When Julia's husband Ken, a successful and well-loved businessman, dies of a heart attack at age 39, she feels that her life is over. All that is left is to grieve and to do her best to honor her husband's legacy by running his successful company and continuing his traditions. She decides to sell their beloved summer home in Santa Cruz, but only after allowing their regular tenants to enjoy one more summer at the beach.
I was a little disconcerted at first when I realized that different tenants would be the featured characters of the novel during June, July, and August. Would there be connections and an interweaving of the stories, things that I treasure in good novels? As it turns out, Bockoven does a credible job of creating enough of a connection to provide the reader with a feelin g of continuity, largely through the presence of Eric, a doctor who is renting the cottage next door. The tenants include a mother with a teenage son who is falling in love for the first time, an elderly couple coping with the end of life after 60 years of marriage, and a recently separated woman who discovers that sometimes true love is where you least expect to find it. This is more like a series of connected short stories than a novel. but it is a good light summer read.
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