The Bridge Tender
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A surprise gift from her late husband will give a young widow the chance to do the hardest thing in the world . . . move on.
On their honeymoon, the new Mr. & Mrs. Ryan Shaw made a pact: No matter the sacrifices along the way, one day they would return to Sunset Beach, North Carolina—this time to buy their own home.
But that dream was not to be. Seven years into a beautiful marriage, Emily is left a widow, heartbroken, and way past caring about anything.
Until a man approaches her, claiming to have something left to her from Ryan. Something secret.
Unsure if she can ever embrace a new life without her husband, but even less sure about continuing to stay where she is, Emily heads to the coast to keep her end of the promise she once made.
Without delay, she becomes immersed in the lives of the locals, including the reclusive bridge tender with an unexpected past. As the community debates over building a new bridge, Emily must decide whether she will build a bridge of her own, one that will take her out of a painful past and into the new life—and new love—that her lost love made possible.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Emily Shaw doesn't really want to honor her late husband's final wish that she should purchase a home at Sunset Beach, where they honeymooned only five years earlier even though he leaves her the funds to do so. Still grieving a year after Ryan's death, she decides to move to the beach and becomes reluctantly drawn into the lives of her neighbors and especially to Kyle, a former movie star whom Emily had a teenage crush, on but who no longer acts. Emotions run high in this usually relaxed summer haven, as Whalen (The Wishing Tree) expertly explores the reach of grief, love, and faith. Richly drawn secondary characters relate their own broken dreams to Emily, in the process helping her find peace in a life without Ryan possibly with another love. Every character seems to have a story and a need for forgiveness and grace. And over and around the human drama swirls the wind-swept sands and waves of Sunset Beach, painted vividly enough to be a character all its own. This sweet and funny, raw and poignant story will leave readers emotionally spent, yet eager for more.
