The Shark Club

How is it possible that a shark-whispering marine scientist who was “literally bitten by the object of her obsession” isn’t the most interesting person in her own story? Daniel Wakefield gave Maeve Donnelly her first kiss on the very day he saved her from that shark attack. He also broke her heart a decade later when, before they wed, he impregnated a now-deceased woman who gave birth to Hazel, the six-year-old budding paleontologist and the book’s best-written character. As Maeve, in between assignments, hits 30, she returns to her grandmother’s hotel in Florida, convinced she has finally gotten over Daniel and fallen in love with a fellow marine biologist who is separated from his wife. But then Hazel creates the Shark Club for her and invites Daniel—now the hotel’s chef—to join. Will Maeve learn how to be “a little less Cathy and Heathcliff,” or realize Hazel is the tie that binds? A subplot involving the book that Maeve’s twin brother, Robin, has written about her doomed love story cannot compete with that level of romantic indecisiveness. With her wishy-washy lead, Taylor’s novel just narrowly misses the mark. (June)