Bookseller synopsis:
Foresight is not always a gift…
The summer Natasha Rothwell turns fifteen, strange dancing lights appear in the sky above her small town, lights that she interprets as portents of doom.
Natasha leads a sheltered life with her beautiful, bohemian mother in a crumbling house by the sea. As news of the lights spreads, more and more visitors arrive in the town, creating a feverish atmosphere of anticipation and dread. And the arrival of a new lodger, the handsome Mr Bowen, threatens to upset the delicate equilibrium between mother and daughter.
Then Natasha’s fears seem to be realized when a local teenager goes missing, and she is called on to help. But her actions over that long, hot summer will have unforeseen and ultimately tragic consequences that will cast a shadow for many years to come…
My reading experience:
This is a stunningly beautiful book, our protagonists a mother and daughter perched aloft a beach town in a bohemian palace during a hot, hazy, languid summer.
This book captures the ebb and glow of a seaside community and the attitudes towards tourists perfectly. This is not an ordinary story though. It is one where the daughter Natasha has s special gift of foresight, and struggles internally with the problems that it brings.
A coming of age story, both mother and daughter find love and a new lens on their separate worlds.
I highly recommend this book and look forward to Donahue’s next.
Appletree Books 