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Reviewed by Ruffina Oserio for Readers' Favorite
Mae Keaney returns to her childhood home in the out-of-the-way Chappaquiddick region of Martha’s Vineyard with only one thought: rebuild her life and leave the darkness of the past behind, and she is determined to count on no one. A cottage overlooking the water offers her shelter and it’s her haven — but for how long? Determined to keep her secrets to herself and to create a new life, she uses her cooking skills to run her Boat House Café. But when she meets the son of the chief of the Wampanoag, Tobias, the coldness in her heart begins to dissipate. Can she open her heart to him and, when this fragile love she begins to feel is tested, how far will she go to protect it?
The Boat House Café: Book One of First Light by Linda Cardillo is a beautiful story with powerful plot points and emotions that pull the reader in, allowing them to connect to the protagonist and stay tuned with the other characters. It’s a beautiful romance, so realistic it is easy to believe in the characters. This is a love story set against the backdrop of years during and following WWII on an idyllic island, a story with relevant historical hints and wonderful images of the setting. Linda Cardillo has the gift of penetrating the hidden layers of a woman’s heart, exploring complex emotions in characters and bringing out the best in their humanity. Mae’s transformation doesn’t happen in a day and readers will eagerly follow her character development curve.
The prose is crisp, at times poetic, and loaded with descriptions that are finely done and that grab the reader’s attention in an irresistible way. The themes of family, war, friendship, solitude, and intercultural relationships are masterfully explored in this narrative. The Boat House Café: Book One of First Light is a compelling opening in a series, a novel with powerful themes, a gripping narrative style, and an ingenious plot structure that makes it a work of great entertainment. I will be impatiently looking forward for the next entry in the series!
