The Color of Water in July - Nora Carroll

The Color of Water in July by Nora Carroll


First Paragraph:

There must be a precise moment when wet cement turns dry, when it no longer accepts footprints or scratched-in declarations of love; an ordinary moment, unnoticed, just like any.  But in that moment, the facts of a life can change.


My Thoughts:

The Color of Water in July was a nice read for summer.  Set in Michigan on a lake, it tells the tale of Jess and her family, of the secrets that have been carried forward year after year, and of Jess' discovery of them.  She returns to her family's 'summer cottage' in order to arrange a sale.  Her grandmother, Mamie, has left her the property and she's anxious to get the job done and return to her life in New York.  Told from several viewpoints and from various points in time, this was not a thriller, but it was a story that I wanted to finish.  There were definitely secrets and hidden things.  Jess herself was a bit clueless and tame, but she finds herself in the end.  I was satisfied.


Blurb:

It’s been a long seventeen years since Jess last saw her grandmother or visited the family cottage set on an idyllic lake in Northern Michigan. For all that time, she’s been haunted by loss—of her innocence and her ability to trust and, most of all, of a profound summer romance that might have been something more. So when her grandmother leaves the house to her, Jess summons her courage and returns to a place full of memories—and secrets.

There, she stumbles upon old letters and photographs of a time not so much forgotten as buried. As she begins to unravel the hidden histories of her mother and her grandmother, she makes a startling discovery about a tragic death that prompted her family’s slow undoing. With every uneven and painful step into the past, Jess comes closer to a truth that could alter her own path—and open a door to a different future.