McCormack (Six Weeks to Toxic
) throws 40-year-old, hard-driving Toronto TV producer Minnie Gallant a curve in this sprightly Canadian import when her boss rejects her latest pitch. Minnie's boss suggests she take the summer off, and it couldn't have happened at a better time: her aging uncle Rex wants to give assisted living a shot and asks Minnie to take over his Prince Edward Island home. She settles in her uncle's comfy, ramshackle house; dotes on Dosie, an old nag; helps out at the local diner; and before long, Minnie's hooked up with the hottest fisherman in town. Her relationship with Joe should be the beginning of a happy ending, but the politics and economics of fishing and conservation make an abrupt entrance, driving a wedge between them. McCormack's intoxicating love of language and funny quips (one woman's hair is “longer than it would have been if she lived in Toronto”) keep the story cruising, and the ending is unexpected yet appropriately feel-good. (Apr.)
