The Cicada Spring by Carolyn McBride

Finding second love is never easy, and it felt like Katie rushed into it to have a new person to rely on. As with young love, even later in life love, as we find in this story, can make people blind, or at least rather naive.

Betrayal, naivety and Covid played big parts in this story.

For me personally, it is too early for Covid to appear in fictional books that I read to escape from the world around me, it is still too raw a memory. Also, the naivety of Katie bordered on stupidity and I always find it hard to connect with characters that don't realise what's right in front of them.

On a positive note, I loved the scenery along the river, the tranquility and the mystery of the lonely man coming past in his boat. Katie's reconnection with her mother and her strong links with her friends, in the Covid darkness, also lifted the story.

I'll keep an eye out to see what the theme of the next book in the Potomac Shores series is, as I loved the river part of the story.

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The Harbour Lights Mystery by Emylia Hall

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