Behind Love's Wall

October 25, 2021
Fancett Pagels (Butterfly Cottage) weaves an overstuffed dual-timeline tale of love and mystery set at the picturesque Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Upper Michigan. In 1895, itinerant singer Lily Swaine is spending the summer as a songbird at the hotel. She never stays in one place for long, is always one step ahead of the secrets in her past, and struggles to trust in a God who allows so many "terrible things" to befall her. A romance with psychiatrist Stephen DuBlanc, who harbors secrets of his own, may help renew her faith and convince her to put down roots. In 2020, hotel designer and HGTV star Willa Christy returns to her home on the Upper Peninsula to consult on a redesign of the Grand Hotel, and happens on Lily's journal, uncovered in a room she's renovating, and begins to wonder about her, recalling stories both of a female murderer and arsonist named Lily. Willa becomes even more intrigued when she realizes Michael DuBlanc, the landscape architect she's been falling for, is related to Lily. While the two core plots hold appeal, a profusion of subplots and the tangle of intertwined relationships in one close community (over two timelines) can make the narrative a challenge to follow. Romance fans looking for escapism might end up needing a flowchart to keep up with this one.