Destiny Lingers

When Destiny Newell Nelson finds strands of red hair on her husband’s pillow, she immediately suspects that he is having an affair with their friend Eve. Before she can confront him, the stresses of her job as a television journalist send her from Harlem to her childhood summer home on Topsail Island, N.C., where her aunt Joy is waiting with comfort and her parents with criticism. Amid the wreckage of her marriage and the strains of dealing with family, Destiny reconnects with Chase McKenzie, her childhood crush, who’s now the town’s chief of police, and does her best to decide what she wants out of life. Her parents, who were two of Topsail Island’s first black residents, think Destiny should steer clear of Chase, who’s white; she retorts that it’s not his fault he “grew up the poor boy of racist parents.” The narrative is one of self-discovery more than romance; Destiny’s emotional connections are the basis of the plot, but her relationship with her parents is given as much weight as her relationships with her husband and Chase. Occasionally inconsistent characterizations and oddly stilted dialogue are forgivable in Watts’s debut, since it so powerfully depicts racism and classism, as well as love lost and regained. (BookLife)