The writing was good, but the story was flat. The mystery was no mystery, the characters played out their roles without ever transcending into reality and the ending was just what I expected to wrap everything in a tidy package. Disappointing. ( )

The story was pretty good but it did drag in places and the ending caught me a bit offgaurd and was slightly unbelievable. ( )

The story was pretty good but it did drag in places and the ending caught me a bit offgaurd and was slightly unbelievable. ( )

Marnie Maitland has returned to her childhood home in the lowcountry of South Carolina after an absence of 10 years. She has been summoned by her ex-brother-in-law Quinn hopes that Marnie, an art teacher for special education children, can help reach his son, Gil, who has not spoken in 3 months after a sailing accident. Gil's mother, Diana (Marnie's sister), inexplicably had taken him out on their sailboat during a storm. The sailboat was heavily damaged, Diana was seriously wounded and Gil became frightened to be alone with his mother and stopped speaking. Marnie is hesitant to become involved as the accident is frighteningly similar to one that happened when she and Diana were young and their mother, suffering from mental illness, took her two daughters out on their boat during a squall. Diana and Marnie were rescued but their mother's body was never found. Marnie is quickly won over by the sweet-natured Gil, not to mention his handsome father, but is devastated by the friction she feels from Diana. Diana has been having 'episodes' mental instability and believes that she is suffering from what she calls the "Maitland Curse", a family history of unbelievable tragedy. Marnie, despite her misgivings, finds herself falling in love with the lowcountry again and decides she must swallow her own fears about sailing in order to help Gil regain his voice.

This book started out very nicely with the voices of the 4 main characters telling the story from their own point of view. However, I did have a few issues with the rest of the book. Even though Diana and Quinn are divorced, he does live in a cottage next to her house and for Marnie and Quinn to begin a romance is just a tad to 'icky' for me. The book became very predictable when Diana began visiting an elderly woman at the local nursing home just calling her a 'friend'. Gee, who could that be? The ending goes right where you know it's going, so no surprises there. The author does a nice job of fleshing out her characters and I did care about what happened to them. I would definitely try another by White.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So true how perception can differ so from reality. I also thought the struggle with mental illness of the one sisters really gave you a sense of the internal torment she went through. ( )