When I began reading Bride Island, I thought I was digging into a chick-lit novel. What I found instead was an intense tale of a woman’s struggle with choices of her past. It’s a riveting story, that left me with a sense that I’d walked a mile in her shoes.

She’d had it all – a life, a husband, a daughter - and yet she’d left it all and drown her sorrow with the bottle. That was six years ago, but Polly Birdswell still feels that she’s treading water, waiting for her life to begin. She’s sober now, but only sees her daughter for two week each summer.

Each year they spend the last few days of her daughter’s visit on the family island, Bride Island. The story begins here, with Polly and Monroe making their way to the rustic island. Being on the island brings back memories of the past for Polly – many too terrible to ponder for long, like the death of her brother, Colin. When she learns of her stop-father’s plan to sell the island, Polly is affected deeply by the news.

She begins to look at her life anew. She’s pulled herself out from under the clutches of alcoholism and rebuilt her life, but she realizes she’s always considered the island her true home. Polly begins to dream about making Bride Island her home, but it seems every member of her family has their own plan for the island. Polly must face some hard decisions – about the island, about her own life and about the daughter she left behind.

Bride Island was much deeper and darker than I expected and yet I found myself caring about Polly. The story is so realistic, so true to life, that it made it hard to read and impossible to put down. As the reader, I wanted so badly to see Polly make good choices; to see her succeed. But, as a flawed human, I knew that’s not real-life. Real life is gritty, dirty, hard. There isn’t always a happy ending in life. You’ll have to read this one to find out for yourself if there’s a happy ending for Polly and her island.