Friday, November 12, 2010

Hatteras Girl (review part deux)

I love the cover of Alice J. Wisler's new book Hatteras Girl.  I long to be that girl on the beach of damp sand, packed down by the tide, contemplating the waves coming in and going back out again.  I've been to many beaches in my life time, starting  with old Cape Cod and the rockier beaches on the Maine coast.  Eventually ending up for a while in Virginia Beach and the Chesapeake Bay area.  I can almost smell the salty air as I sit here at my desk in the mid-west.  My heart's desire is to live in Kennebunkport Maine, where, as a child, I roamed the beach near my Aunt's bed and breakfast called Oak Ledge.  It was wonderful.

I guess what I'm trying to say that there are places that get right into your very blood, right down to the core of your being and come as close to Heaven as we can get on Earth.
Alice Wisler and her book Hatteras Girl takes you to that place.  The place where a young woman named Jackie Donovan's dream lives.  Her desire is to acquire the house of her heart, the Bailey Bed and Breakfast, the place of her happiest childhood memories. Starting with kind and welcoming people, raspberry cream soda and her best friend Minnie.

Now, all grown up, Minnie has a little boy turning six and has lost her husband, the love of her life, to the sea and she and Jackie are sharing an apartment to make ends meet.

The question is, can childhood dreams become reality?  This one will surely take a miracle, and does God really care about dreams? I have asked those questions myself and I am still waiting to see how it will all turn out. Is it ever too late? I wonder.

I love the movie Steel Magnolias, and Hatteras Girl has all the charm and strength that the term inspires, with Alice's trademark- a bit of Asian twist- warmth and humor.

If you have a longing to go to a place in your heart this one will take you there.

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