The Gulf of Lions, Caitlin Shetterly (Review by Renee Casella)

After a yearlong battle with breast cancer and reconciling with her husband after a betrayal, a mother and her two daughters take a once-in-a-lifetime camping trip across Southern France. She longs for an escape from the trials of everyday life, hoping it’s the new start she so desperately needs. Alice, teenage Sophie, and young Iris begin their odyssey in the French Alps, entering a foreign world they did not know existed: beautiful people, luscious food, and sensual temptations. It’s a freeing experience—exploring the countryside, sleeping beneath the stars, reveling in the sights and scents of nature. For the first time since her diagnosis, Alice starts to feel alive, less afraid of dying, and less angry about her husband’s affair. But as the family continues south, traveling through Provence, where they camp on the Gulf of Lions, an area of the Mediterranean known for wild, roaring winds and purple fields of lavender, they start to unravel the yarn that binds them together. By the time they head to the charred Pyrenees, and then back across France to stay in a castle that sits on the confluence of two rivers, Alice worries that the trip might have been a disastrous and reckless mistake. I found out this was a sequel to Pete and Alice in Maine, but it says it’s a standalone sequel. Not sure if reading the first novel would have been better; I felt like I was missing details in some parts. It was an overall good story, but I wished for more details about the area where the family travels. I wanted to feel like I was alongside the characters on their trip. I wasn’t crazy about how the author wrote in many short sentences. More descriptions would have been beneficial in feeling empathy towards all of the characters.