Kathleen A. Brehony

Set against the salt-kissed backdrop of Long Beach Island, New Jersey, Brehony’s latest is a deeply moving, late-in-life love story wrapped in grief, longing, and the quiet strength of enduring friendships. Sixty-five-year-old Shannon O’Connell returns to her family’s beachside inn grieving the loss of her best friend Linda, who’s just died from metastatic breast cancer. Her partner of thirty years has left her. Her mother is disappearing into Alzheimer’s. Enter Elizabeth Matthews, show more Shannon’s old friend, and, once upon a time, something more. Will Shannon fall in love once again?

Brehony writes with an open heart and a steady hand, weaving grief and desire with psychological insight. Her dual-perspective chapters give Shannon and Elizabeth equal space to reflect, hesitate, and yearn. The result is a romance that doesn’t rush, but lingers. And it’s not just a love story between two women. The novel is also about the fierce, decades-long bond of female friendship. Shannon’s “Tribe”—her chosen family of women—rally around her with casseroles, Scotch, and inappropriate humor. They are the book’s heartbeat, offering both levity and collective wisdom. “We’re in our sixties and seventies,” Elizabeth muses, “but still call ourselves ‘the girls.’”

With crisp prose and unflinching honesty, the novel dares to explore what happens after the fairy tale ends. It honors the complexity of aging, the weight of memory, and the surprising freedom that can come with starting over. Heart-aching in some parts, quietly swoonworthy in others, this novel is for anyone who’s ever wondered if it’s too late for a second chance. show less

Set against the salt-kissed backdrop of Long Beach Island, New Jersey, Brehony’s latest is a deeply moving, late-in-life love story wrapped in grief, longing, and the quiet strength of enduring friendships. Sixty-five-year-old Shannon O’Connell returns to her family’s beachside inn grieving the loss of her best friend Linda, who’s just died from metastatic breast cancer. Her partner of thirty years has left her. Her mother is disappearing into Alzheimer’s. Enter Elizabeth Matthews, show more Shannon’s old friend, and, once upon a time, something more. Will Shannon fall in love once again?

Brehony writes with an open heart and a steady hand, weaving grief and desire with psychological insight. Her dual-perspective chapters give Shannon and Elizabeth equal space to reflect, hesitate, and yearn. The result is a romance that doesn’t rush, but lingers. And it’s not just a love story between two women. The novel is also about the fierce, decades-long bond of female friendship. Shannon’s “Tribe”—her chosen family of women—rally around her with casseroles, Scotch, and inappropriate humor. They are the book’s heartbeat, offering both levity and collective wisdom. “We’re in our sixties and seventies,” Elizabeth muses, “but still call ourselves ‘the girls.’”

With crisp prose and unflinching honesty, the novel dares to explore what happens after the fairy tale ends. It honors the complexity of aging, the weight of memory, and the surprising freedom that can come with starting over. Heart-aching in some parts, quietly swoonworthy in others, this novel is for anyone who’s ever wondered if it’s too late for a second chance. show less

This book explore how suffering can be a powerful force for good in the lives of the people who learn the lessons that are available to them. Material for a variety of faiths and traditions are discussed, demonstrating that suffering is a universal experience, and that many traditions have learned to let suffering bring about growth. As a general survey, this book could be given 4 stars, but for me it's only 3 because I believe it fails to fully capture how God uses suffering to draw us show more closer to Him. show less

The stories in this book are very powerful. There is nothing "ordinary" about the choices these people made to help others.

The one drawback (for me anyway) is the very strong undercurrent of Christianity that runs throughout the entire book. The author tries to downplay the importance of this aspect, but it is still very prevalent.