by Marisa de los Santos
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2018
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A captivating, beautifully written drama involving family, friendship, secrets, sacrifice, courage, and true love for fans of Jojo Moyes, Elin Hilderbrand, and Nancy Thayer.
On the weekend of her wedding, Clare Hobbes meets an elderly woman named Edith Herron. During the course of a single conversation, Edith gives Clare the courage to do what she should have done months earlier: break off her engagement to her charming - yet overly possessive - fiancé.
Three weeks later, Clare learns that Edith has died - and has given her another gift. Nestled in crepe myrtle and hydrangea and perched at the marshy edge of a bay in a small seaside town in Delaware, Blue Sky House now belongs to Clare. Though the former guest house has been empty for years, Clare feels a deep connection to Edith inside its walls, which are decorated with old photographs taken by Edith and her beloved husband, Joseph.
Exploring the house, Clare finds two mysterious ledgers hidden beneath the kitchen sink. Edith, it seems, was no ordinary woman - and Blue Sky House no ordinary place. With the help of her mother, Viviana, her surrogate mother, Cornelia Brown, and her former boyfriend and best friend, Dev Tremain, Clare begins to piece together the story of Blue Sky House - a decades-old mystery more complex and tangled than she could have imagined. As she peels back the layers of Edith's life, Clare discovers a story of dark secrets, passionate love, heartbreaking sacrifice, and incredible courage. She also makes startling discoveries about herself: where she's come from, where she's going, and what - and who - she loves.
Shifting between the 1950s and the present and told in the alternating voices of Edith and Clare, I'll Be Your Blue Sky is vintage Marisa de los Santos - an emotionally evocative novel that probes the deepest recesses of the human heart and illuminates the tender connections that bind our lives.
"Starred Review. De los Santos brings her signature style, wit, and charm while weaving in beloved characters from her previous novels. ... This tender, genuine, and joyful novel is one to savor." - Booklist
"The author doesn't sugarcoat the violence that the women have suffered, but she balances those passages with soaring descriptions of everything from the saltwater marshes to Dev's smile. This novel is both lovely and powerful." - Publishers Weekly
"De los Santos...here revisits the next generation of her beloved characters, moving the family saga forward with this engrossing story of unshakable love, personal ethics, and a commitment to life's larger truths." - Library Journal
"De los Santos writes with disarming fluidity even when her plot takes far-fetched turns, but her heroine's inexhaustible perfection grows cloying." - Kirkus
"A lovely rumination on the choices we make, with characters we've loved for years." - RT Book Reviews (top pick)
"Breathtaking. These characters are so alive and so complex, you might pass them on the street. Marisa de los Santos infuses their lives with poetry and insight – and does the same for us in the process." - Katherine Center, author of How to Walk Away and Happiness for Beginners
This information about I'll Be Your Blue Sky was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Marisa de los Santos is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning poet with a PhD in literature and creative writing. She lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with her family.
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