When the expected marriage proposal doesn’t eventuate from Nate, Phoebe leave the city behind and flees to her family’s abandoned holiday cottage down on the south coast. The cottage has good memories from childhood but it is also the place where her older sister Karin took her life. Leaving behind a note written in flowers the view is Karin walked into the water and drowned herself. Phoebe has always had trouble reconciling this view with the sister she thought she knew so well. Could there be more to the story? And was it really suicide? Phoebe’s childhood friend and teenage love, Jez, is also living down there in his old family home called Driftwood. He live there with his wife Asha, and an assortment of friends. Some comments from Ginny, Phoebe’s blind neighbour causes Phoebe to wonder if she her older sister Karin as well as she thought. Despite those like her mother and younger sister Camilla who just want Phoebe to leave the past alone and come back to her life in the city, Phoebe is determined to uncover the truth of Karin’s death. But is she prepared to seek the truth, no matter what the cost?
From the stunning cover this book is beautifully written. The setting down by the river and near The Bay is beautifully realised. I could picture it all. The danger too of a bushfire was so well depicted it brought back memories and anxiety from last summer. I could practically feel the heat and smell the smoke and will never forget those strange coloured skies. I liked Phoebe as a character, even when I didn’t always agree with her choices. The pull between her and Jez was portrayed well. I also liked the way incidents from the shared childhood of Phoebe and her sisters and Jez and his brother, were revealed and how they added to the overall feel of the place.
This book got me in and kept me reading and I loved it, even though a couple of aspects towards the end just sat a little uncomfortably for this reader. Overall though, I thought this was a captivating story, of love, friendship, family, secrets, expectations, loss and grief. Like Phoebe I definitely wanted to know exactly what had happened with her sister.
The setting is conveyed beautifully. The descriptions are highly visual. So glad I bought this book. It was definitely worth it. This is a debut novel. I will be very interested to see what this author writes next and will definitely be keeping an eye out for her next book. Anyone who enjoys a well told story with believable characters and atmospheric setting should love this as I did. A recommended read.

I loved Vanessa's first book, just the correct mixture of romance and intrigue. Made even better by the fact it was set in familiar territory, the South Coast of NSW.