Literary fiction has presented readers with centuries of memorable women in trouble. Here, the author of the widely praised and beloved "Come and Go, Molly Snow", Kentucky novelist Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, offers Jo Sinclair, a long-term single parent of four children. Fleeing an abusive relationship, she winds up in Sea Cove, New Jersey, in front of The Breakers, a salty old hotel in the process of renovation. In this unlikely setting, Jo finds a way to renovate herself, to reclaim the promising life that was derailed by pregnancy when she was fourteen. She impulsively convinces the owner to give her a job painting the rooms and settles in with her youngest child, thirteen-year-old Nick. A grand cast of characters wanders through this little world, among them Iris Zephyr, the hotel"s ninety-two-year-old permanent boarder; Charlie, a noble mixed-breed dog; Wendy, Jo"s tough eighteen-year-old daughter, who has suffered most from her mother"s past mistakes; and Marco, the nearby gas...