About this item
New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe returns to her beloved Isle of Palms to tell the poignant, charming story of two women, one summer, and one very special beach house. When Cara Rutledge rents out her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Fordham for the entire summer, it's a win-win by any standard: Cara's generating income necessary to keep husband Brett's ecotourism boat business afloat, and anxiety-prone Heather, an young artist who's been given a commission to paint birds on postage stamps, has a quiet space in which to work and tend to her pet canaries uninterrupted. It isn't long, however, before both women's idyllic summers are altered irrevocably: the alluring shorebirds--and the man who rescues them--begin to draw Heather out of the shell she's cultivated toward a world of adventure, and maybe even love; at the same time, Cara's life reels with sudden tragedy, and she wishes only to return to the beach house that had once been her port amidst life's storms. When Heather refuses to budge from her newfound sanctuary, so begins the unlikeliest of rooming situations. While they start out as strangers, as everything around the women falls apart they learn that the only thing they can really rely on is each other. And, like the migrating shorebirds that come to the island for the summer, these two women of different generations must rediscover their unique strengths so by summer's end they, too, can take flight in ways they never imagined possible.
About the Author
Mary Alice Monroe is the New York Times bestselling author of 27 books, including The Summer of Lost and Found, the latest installment of her beloved Beach House series. Monroe has also published children's books which complement the environmental themes she is known for in her adult novels. Monroe's middle grade series, written with Angela May, The Islanders, debuted #2 on the New York Times Best Sellers List in 2021. The second book in the series, Search for Treasure, debuted #3 on the New York Times Best Sellers List. Nearly eight million copies of her books have been published worldwide. Mary Alice has earned numerous accolades and awards including induction into the South Carolina Academy of Authors' Hall of Fame; South Carolina Center for the Book Award for Writing; the South Carolina Award for Literary Excellence; the SW Florida Author of Distinction Award; the RT Lifetime Achievement Award; the International Book Award for Green Fiction; the Henry Bergh Award for Children's Fiction; and her novel A Lowcountry Christmas won the prestigious Southern Prize for Fiction. Mary Alice is also the co-founder of the popular weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction. The Beach House is a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, starring Andie McDowell. Several of her novels are optioned for film. Mary Alice has championed the fragility of the earth's wild habitat. The coastal southern landscape in particular is a strong and important focus of many of her novels. For her writing, Monroe immerses herself in academic research, works with wildlife experts, and does hands-on volunteering with animals. She then uses the knowledge and experiences to craft captivating stories that identify important parallels between nature and human nature. Sea turtles, bottlenose dolphins, monarch butterflies, shorebirds are among the species she has worked with and woven into her novels. Mary Alice is also an active conservationist and serves on several boards including the South Carolina Aquarium board emeritus, the Pat Conroy Literary Center Honorary Board, and the Leatherback Trust, which she received the Leatherback Trust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. She is especially proud to be a state-certified volunteer with the Island Turtle Team for more than twenty years. Mary Alice splits her time between her home on the South Carolina coast and her home in the North Carolina mountains. When she's not writing a novel, she is with her family or busy working with wildlife somewhere in the world.
