Southern fiction for women at its best, Normandie Fischer writes from the heart of things that threaten to take away all that is valuable and meaningful. Shoal Waters hits those things right smack on the head.
Jeminy was intoxicated with the "Brilliant" charm of a man who promised her talent would lead to fame and fortune if she'd come with him to LA. While her talent was recoginized, her fame and fortune was swallowed up by the man she chose to fall for and who she allowed to talk her into something she would regret for the rest of her life. When his praise turned to sarcasm, things changed.
She planned to leave him and all of the disappointment and sorrow behind, and when she learned her grandmother Georgina needed her, she knew where she needed to go. She carefully planned her departure with the help of a friend and flew across the country to North Carolina to reunite with her aging "Nana" to provide as much assistance as she could for the lady she loved.
I don't want to spoil the details of this story for you because there are multiple things going on. Let's start with Jeminy's Nana "Georgie". She's in the beginning stages of dementia, and Normandie captures her frustrations, emotions, convictions, and memory lapses with the skill she's experienced. Anyone who's faced this with a loved one will recognize everything Normandie depicts in her heartbreaking, sometimes humorous, but honest descriptions of Nana's behaviors. Her best friend Isa and her granddaughter Jeminy treat her with love, respect, kindness, and a vast amount of patience unlike her daughter, Jeminy's mom Deborah.
If you've read the collection of Carolina Coast Novels, Shoal Waters is Book 6, you will be reunited with the present lives of past characters and their desires to assist Jeminy and Georgie any way they can. The way Normandie inserts them into the story works perfectly incorporating all that famous southern charm along with them.
Georgie's lawyer becomes Jeminy's lawyer when she determines to find out what her ex has done with her missing royalties. It doesn't help that the lawyer is a very attractive southern gentleman.
Jeminy's brokenness won't allow her the freedom to truly start over in her life. She hits a creative block after experiencing nightmares about what she's done, fearing God couldn't possibly forgive her.
There is much sorrow in Jeminy's early past and it's translated to basically severed ties with her mother while staying close to her father.
Shoal Waters is a good, entertaining, well-written, and complex southern drama. If you love southern fiction, this story will serve up the grits and sweet tea along with real struggle at all levels of family and relationship theatre. The significance of the title provides wonderful symbolism to the dilemmas of the characters and speaks to the author's personal knowledge of all things seaworthy.
Father, you know all that Normandie needs, all that she wants, and all that she hopes for. She puts you first and honors you with her writing. Continue to give her the stories you have just for her to tell and bless her in your abundance. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.