Maddie Clarke, a professor at a Boston college, was waiting to hear if she would be granted tenure when she received a letter from an attorney that could change the course of her life. It seems her Grandma Nancy hadn't died decades ago as Maddie had been told, She died recently at age eighty-nine and she left her considerable estate to Maddie. The story is set in a fishing village on Martha's Vineyard where Maddie's mother had been born and where she and Maddie had vacationed until her mother had been killed when Maddie was five years old. Now, approaching middle age, divorced and with a college age son and vague memories, Maddie returned to her grandmother's cottage to settle the estate quickly and return to her normal life. However, this was not exactly what happened. Actually, none of that happened.
UP ISLAND HARBOR, by Jean Stone, is a story with a unique plot. The residents of the island, who are central to the narrative, are a quirky group who share a strong sense of loyalty. Even though not related by blood, they are the very definition of a solid family. However, Maddie considers herself to be an outsider and she has suspicions. She questions the circumstances of her grandmother's death and then unexpectedly she is given reason to question her own heritage and ancestry. After a series of mishaps and even more unanswered questions, Maddie vowed to find out why she had been lied to and what really happened to her grandmother. What will she do when she learns the truth?
UP ISLAND HARBOR is a beautifully told story about a woman who may have been given the opportunity to become and embrace who she was really meant to be. Packed with heart and serious and meaningful dialogue, this book is well worth reading. Highly recommended.
For fans of Debbie Macomber and Elin Hilderbrand, a new series of heartwarming beach-read novels set in a picturesque fishing village on Martha’s Vineyard, with all the seaside charm and small-town heart that readers expect from Jean Stone’s previous Vineyard novels, and a new cast of characters for readers to fall in love with.
The quaint, historic fishing village of Menemsha is a side of Martha’s Vineyard that tourists don’t always see. Maddie Clarke’s late mother was born on the Vineyard, and Maddie hazily recalls childhood visits to her Grandma Nancy’s cottage above Menemsha Harbor. Now divorced with a teenage son, Maddie is awaiting news of a tenureship at her Massachusetts college when a letter arrives that could change everything . . .
It turns out Grandma Nancy didn’t die long ago, as Maddie believed. In fact, Nancy just passed away at 89—and left Maddie her gray-shingled cottage. Maddie intends her visit to Martha’s Vineyard to be a brief one, just long enough to settle the estate and sell the cottage. But on arriving in Menemsha, she finds far more than memories . . .
There are other family secrets waiting to be uncovered, and a Native American heritage Maddie knew nothing about. Most surprising of all, there is the glimmer of a very different future—a chance to connect with her people and find herself, and perhaps find love, on this beautiful, celebrated island . . .
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