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Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea

by Morgan Callan Rogers
. 978-0-67002-340-0. Fiction
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It's summer 1963, and Florine Gilham is 12 years old. Life in her small Maine town is mostly good. Even being grounded after a firecracker prank turned into a small house fire, she gets the benefit of extra time with her mother and grandmother. That time becomes precious when her mother suddenly disappears. Florine and her lobster fisherman father find their world tossed into confusion and loss. Did her mother run away, or is she dead? Will they ever find out? Caught in limbo but sustained by friends and her grandmother, Florine carves her own path to adulthood. She'll sustain more losses and get diverted by the wrong man, but she will hold true to the knowledge of love she has been bequeathed by her parents.
VERDICT Readers who enjoy coming-of-age tales and small-town stories will appreciate this well-crafted debut novel that tugs at the heart without falling into sentimentality. [See Prepub Alert, 8/26/11.]
Reviewed by Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll. Lib., NC , Jan 01, 2012
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