Sweet, pretty predictable, with nicely detailed characters and a nice sense of place. ( )

Summer of Roses Book 2 by Luanne Rice
Lily and her friend Liam are back in Hubbard Point, CT at her grandmother's house after she left to go to the hospital.
They arrived from Nova Scotia where Lily had hidden out for over 9 years.
Patrick Murphy is the detective who found her and informed her of her grandmother's illness.
Lily is afraid her husband, Edward will find out and come get their daughter from her.
Love reading about familiar treasured things: moonstones, flowers, sea life, sounds from the ocean, smells from the ocean Rose the little girl, thinks that the whale that grew up with her mom followed them to Canada to send them back home to be with her grandmother. They have tracking devices attaches and can be followed via the computer.
The needlecraft shop up where she ran to was being looked after for her by many of the people she was now friends with who had a similar liking to the craft.
One woman Jessica's mom, Marisa was waiting to hear from her sister, Sam who was in Peru to help others. They had a falling out a while ago and haven't contacted one another. Music also connected them and there was a musical fair in town.
The investigator, Patrick had found Lily and he also was introduced to Marisa and she called him when he was offshore in his boat in CT to ask him to find her sister. It might cause major problems so she told him not to find her in Peru. Then she played him their favorite song on the fiddle. He fell in love.
Lily's husband was evil, that's why she ran away to Canada. Lily thinks Edward had something to do with her grandmother being in the hospital also. She hoped she would come out of her coma so they could talk. Love hearing about the Ghost Hills as I've never experienced that nor the rogue waves that come with them.
Marisa and Lily share something in common that holds the key to the whole investigation.
And the big mystery of the dolphins needs to be solved...
Loved how they all are connected with one another. ( )

SUMMER OF ROSES is the perfect sequel to last year's SUMMER'S CHILD. The relationships that began in that first book--that between Lily and Liam; the health of young Rose; the fleeing of Marisa and her daughter, Jessica; the culmination of former detective Patrick's search for Maura; the ending health crisis of Maeve; the horrors rendered by abuser Edward Hunter--are all beautifully brought to a conclusion.

I loved SUMMER'S CHILD, but was sometimes irritated at the slow pace of the storyline starring Liam and Lily. Although the abuse she'd suffered at the hands of her first husband, Edward, forced the progression to be a slow one, nine years is a really long time!

Thankfully, things move faster in SUMMER OF ROSES, and I treasured each scene as it unfolded. Although the book can stand alone, I highly recommend reading SUMMER'S CHILD first, because the background information you'll gain on each character will make you appreciate this current offering even more. ( )

OK - light reading ( )

This book has a sociopath, which is not my favorite type of book. It is a silly novel about a woman who marries a bad man, and runs away, and eventually brings her daughter & new guy back to see her grandmother...and there is a blessed white whale, and a folk festival of infinite length. And lots of healing.