Summer at Hideaway Key by Barbara Davis

This story reminds me a quote: "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." (Alfred Lord Tennyson)  Lily Mae spent her life protecting the people she loved.  The problem was that left her with no one to love her.  But there was someone who did...

NAL Accent sent me a copy of this book to read for review (thank you).  It has been published, so you can find a copy at your local bookstore now.

The tale begins with the present day Lily coming home for her father's funeral.  She and her mother get along as they usually do, not at all.   It's only when the will is read that her mother shows any emotion.  She does not want Lily to get the seaside cottage at Hideaway Key.  Her father willed it to her.  Her mother forbids her from accepting it.  That works just like it usually does.  Lily leaves right away to go to the forbidden cottage.  It's hers and her mother can't tell her what to do.

What she finds is a dilapidated run-down cottage by the sea.  The location is breath taking, the sea is calming.  However, she can't hardly get in the house; it's filled with boxes.  Why on earth would there be so many boxes left behind?  She knew that the house had belonged to her mother's older sister.  Her mother won't even allow her name to be said around her.  Why is there such hate?  What is the family secret that's so awful?  Then she finds the diaries.  They're from Lily Mae.  And what they tell is devastating.

Lily Mae and her little sister, Caroline, were taken to the poor farm and dropped off by their mother.  Their father was dead.  Her mother said she'd be back, but take care of Caroline.  Lily Mae did that, at deep personal cost.

This is heavy emotional read with sadness all over for Lily Mae.  She gives up everything to keep people safe.  What the present Lily can't understand is how her mother could know all this about her sister and not want to talk about her.

Lily is going places in life, she's a fashion designer.  She has no time for love or even really for friends but she finds both at the cottage.  Will she keep throwing her opportunities away or will she stop and follow her own dreams?  She looks at her aunt's and her mother's choices and works on making her own.

This would make a good Lifetime movie.  There's drama, love, tears, ugly secrets and a child in the middle of it all.  The story kept me reading.  The ending is bitter sweet.  Try it and tell me what you think.