Just about everything has gone wrong for Gwen Gilmore over the past year. She’s lost her mother, her teaching job, and been dumped by her—albeit not that great—long-term boyfriend. Adrift and out of options, she packs her life into her barely functioning car and makes the lonely drive north, to the only place she can think of her family’s aging cottage on the Maine coast, Periwinkle, which she’s recently inherited.The cottage and Port Anna, the foggy Maine town of Gwen’s childhood, are unchanged in many ways. For Gwen, they are full of the ghosts of her past—boyfriends, forgotten creative dreams, and painful memories of a sister lost too young. Periwinkle is also home to some more literal The Misses, friendly spirits who have long watched over the cottage, but who now seem strangely unsettled, slamming doors and moving furniture in the night. And behind its charming façade, Port Anna has not escaped the realities of modern life. Family homes are being razed to make space for garish condos, the cottage, coveted by a relentless local realtor, is about to be condemned, and the unsolved disappearance of a teenage girl has set the town on edge. On the face of it, it’s an odd place to try to make a new start.But there are glimmers of hope everywhere, if only Gwen can open herself up to possibility. Sparks fly with Leandro, an Argentinian artist, as aloof and witty as he is wildly attractive. Old friends and former flames come out of the woodwork, bringing with them new opportunities and chances to laugh again. Even in the face of potential happiness, though, it seems some secrets refuse to stay buried. As the summer crowds return to the city and the locals hunker down for another harsh Maine winter, Gwen will be forced to make choices that will change her life forever.
GWEN DID NOT WAKE WHEN THE LOBSTER BOATS ENTERED the cove at dawn, engines thrumming and radios blaring classic rock. Above the din, the helmsmen yelled at their crew, and still she remained dreamless in the creaky old house, cocooned in yellowed linen. She didn't note the rising sun, either, a sliver of light that, just after six, edged past the partially closed blind toward her exposed foot. The warmth crept up her calf, with designs on her thigh, its progress arrested only by a faded curtain. She snored softly on, her hands clasped between her knees, forehead puckered in concentration.
At seven, the kitchen door opened. "Hallooo?" a voice said.
Gwen shivered, and her eyes fluttered open at last. A veined ceiling came into focus, the knots in the wood darkened with age. A beat passed before she remembered crossing the state line just after midnight. Welcome to Maine, the Way Life Should Be.
GWEN DID NOT WAKE WHEN THE LOBSTER BOATS ENTERED the cove at dawn, engines thrumming and radios blaring classic rock. Above the din, the helmsmen yelled at their crew, and still she remained dreamless in the creaky old house, cocooned in yellowed linen. She didn't note the rising sun, either, a sliver of light that, just after six, edged past the partially closed blind toward her exposed foot. The warmth crept up her calf, with designs on her thigh, its progress arrested only by a faded curtain. She snored softly on, her hands clasped between her knees, forehead puckered in concentration.At seven, the kitchen door opened. "Hallooo?" a voice said.Gwen shivered, and her eyes fluttered open at last. A veined ceiling came into focus, the knots in the wood darkened with age. A beat passed before she remembered crossing the state line just after midnight. Welcome to Maine, the Way Life Should Be.
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