Chelsea Enright is still sharply grieving the death of her
beloved Gran, Brooke, when she receives an unexpected
inheritance along with mysterious instructions.
Brooke has requested that she visit the lakeside cabin and
seek out a hidden space, reading all she finds there before
making any final decisions about whether or not to sell the
property. Chelsea's life as a children's art teacher means
she has the summer free to do just that, still, she
hesitates to invest more than a few days away from her
mother Lucy, daughter of Brooke who still feels lost and
alone inside the large home they shared.
Soon after her arrival at the cottage she meets Brandon
Yale, a Harvard-educated physician who uses his seaplane to
visit patients who live too far from standard medical care.
This softly sweet romance also contains poignant moments
from a time in America's past when our future was uncertain,
held in abeyance while World War II raged on. Although MORE
THAN WORDS CAN SAY is written with passages straight from
Brooke's diary, written in the early days of America's
involvement with the war, Robert Barclay keeps the emphasis
on the present day situation, allowing it to guide the story
while it is being colored by the events of the past. The
quiet passion with which Chelsea and Brandon's relationship
forms is foremost in the tale, as Chelsea learns secrets
hidden for decades by her late grandmother. As the summer
continues she (and we readers) meet many memorable
characters who hint at Brandon's tragic past. He too is
keeping secrets.
Robert Barclay has delivered a completely satisfying tale,
in fact one of the most satisfying reads I can recall. If we
are lucky, many of us have a summer in a quiet lakeside
cottage to remember and Barclay has succeeded in bringing
back the timeless scents and sounds of those memories. Lake
Evergreen and the nearby town of Serendipity have made a
place in my heart and I can't help hoping there will be more
stories set in that location. I've fallen a bit in love with
the place.
P.S. There are some great recipes at the back of the book,
too.
From the author of If Wishes Were Horses comes a novel of
long-buried secrets and self-discovery, showing us that
sometimes what goes unsaid is more powerful than words. . . .
Chelsea Enright never expected to inherit her grandmother's
lakeside cottage deep in the Adirondacks—a serene getaway
that had been mysteriously closed up decades ago. This is no
simple bequest, however, because when Chelsea finds her
grandmother's WWII diaries, she's stunned to discover that
they hold secrets she never suspected . . . and they have
the power to turn her own life upside down.
Even more surprising is the compelling presence of local
doctor Brandon "Yale, and Chelsea soon finds her "short
stay" has stretched into the entire summer. She cannot put
this cottage and her family's past behind her easily—and the
more she learns about the woman her grandmother truly was,
the more Chelsea's own life begins to change . . . and
nothing will ever be the same again.
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