BLUE MOON HAVEN

A woman and two young children move to a small Alabama town to make a new life.

Kelly Jenkins is the temporary guardian to Todd and Daisy, the young children of her best friend who died of cancer a year ago. Their dad left the children with Kelly and took off for parts unknown. Kelly loves the kids and does her best to care for them, but after losing her job in the city, the only job she can find is in the tiny town of Blue Moon, Alabama. Her new job is to revive and restore the drive-in movie theater, which has been in disrepair for decades. The drive-in is adjacent to the pecan groves of town recluse Seth Morgan. He’s been living quietly after the death of his young daughter in a bicycle accident, too consumed with grief to engage with the townspeople. Kelly’s new boss gives her a box of old VHS tapes to teach her the history of the movies, and coincidentally, Seth owns the only VHS player in town. The two bond together in a sweet, chaste romance while planning a fundraiser for a new projector for the drive-in. When Todd and Daisy’s father returns, Kelly and Seth try to convince him that they would be better parents to the children. Author Dailey died a decade ago, and this novel penned by a ghostwriter reads as though it was pulled out of a time capsule. Even in the context of romance, the plot is dated and old-fashioned; for example, Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Dream a Little Dream (1998) centered a similar story about saving a drive-in. The book has a traditional, conservative view of parenthood and what constitutes a family. Every big problem is fixed with a pat, easy solution.

Uncomfortably regressive.