'TIS THE TIME, 'TIS THE SEASON

Posti continues her story of three best friends from high school who reconnect at their 40th reunion in this novel.

Marla Galani went to Port Mariette’s high school for just her senior year, the year she spent living with her aunt in the small western Pennsylvania town while waiting to give birth to the baby she would put up for adoption. But in that time, she forged close friendships with fellow students Suzanne Jackson and Rachel Baran. They went their separate ways after graduation; now, a year after their 40th reunion, all three are unexpectedly again in Port Mariette at the same time. Marla, who the previous year found her birth daughter, Grace Walton, has raced to Port Mariette from Manhattan after learning Grace had a medical emergency. Suzanne has journeyed from her home in California to visit her sister Andrea, with whom she owns an art consignment shop on Main Street. Rachel, recently widowed, is the only one who has never left town. She and her son Pete have been running Food ‘n Fuel, the family’s gas station / home-made takeout food business, and she has just become president of the Port Mariette Business Association (“she had six months to prove herself. She was determined to do just that”). Marla is having relationship problems with her current significant other, and Suzanne and her new husband are experiencing a reversal of fortune in California. Will the friendships survive the tumultuous changes in each of the women’s lives? An amiable narrative begun in Posti’s novel Falling Apart, Falling for You(2022), featuring mature women who find life still has surprises and much to offer, this story compellingly tackles the contemporary issue of affordable housing for disadvantaged younger people and seniors who might otherwise need to move into assisted living facilities. This is Christian fiction—there is a heavy subtext of religious messaging throughout. Overall, the narrative is an engaging, glossy, Lifetime TV-movie sort of tale that rolls through a year of highs and lows with remarkably positive resolutions attained a bit too easily.

A pleasant beach read that ends happily but does not leave a strong impression.