She follows Leo down the street, waiting for him to say something. He hasn’t spoken since they stood in the bedroom doorway and he said, “Come with me.”
She thought they might sit at the kitchen table and talk about whatever he wanted to talk about.
Instead, he walked right out the front door, down to the street, and turned left.
Now their footsteps match each other’s as they walk.
They pass Joe’s house in silence. A sprinkler is on across the street at Maggie’s house and Sky skips over, runs through it, the cold water making her gasp.
When she joins Leo again, he reaches out, tugs a strand of her hair.
“Give me half your energy,” he says.
There’s a car in the driveway of the house where nobody lives, and she points to it. “Is she here?”
He nods. “I think so, he says, and then steps around Sky so he’s on the inside of the sidewalk. Between her and the house. She glances up at him, but his eyes are on the sidewalk, as if nothing happened.
She’s not sure what to think about her grandmother living down the street. Which seems weird to her. It’s her grandmother. But she barely remembers her.
It’s always amusing to imagine living on an island like this one. Not just for a vacation, but the ins and outs of life in a tight-knit community. Especially if the community is full of likable characters like the ones in this book.
Official synopsis:
On Ichabod Island, a jagged strip of land thirteen miles off the coast of Massachusetts, ten-year-old Sky becomes an orphan for the second time after a tragic accident claims the lives of her adoptive parents.
Grieving the death of his best friends, Leo’s life is turned upside down when he finds himself the guardian of young Sky. Back on the island and struggling to balance his new responsibilities and his marriage to his husband, Leo is supported by a powerful community of neighbors, many of them harboring secrets of their own.
Maggie, who helps with Sky’s childcare, has hit a breaking point with her police chief husband, who becomes embroiled in a local scandal. Her best friend Agnes, the island busybody, invites Sky’s estranged grandmother to stay for the summer, straining already precarious relationships. Their neighbor Joe struggles with whether to tell all was not well in Sky’s house in the months leading up to the accident. And among them all is a mysterious woman, drawn to Ichabod to fulfill a dying wish.
Perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Ann Leary, My Kind of People is a riveting, impassioned novel about the resilience of community and what connects us all in the face of tragedy.
This book wouldn’t just be a great movie, it’d be a whole soap opera. It was an engaging read with fun and varied characters. Watching Leo and his husband struggle to be good parents to poor Sky, who has known too much loss in her young life, was in turn amusing and heart-warming. Nothing is ever easy, and Ichabod Island seems to have more complications than other places people call home.
The development of the relationships as everyone learned more about each other was intriguing and sometimes unexpected. A few chapters were voiced by a mystery character who revealed more about herself as the book went on. The woman’s identity and existence changed experiences for other characters in many ways, some not shown until the very last pages.
I’d give this entertaining read 4 out of 5 stars. The author has a couple of previous books, which makes me wonder if some of the characters may carry over. I’d love to find out what happens for some of the characters after this book ends.
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Becki Bayley is thoughtful and compassionate. She enjoys caring for others and helping people have happier lives. Her reading adventures are posted at SweetlyBSquared.com.
GIVEAWAY:
One of my lucky readers will win a copy of My Kind of People!
Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Monday, May 18th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.
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Good luck!
My Kind of People, by Lisa Duffy
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