Haven Point by Virginia Hume

 

Virginia Hume’s debut novel Haven Point names a coastal vacation community in Maine where the Demarest family spends their summers. Cadet nurse Maren met Dr. Oliver Demarest at Walter Reed Medical Center during World War II, which readers learn in a flashback.

The story begins in August of 2008 with Maren waiting in Haven Point for her granddaughter Skye to arrive from Washington, D.C. Together they will decide where to scatter Skye’s mother Annie’s ashes.

The plot pivots along multiple timelines as readers learn about the Demarest’s summers when Maren raises three children and cares for Oliver’s alcoholic mother while he remains at his D.C. orthopedic practice. Being an outsider in a swanky resort community, Maren is never accepted by some members though she deals with them with grace and dignity. The community shows its true colors when a tragedy strikes the Demarests.

In the next generation, Annie’s bouts with rehab bounces her daughter Skye from her home with her mother to living periodically with her grandparents, spending time in Haven Point where Skye, too, is treated like an outsider.

Only when all family secrets are revealed will Skye come to terms with her life and her mother’s death.

Virginia Hume, a freelance writer and editor, began her career in politics and public affairs having served as Deputy Press Secretary for the Republican National Committee in the 1990s. She is the daughter of American journalist and political commentator Brit Hume. She lives outside Washington, D.C., with her family.