This is the first novel I have read by writer Anne Rivers Siddons. She has written seventeen fictional books and has had a long career in writing and film.
From the author’s site: Off Season, is an examination of one woman's life and the loves that shaped her. It began a long time ago, when my goddaughter asked, "Where does love go when it dies?"
I've been thinking about that for a long time, and I have come to know many things about love between a man and a woman: that it is both tender and terrible, sweet and stormy, hurtful and healing, heartbreaking and heart-lifting. But the thing I'm surest about is that love endures. For a few special people, it does not die.
That's what I wanted to write about in Off Season, and I hope with all my heart you're going to like it. I think that Lilly's journey will speak to many of you one way or another, and it pleases me greatly to introduce her to you.
When Lily’s husband dies unexpectedly, she decides to spend the summer at their cottage to mourn on her own terms. We follow Lily as she reminisces of her youth, setting the foundation for her strong personality. Meeting Cam, trying to get her father’s approval and setting up a life for themselves are important to the story.
The book was a little slow paced for me and it was hard for me to come to terms with Lily having conversations with her cat (who talked back). It is just a book after all, I need to get over it!
I was reading reviews on BN.COM this morning and I agree with a few of them, the book should have concentrated more on Lilly and Cam's life together, since there are missing years we know nothing about.
Type: Fiction, 384 pages, Trade paperback
Synopsis:For as long as she can remember, they were Cam and Lilly—happily married, totally in love with each other, parents of a beautiful family, and partners in life. Then, after decades of marriage, it ended as every great love story does...in loss. After Cam's death, Lilly takes a lone road trip to her and Cam's favorite spot on the remote coast of Maine, the place where they fell in love over and over again, where their ghosts still dance. There, she looks hard to her past—to a first love that ended in tragedy; to falling in love with Cam; to a marriage filled with exuberance, sheer life, and safety— to try to figure out her future.It is a journey begun with tender memories and culminating in a revelation that will make Lilly re-evaluate everything she thought was true about her husband and her marriage.