True Blue

Rumer Larkin has spent her whole life at Hubbard's Point, the Connecticut beach village where she now works as a schoolteacher. The place is full of stories about ghostly sailors and sunken treasure, and it holds the memories of everyone Rumer has loved, including the ones who have since gone. She never felt any pull to leave, and she has built a quiet, settled life there.

That life is upset when Zeb Mayhew comes back. Years ago, as the boy next door, he broke her heart. Now he arrives with his teenage son, hoping to mend things with the boy and to face the mistakes he left behind. Seeing Rumer again, Zeb finds himself thinking of the girl who used to climb onto the roof with him to watch the stars, and he begins to sense where he truly belongs.

Neither of them knows whether there is anything left to do but regret the road not taken. Luanne Rice, who has set many of her novels in this same shoreline community, writes about old friendships, family ties and the chance of a second start. True Blue asks whether every path eventually leads back to the one love that was meant to be.