In Prettyman’s novel, a romance haltingly develops in the aftermath of a severe storm on the Gulf Coast.

After her mother’s death, Teddy (short for Theodora) leaves Houston to manage the deceased woman’s candy store in the small Gulf community of Bird Isle—but, like much of the island after the recent “storm of the century,” Sweet Somethings is now only a pile of rubble. Enter Jack, a “George Strait lookalike” and the owner of a chain of barbecue restaurants. He’s helpful but lonely; his wife, Angela, died five years ago. Jack’s interested in Teddy, but she isn’t looking for love. She has a boyfriend in Houston and a stray dog named Pickles for companionship. Teddy also has financial problems but doesn’t want pity or help. Teddy’s island friends—Walt, a surfer; café owner Dot; and Barb, who rehabilitates animals—are pro-Jack, but Teddy has trust issues. It doesn’t help that all of Jack’s food trucks are plastered with Angela’s name. As their relationship tenuously evolves, Teddy catches Jack in a lie that jeopardizes their intimacy. Throughout the narrative, Prettyman switches back and forth between the viewpoints of Jack and Teddy, with mixed results. Teddy embodies both turmoil and growth; overcoming excessive pride, she learns to provide help to others and accept help herself. Jack, however, doesn’t change or ever experience doubt about Teddy, making him a less compelling character. The book has the easy flow of a summer read and is full of humorous elements, like the overly laid-back Walt nearly becoming a gator’s meal, Jack’s country-boy colloquialisms, and a small-town populace that keeps track of Teddy’s every move. The story is light on tragedy; no casualties from the storm are mentioned, and the deaths of Teddy’s mother and Angela don’t receive in-depth treatment. Thorny issues get neatly resolved (a teen girl quickly accepts her newfound father), and nearly everyone ends up with someone to love, delivering that cozy feeling familiar to readers of the romance genre.

Light, breezy, and comforting as a block of fudge.

An ex-convict meets the daughter of a death-row inmate in Prettyman’s (Redesigning Emma, 2013) debut novel.

In Clam Harbor, Wash., Chloe Thomas masquerades as Chloe Gallagher to conceal her relation to her father, Calvery Thomas, a convicted murderer awaiting execution in Texas. Although she barely earns a living as a charter boat captain, she commits to paying a $1,000 fee to obtain her father’s ashes after his death, but she’s unsure where she’ll get the cash. Through an acquaintance, she meets Texan Duke Summers, who proposes that she help him smuggle shipments of alcohol north to sell to the Native Americans on Vancouver Island. Chloe reluctantly agrees, risking imprisonment while pocketing a grand every trip. Just before his scheduled execution date, Calvery tells fellow inmate Finn Tully that he’ll see him “in the thin places”—a reference to the intersection of this world with the next. When Finn is released from prison, he makes good on his promise to track down Calvery’s daughter, proclaim the man’s innocence and search for missing treasure. After Finn arrives in Clam Harbor, he and Chloe are instantly attracted to each other but also distracted by the circumstances that surrounded Calvery’s arrest and imprisonment. Although this solid novel’s title refers to locales close to the great beyond, it’s not particularly mystical save for one out-of-this-world scene near its end. The text is occasionally marred by missing quotation marks and inconsistent formatting, but, that said, the dialogue between Chloe and Finn rings true. Their story is refreshingly free of the sort of trumped-up incidents that often throw male and female leads together, and Prettyman intriguingly finds resonance in the fact that Chloe and Finn each harbor secrets.

An often engaging romance/mystery with a hint of the otherworldly.