Book Review: Surrender Bay by Denise Hunter

Samantha Owens had a rough childhood showing her that love is not worth anything.  Everyone she ever loved left her.  Her dad died when she was young.  Her mom remarried and eventually ran away.  Her stepfather was abusive.  Her best friend, Landon Reed, whom she thought she was inseperable with graduated high school and left for college.  The only thing her stepfather ever gave Sam was a piece of advice not to love for the ones we love leave.  She kept this close to her heart, closer than anything else.

Years later, after she ran away from the Nantucket island, she returned with one mission in mind: get her stepfather's house sold. He died and left her the house.  I'm not sure if he left it to her or it just ended up in her care due to being somewhat related to him, but she did end up with the house full of painful memories.

Sam's back with her own secrets, secrets she thought she could keep forever from the one man who meant more than anything to her.  She planned on never returning to Nantucket again, but does so to get the money that will come from selling the house.  She desperately needs it for she is a single mother living on a maid's wages in Boston.

Denise Hunter wrote this novel with the Bible verse Zephaniah 3:17 on her heart.

The Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.

This story represents God's love for us.  It is never-ending, unconditional, and there is nothing we can do to take it away.