Sea Glass Summer

Cannell takes a break from her Ellie Haskell cozy mystery series (She Shoots to Conquer, etc.) with this sweet contemporary romance featuring 34-year-old Sarah Draycott, a successful designer of patterns for knitting magazines. After her husband leaves her for another woman, Sarah moves from the Midwest to Sea Glass, Maine, to make a new start. In Sea Glass, Sarah encounters nosy neighbors and, eventually, an unexpected love interest. While descriptions of the beauties of nature enchant (“It was a perfect morning in early July, with just enough breeze to edge the deep blue silk of the bay with ripples of lacey foam”), readers should be prepared for some sentimental exchanges between new lovers (“I fell in love with you when we met. And if that’s equally like a romance novel, it’s because most clichés are around because they are truths that have been sanded and buffed over time”). Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Feb.)