Camille is a strong, independent woman with two young
daughters she's raising in New Orleans. Her husband Charles
is far from a model father (he drinks too much and earns
money by dealing drugs), which is why she packs up Dahlia
and Josie and sets out for Canada. The goal is to get far
enough away from Charles (and the people he does business
with) and to make a new life for themselves, but by the time
they get to Little Gale (a tiny island off of Maine), winter
was setting in and they realized that things were only
getting colder and greyer, and they had chosen improper
clothes for continuing the journey. So they settled in.
They rented a room from Ben, whose son Matthew was the same
age as the girls. One of the girls is immediately smitten
with Matthew, but (as fate would have it) Matthew is taken
with the other daughter. Camille and Ben feel an attraction
for each other, but they want to be sensitive to their
children's feelings, so they initially hide their feelings
and interactions as much as possible. However, over time,
it becomes undeniable, especially once they begin a business
partnership.
Camille and Ben open Little Gale Gumbo together capitalizing
on Camille's Creole recipes, particularly the gumbo, red
beans and rice, bread pudding, and pralines that she's been
making for decades. The success of the restaurant helps the
family fit in a little better, as the islanders have always
been a little suspicious of Camille, Dahlia, Josie, and
their Creole ways.
Suddenly, Ben is the victim of a mysterious accident and he
is fighting for his life. It seems that Charles was
involved, having gained early release from prison. But
there are some other aspects to the accident that leave the
police chief wondering what actually happened. It doesn't
help that one of the daughters used to date the police
chief, but broke it off and left him broken-hearted and
wondering where things went wrong. And this isn't the only
relationship in which one (or both) of the girls are
harboring a secret.
This story is simply sublime. Although it was a bit
confusing at first since the daughters refer to their father
in different ways (so I wasn't sure if they were actually
referring to the same person or different people), and I
didn't realize that much of the story was told in
flashbacks, I soon got used to the way in which the story
was told. Once I did, the story itself was gorgeous. The
characters are complex and unique, and the sacrifices each
one made for the other were heart-breaking.
When Camille and her two teenage daughters fled New Orleans
for the island of Little Gale off the coast of Maine, the
islanders were initially more suspicious than welcoming.
Twenty-five years later, Camille's Creole restaurant, The
Little Gale Gumbo Café, has become an island staple-as has
the legacy of her romance with islander Ben Haskell. Camille
and Ben, along with their children, created a new family
unit with a seemingly unbreakable bond.
But when Ben is found unconscious in his home, next to the
body of Camille's estranged husband, old secrets and
suspicions reemerge, and the family must reunite to hope for
Ben's survival. But as revelations come to the surface, so
do long-held secrets that will test the limits and
definitions of family.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy