Postcards from Cedar Key

Berkley Whitmore uproots her life and leaves her successful Massachusetts chocolate shop behind when she moves to a small island, in DuLong’s follow-up to Sunrise on Cedar Key. When she was very young, Berkley’s mother spent a summer on the island of Cedar Key, Fla., leaving Berkley in the care of her grandmother on the mainland. Never able to shed the feelings of abandonment that summer created, Berkley, after her mother’s death, relocates to the island herself, where she opens a new chocolate shop, starts a romance with a local author, and makes friends, but comes no closer to solving the mystery around the summer that her mother spent there long ago. When she does discover clues about the reasons behind her mother’s flight, which reveal long-held lies about her father’s death, Berkley has to summon the strength to confront her past and move on. DuLong returns to the sedate Cedar Key and its comfortable, supportive characters, a familiarity that may draw past readers back. New readers, however, will find little to engage. Berkley’s “magical” chocolates are too close to those of Chocolat and the novel’s less sugary elements are nearly as familiar. (Nov.)