MOON SHELL BEACH (Nancy Thayer)

Moon Shell Beach is one of those books you keep thinking about while you are busy with something else - work, cooking, etc. - wondering what is going to happen next. I'm not quite sure why. It is well-written, like all of Thayer's books that I have read, but it is not a thriller or a mystery. In fact, in a few respects it is not even totally believable! It is, however, great women's fiction with a wonderful sense of real friendships and of place. In this case the place is Nantucket, the setting of many of Thayer's novels and also her home since 1984. The two friends are Clare and Lexi, girls who grow into women on the island and each make choices , one to go and one to stay. Lexi's family is financially strapped and unable to finance her college education, so she marries a rich developer, leaves the island, and fulfills her dreams of travel and culture. Clare stays on Nantucket to pursue her relationship with the irresistable Jessie. After 11 long years the friends are reunited when Lexi returns home to the Island. Each of them finds personal fulfillment in a new life with new goals and dreams. Yes, I know that it sounds like a romance, and in a lot of ways it is, but it is also a wonderful story of the ups and downs of friendship and how forgiveness can make all the difference!