Author: Colleen Oakley
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Women's Fiction
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 368
Date of Publication: May 25, 2021
My Rating: 5 Stars
Sometimes all you need is one person to really see you.
Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island--a tiny, remote town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay--is nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her beloved husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom's crab boat capsized and his body wasn't recovered, Piper, rocked to the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her husband was not only still alive, but right there beside her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the townspeople to do but go along with their beloved widowed Piper?
Anders Caldwell's career is not going well. A young ambitious journalist, he'd rather hoped he'd be a national award-winning podcaster by now, rather than writing fluff pieces for a small town newspaper. But when he gets an assignment to travel to the remote Frick Island and cover their boring annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he stumbles upon a much more fascinating tale: an entire town pretending to see and interact with a man who does not actually exist. Determined it's the career-making story he's been needing for his podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin covert research and spend more time with the enigmatic Piper--but he has no idea out of all the lives he's about to upend, it's his that will change the most.
USA Today bestselling author Colleen Oakley delivers an unforgettable love story about an eccentric community, a grieving widow, and an outsider who slowly learns that sometimes faith is more important than the facts.
MY THOUGHTS:
Piper Parrish lost her beloved husband Tom. But, not really. Everyone still talks to him, especially Piper. What is more is that she introduces him to strangers and expects them to converse with him. In fact, the newest stranger on the island is a journalist named Anders Caldwell. With a fledgling career, Anders hopes that visiting the island will jumpstart his career, especially when he discovers the strangeness that surrounds a former resident. While starting a podcast, Anders must decide whether or not he will play along, especially while he hopes his podcast will grow in popularity.
Since Anders assignment is to cover an upcoming cake walk on the island, that should be his focus. Instead, he delves into the situation involving Tom, talking to Piper and other village residents to get their take. But something more is happening with Anders. He finds himself more than drawn to the gentle beauty that is Piper.
Anders is most certainly at cross purposes when it comes to his assignment, whether it is the mystery of what is happening on the island, even with technical and environmental concerns on the rise, or his growing feelings towards Piper.
What an endearing story. I could not imagine how this story would go. Was Piper in fact delusional? What about the rest of the town? What is more is that was there a romance in the making? If so, then how? If Piper believed her husband Tom is still alive, how could this story turn? This story developed marvelously well and I loved every minute of it and was more than pleased as to how it ended.
Many thanks to Berkley and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
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