Seventeen-year-old Ronnie Miller travels from New York City to a quiet North Carolina beach town to spend the summer with her estranged father, Steve. Resentful of her parents’ divorce, Ronnie initially rejects her father’s attempts to reconcile through their shared history as concert pianists. Her isolation shifts after she meets Will Blakelee, a local volleyball player, and begins volunteer work protecting loggerhead sea turtle nests. When Steve reveals a terminal illness, Ronnie abandons her rebellion to complete a final musical composition with him before he dies.
This novel serves readers who appreciate stories about family reconciliation and first love. It appeals to those interested in the complexities of parent-child dynamics and the process of navigating grief. Readers finish the book with a perspective on how shared creative interests can repair broken communication and how individual maturity often stems from facing loss. It provides a look at coastal life and the specific emotional transitions inherent in the final summer before adulthood begins.
Practical, inward-looking, clear-cut and escapist; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Escapist Adventurer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2009
- Language
- EN
