I'll Be Your Blue Sky by Marisa de los Santos

I'll Be Your Blue Skyby Marisa de los Santos
Published by William Morrow ISBN 9780062431936
Hardcover, $26.99, 320 pages

What first attracts you to Marisa de los Santos's novel I'll Be Your Blue Sky is the gorgeous cover- a red butterfly against a blue sky backdrop, with a green plant on the bottom left corner; it's striking.

The story opens in June of 1950 on Edith and Joseph's wedding day, as they enter their beautiful home. De los Santos reveals the home in loving detail, and you can close your eyes and picture each room as Edith describes it, and even smell "the sawdust and lemon oil and reckless salt wind."

The home is in a beach town in Delaware, a busy place in the summer, but dreary and desolate in the winter. They have a happy life together, canoeing, photographing wildlife, and enjoying each other's company.

Flash forward to the current day, Clare Hobbes' wedding day. Clare is marrying Zach, a man who appears to be her perfect match. But something is not quite right, and after Clare encounters an elderly Edith on a bench at the wedding venue, she realizes she cannot marry Zach, which at first confuses, then enrages, him.

A few weeks later, Clare gets a letter from a lawyer- Edith has passed away and left her large home to Clare. Why did this happen? Clare only spoke to Edith briefly. Since she at odds, and getting away from her life might be good for her, Clare goes to the house, called Blue Sky House.

Clare learns that Edith used to run a bed and breakfast at Blue Sky, but abruptly left in 1956 after a murder occured in the town. Did Edith have anything to do with the murder? When Clare finds two sets of ledgers hidden in a cupboard, she enlists her childhood best friend Dev to help her investigate.

At first glance, I'll Be Your Blue Sky seems like a typical chick-lit book, two women in different times telling their stories, but it is so much more. De los Santos surprised me with Edith's story, and I found it engrossing and couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

I loved Edith's strength and courage, and her relationship with the town's sheriff was touching. I admit to be a little lost with Clare's family story, there seemed to be so many people to keep track of that I was confused. When I discovered that they were all introduced in de los Santos' previous two books, You Belong to Me and Love Walked In, I immediately went to my Goodreads page to put them on my Want to Read list.

I hope that de los Santos gives us another book with more of Edith's backstory, she is truly one of the more fascinating characters that I have encountered in awhile. If you like novels like Christina Baker Kline's The Orphan Train, give I'll Be Your Blue Sky a try. I recommend it.

Here is my review of another Marisa de los Santos book, The Precious One.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Marisa de los Santos' tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Tour Stops

Tuesday, March 6th: Openly Bookish

Wednesday, March 7th: Time 2 Read

Thursday, March 8th: bookchickdi

Friday, March 9th: The Sketchy Reader

Monday, March 12th: BookNAround

Tuesday, March 13th: Mother’s Circle

Wednesday, March 14th: Kahakai Kitchen

Thursday, March 15th: G. Jacks Writes

Monday, March 19th: Literary Quicksand

Tuesday, March 20th: Broken Teepee

Wednesday, March 21st: Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World

Thursday, March 22nd: A Bookish Way of Life

Friday, March 23rd: Into the Hall of Books