a vision of herself as a woman scorned. Her best friend, Annabelle, suggests a change of scene, so Emily agrees to go see her Aunt Bee on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, a place where she spent many happy summers. The instant she arrives, she realizes she has been gone too long: the scent of seawater, the mountain vista, the endless beach--all call to her in a way that calms her and begins to put everything in perspective.
To enjoy this yarn completely, the reader must be prepared to accept many coincidences, an endless parade of secrets kept and ultimately revealed, grudges and misunderstandings held from generation to generation, "facts" that turn out not to be true, people called by different names at different times in their lives so that their identities are not immediately obvious and always, always the chance of romance at every turn. Despite these caveats, the story works because debut author Sarah Jio loves her characters.
Emily's Aunt Bee welcomes her warmly and moves her into a bedroom she never saw in all her visits to the Island. This is not surprising because the house is an "expansive old eight-bedroom colonial that had been boarded up for years." With an inheritance from her parents, Bee purchased the Keystone Mansion and had it redone, inside and out. Emily finds a diary in the drawer of the nightstand and what she reads there sets in motion feelings, thoughts and actions that will change her life forever.
It is the diary of Esther Johnson, begun in 1943 when she was married to Bobby but in love--still--with Elliot. How the diary got there, the secrets it contains, the puzzles it brings up and the interconnected lives of people Emily eventually meets in person form the heart of the novel. Not all of their stories end happily, but Emily will find a way to write again, and one of the stories she will write will contain a happy ending for herself. –Valerie Ryan
Shelf Talker: When her perfect world falls apart, Emily Wilson retreats to the comfort of her aunt's home on Bainbridge Island. What she finds there, in a diary and in the people she meets, helps her find a new way forward.