RISING TIDE

In a multi-stranded sequel to A Sea So Far (2001), Kate Keely returns to San Francisco two years after the Great Earthquake, determined to build a new and independent life in a male-dominated society. Kate and best friend Ellen Flaherty work toward their long-cherished goal of opening a small linens shop and turning it into a successful business. Focusing less on events than on characters’ responses to them, however, Thesman continues to develop the complex relationship between her two protagonists, contrasting Kate, whose eyes are always on the prize, with Ellen’s less certain outlook and misguided efforts to gain entrée into polite society. The author doesn’t handle all of her plot’s threads with equal expertise, but by the end, a death gives Ellen the direction she had previously lacked, while Kate has her shop, a growing clientele, and a bookish landlord who’s plainly smitten with her. Susceptible readers will come to admire both of these young women, and be swept along on their emotional currents. (Fiction. 11-13)