On a Summer Tide
Author: Suzanne Woods Fisher
Publisher: Fleming H. Revell (2019)
320 pages
Genre: Inspirational Contemporary Fiction
"A week ago, Dad had asked all three girls to come to the house on Sunday afternoon. He gave no explanation, only that he'd tell them everything then."
Paul Grayson needs a change. It has been just over two years since his wife passed away. His youngest daughter is now away at college. A few months ago he had a bad case of laryngitis and his voice never fully came back. This makes it impossible to do his job as a sports announcer. When a friend mentions that the summer camp that Paul and his wife attended is for sale, Paul buys it and sells his house. Along with the summer camp, he also becomes owner of the part of the island that it is on. His daughters are shocked and upset. They think that maybe he had a seizure or a stroke and is talking nonsense. He assures them that he has not. Paul has felt that his daughters aren't close anymore, that they are no longer involved in one another's lives and he wants that to change. The vision Paul has is that his daughters will want to move to the island and help him get the summer camp up and running again. All three refuse...at first.
Cam is part owner of a technology company and is attempting to raise the orphaned child of her best friend. She is very busy.
"You can't expect us to uproot our lives to help you run a summer camp."
"We all have our own lives. We can't drop everything and rush to this island. This is your venture. Not ours."
End of story. Or maybe not. God has other plans for the Grayson family and it was fun to come along for the ride.
I did not immediately connect with the characters in this story. Cam is actually the heroine. She is driven and smart, but she see's that her son is suffering from her lack of involvement in his life.
Maddie is constantly using her counselor skills on everyone else and I found that I really didn't like her much. Blaine is the youngest and just can't seem to figure out what she wants to do with her life. She is only nineteen after all. At different times and in varying circumstances, all three end up on the island helping their dad.
Another character in the story is Seth Walker, the school teacher, worship leader, preacher and jack-of-all-trades on the island. I really enjoyed his teaching style, which is near and dear to my heart after homeschooling my kids. He gets the kids outside every day exploring the wonders of God's creation. They learn by doing. Others worry that they are not spending enough time on the basics. But Cam comes to realize this is just the environment her son needed and watches him blossom. It was interesting to learn about falcons as Seth rescued one and is preparing it to be returned to the wild. There is a little romance that brews between Seth and Cam. There are also some surprises along the way.
By the end of the story, I was looking forward to the next book in the series. It is an interesting setting for a story and was fun to watch the family work together to improve the camp.
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