First Light

Everyone has secrets, some more than most.Armed with her Irish mother's recipes and a willingness to roll up her sleeves, Mae Keaney retreats to the island of her childhood to escape a shameful and bitter past. After turning an abandoned fishing camp into a successful café, she becomes known for both her pies and her fierce solitude. But when a catastrophic fire threatens her home and livelihood, Mae confronts the reality-and loneliness-of her isolation. She reluctantly accepts help from Tobias Monroe, a Native American who shares her intense need for a solitary life on the wild land. Torn between a deepening connection to Tobias and her desire to guard her secrets, Mae struggles to preserve the isolated existence she once thought was her only choice. Will she cling to the false safety of her reclusive life or reach out to forge new bonds of family and community when faced with not only a devastating illness but also the threat of losing her child? THE BOAT HOUSE CAFÉ, the first book in the multigenerational family saga First Light-a story of courage in the face of loss and the sacrifices one makes for love.

Innisfree-the wild and isolated land on Chappaquiddick Island where Josiah Monroe grew up-was the only place where he felt he belonged.And now it was gone.His parents' painful decision to sell the land-the symbol of his mixed Wampanoag and Irish heritage-catapults the entire family into a spiral of disconnection as Josiah abandons the island in anger. He makes his way on an uneven road, seeking to redefine himself in a wider, more dangerous world marked by the turmoil of the Vietnam War and the cultural upheaval of the Sixties.In the wake of his leaving, his family struggles not only with Josiah's alienation but also with the debilitating polio suffered by his sister, Izzy. Ultimately, it is the power and magic of the island itself and the bonds of family that call them back to one another.

"Innisfree binds us." A new generation attempts to define where home is. Book Three in Linda Cardillo's award-winning First Light series, Young widow Elizabeth Innocenti journeys from her home in Italy with her fourteen-year-old son to seek solace and peace at Innisfree, her grandmother Lydia's cottage on Chappaquiddick Island. Finding her beloved childhood haven abandoned and as needy as she is, she reluctantly sets out to restore the cottage. When she takes shelter during a hurricane with the Wampanoag family who once owned Innisfree, she discovers its fraught history. Elizabeth's passionate search for Innisfree' s meaning for each family forces her to confront both her grief and her future; and her challenging relationship with Caleb Monroe, the grandson of Mae Keaney and Tobias Monroe, shatters her perception of who she is and want she wants.