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Two girls navigate friendship, relationships, grief, and the Great Loop.

Willa and Taylor’s friendship is tenuous at best now that their mutual friend Finley is gone. The girls set off during the summer before college to sail part of the Great Loop, a network of waterways, from Sandusky, Ohio, to Key West, Florida. The pair is fulfilling a deathbed promise they made to Finley by completing the trip the three had intended to take together. To help guide their adventure, they follow a list of clues that Finley created before she died of leukemia. While both girls must figure out how to go on without their best friend, brown-skinned Willa also must reconcile her relationship with her single white mother and make a decision about her future: Will she do what is practical or follow her passion? Taylor, who is white, is coming to terms with her sexuality and working through insecurities she felt in her relationships with Finley and Willa. Both girls eventually learn just how strong they are. The matter of Willa’s ethnicity—her father’s identity is unknown—feels unresolved. Doller (In a Perfect World, 2017, etc.) effectively tackles the difficult emotions that come with losing your best friend. Clear and evocative descriptions of the mechanics of sailing and the many places the girls visit en route enhance the novel.

While not groundbreaking, this is an enjoyable voyage to take.