Phoebe Allen is a 40-something-year-old widow making a quiet life for herself on Owl Island, a quaint island tucked off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. She supports herself weaving fishing nets for the locals and is the recipient of the amorous attention of a local artist, Ivan. Daughter Laurienne is in her early 20s and works in Seattle.
Life for Phoebe hasn't always been so simple. As a teenager and young woman, she was headstrong and full of emotion. At a tender age, she fell in love with an older man named Whitney Traynor. A few years later, a torrid affair ensued, setting the stage for a lifetime of heartache and secrets, including questions about the identity of Laurienne's father.
After 20 years of trying to forget Whitney, now a famous independent filmmaker, he unexpectedly buys a house on the close-knit island. His reappearance conjures up old feelings and opens the lock on old secrets that Phoebe has been trying to repress for years.
Overall, OWL ISLAND is a captivating and mysterious read even though the storytelling is a bit predictable at times. Coburn does a fine job exploring the tangled web of emotions against the backdrop of the island's rugged and windswept landscape.
In this accomplished and dazzlingly written novel, Randy
Sue Coburn brings to life with tremendous heart, humor
and wisdom the Pacific Northwest enclave of Owl Island and
its many unforgettable inhabitants. Widow Phoebe Allen has
single-handedly raised a wonderful daughter and established
a successful business supplying nets to the local fishermen,
and now enjoys the amourous attentions of a longtime friend.
When Phoebe learns that her old boyfriend Whitney Traynor
has purchased a house neaarby, she must confront
long-suppressed feelings for her charismatic first love, now
a high-profile indie film director. For years Phoebe has
concealed truths from her daughter and may now be forced to
divulge them. As the past rushes toward to present like an
inevitable tide, Phoebe must also confront the early loss of
her mother, whose own mysteries are beginning to surface.
Along the way, Phoebe discovers the life-transforming
benefits of opening one's heart.
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