Author: Sabin Willett

This was another thrift store find. The story bounces between a couple of timelines but features the same characters in each.

Roy Murphy is from the Park (as in trailer park) and Emma Herrick is the daughter of wealthy parents. During the summer before they enter high school Roy and Emma form a bond which Emma’s mother sees a dangerous and sets out to break. After that summer they each go their own way until the night of the Senior Prom when Roy makes an unexpected appearance and sweeps Emma off her feet. But it is just a summer romance as Roy joins the Army and Emma heads to college. When Roy comes home from Afghanistan he walks back into his home town causing much speculation about his motives.

There is a sinister undercurrent running through the story that isn’t revealed until the very end.

Goodreads Rating * * * *

Author: Guy Vanderhaeghe

A visit to a favourite thrift store in Courtenay always provides me with reading material. I’d heard of the author’s award-winning The Englishman’s Boy but I’d never read anything by him. Guy Vanderhaeghe was born in Esterhazy, SK and, according to the book cover, currently lives in Saskatoon.

Alec Monkman is estranged from his daughter Vera when, after the death of his wife, he forces her to quit school to take care of his younger son. Vera resents her father for this and, after a stint in the Army, she settles in the East. But when her son, about to become a teenager, seems to be getting out of hand she returns to her home town to live with her father. You just know that things aren’t going to go well.

Goodreads Rating * * * *