JUNE BABY by Shannon Garvey

4 stars

Ruth at age 17 has lost her mother to cancer, and her father, unsettled by Ruth’s grief sends her off Block Island to find and stay with a women Ruth’s never heard of before. With just a slip of paper, her bike and a backpack, Ruth finds Diana Beckett, a world-famous photographer and artist who takes Ruth in as an intern and puts her up in her cottage. All that seems to connect Diane to Ruth’s mother Maggie is one summer they spent together as young adults on the island.

Ruth returns to Block Island and Diane for ten summers in a row, both during college and then post-college where she drifts as a bartender in Maine waiting for her idyllic summer retreat. While she attended college intending to be a creative writer, her ambitions have fizzled away. Even with Diane pleading with her to find a purpose, with links to all sorts of suggestions from grad programs to editorial jobs, Ruth can’t stir herself into action.

Starting with her first summer, Ruth forms a deep friendship and then romance, with Diane’s handsome, kind, ambitious nephew Charlie. But the relationship never progresses, despite Ruth realizing across time how much she loves Charlie and should let him know that. But all this gets upended by unexpected tragedy, and Ruth feeling completely as a loss once again.

Ruth must dig deep to turn her life from one forged by grief to one open to possibility, and the results are both unexpected and heartwarming.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.