In Debbie Macomber's (If Not for You) latest, Cottage by the Sea, Annie Marlow, a physician assistant in her 20s, deals with the aftermath of a catastrophic mudslide that wiped out an entire Seattle community--including her family--one Thanksgiving weekend.
Annie, inundated by grief and red tape, takes a leave of absence from her job. In search of solace and a sense of home, she retreats to Oceanside, "a small, out of the way town" in the Pacific Northwest, where she and her family happily vacationed during the summer when she was a teenager. Annie accepts a temporary job at the town medical clinic. When she tries to rent the same cottage from her past, she finds the place overgrown and in disrepair. She convinces the landlord, Mellie Munson--a reclusive hermit just a few years older than Annie and emotionally paralyzed by a shattered romance--to rent her the place anyway. As Annie tries to spruce up the cottage, she is helped by Seth Keaton--a shy, reserved local painter, a towering figure in town with a sensitive heart--trying to hide his own life battle scars, as well as his feelings for Annie.
Her presence in the small seaside community becomes a rallying force for good until Annie is faced with a choice that could affect not only her life, but the lives of others, too. Macomber's tender story demonstrates how kindness, support and love can heal wounded hearts and souls, making them profoundly stronger in all the broken places. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines