SWIMMING LESSONS

Author: Mary Alice Monroe ISBN: 0778324621 4/2007 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: MIRA

It's been five years since Toy Sooner found a place to call home. She left behind an abusive, dysfunctional lifestyle to become a strong single mother and marine biologist at the South Carolina Aquarium. But success has taken its toll, leaving her personal life in its wake. That all changes the day Toy rescues a sick sea turtle on the beach. With renewed inspiration she starts up a turtle rehab facility, and Ethan, a director at the aquarium, is there to help. But just as Toy starts testing the waters with Ethan, her daughter's father is released from jail and unexpectedly returns to the Isle of Palms, determined to shake up their lives. Tension quickly escalates and Toy is afraid that everything she's worked for, including custody of her daughter, is now at stake. As the sea turtles take their measured steps toward freedom, Toy must find her own strength to face her fears and secure her own long-awaited happiness.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

SWIMMING LESSONS is a sequel and sequels can be tricky. Will a reader feel lost or confused if the preceding book hasn't been read? As I opened this novel to the first page, that's precisely what concerned me, as I haven't read the book that came before this one. I needn't have worried. This story is so well-written that it needs no introduction. I was pulled into the lives of Mary Alice Monroe's characters so seamlessly, so delightfully, it was almost as if I had been immersed in the warm Atlantic water beside those whose story I was reading.

When a desperately ill sea turtle is entrusted to Toy's care, life for the strong, yet lonely, single mother begins to change. A new position at the aquarium where she works gives her greater responsibility and a chance to spend time with Ethan, a man like none she's met before. Together they nurse the turtle to health and freedom. As they do, Toy learns to trust Ethan, believe in herself and find that even those whose beginnings have been rocky deserve happy endings.

SWIMMING LESSONS is a rich, multi-layered tale filled with characters who made me laugh and cry. More importantly, they made me care. The South Carolina shore is portrayed in such vivid detail that the reader can almost smell the sea grass and hear the cry of shore birds.

SWIMMING LESSONS is the first title by Mary Alice Monroe that I've read, but it will not be the last. It is a wonderful story that deserves to be read—and enjoyed—more than once.

Kay James