Seven Letters

Monninger (The Map That Leads To You) enchants with this lyrically written romantic love letter to Ireland and its people. Dartmouth graduate student Kate Moreton travels to Ireland to spend the spring semester working on her dissertation about the remote, windswept, and uninhabited Blasket Islands, where her late father was born. Soon after arriving, Kate meets a lovely older woman named Nora Crean, who introduces Kate to her half-Irish, half-American fisherman grandson, Ozzie Ferriter, who is still brooding from his U.S. Navy service in Afghanistan. Gorgeous and troubled, Ozzie doesn’t immediately seem like a love match to Kate, who wants to focus on her studies, but fate has other ideas in mind. As they begin to build a life together, tragedy strikes—and leaves Kate unsure of where to turn next. The author clearly did her research on the Blasket Islands and Irish geography and creates achingly imperfect and relatable characters who will steal readers’ hearts. While the ending is slightly implausible, it doesn’t detract from the overall quality of the story. Readers who appreciate love stories set against dramatic backdrops will find much to love. Agent: Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Oct.)