Mary Alice Monroe, Swimming Lessons

Swimming Lessons

Mary Alice Monroe

Mira, Apr 2007, $21.95

ISBN 0778324621

The ailing sea turtles washing ashore by Charleston, South Carolina, have become a media circus as reporters question why they came ashore and what can be done to save them. This, in turn, leads to the locals, especially children and their parents, demanding that something be done to save the sea turtles. The local South Carolina Aquarium selects Toy Sooner to find a way to obtain funding to set up sea turtle medical clinic.

Single mom Toy works on the grant while trying to care for her daughter, Lovie. She works directly with the aquarium's director Ethan Legare on the project. When she succeeds in obtaining the funding, she is elated to be placed in charge of the sea turtle hospital at a time when she is attracted to Ethan and her former spouse Darryl, just released from prison, returns insisting he wants to be in her life and that of their offspring.

Turtles and location loosely connects SWIMMING LESSONS to the Southern Fiction family drama THE BEACH HOUSE, but readers do not need to obtain the previous South Carolina-based tale as this delightful charmer needs no introduction. The storyline is at its best when it either focuses on the plight of the sea turtles or on Toy's complex relationships with the two men demanding to be in her life exacerbated by her daughter's desires. Though late suspense seems an unnecessary detour, readers will enjoy Mary Alice Monroe's fine contemporary tale.

Harriet Klausner