I’ll Be Your Blue Sky

Love and mystery surround a darker thread about the safety of women in this complex and moving tale by de los Santos (Love Walked In). The novel’s two plots begin, respectively, on the day of Edith Herron’s wedding to Joseph in 1950 and the day before Clare Hobbes’s marriage to Zach Barfield in the present. At the outset, Edith’s life is suffused with light, from the sun on the water near her beach home in Antioch Beach, Del., to the joy that she and Joseph share in their life together. Clare, on the other hand, is hesitant to wed Zach; she is given courage to call it off when, in a chance meeting, Edith advises her that “no one should live with someone who scares her.” Three weeks later, Clare escapes Zach by fleeing to Blue Sky House, left to her unexpectedly by Edith upon her death. It is there, with the help of Dev Tremain, Clare’s lifelong friend and onetime love, that Clare begins to piece together clues about Edith’s past and the fact that the house was once a secret shelter for women in abusive situations. In delving into Edith’s past at Blue Sky House, they also make more personal discoveries relevant to their present. The author doesn’t sugarcoat the violence that the women have suffered, but she balances those passages with soaring descriptions of everything from the saltwater marshes to Dev’s smile. This novel is both lovely and powerful. (Mar.)