The Edge of Winter by Luanne Rice

From Goodreads:

Neve Halloran and her daughter have shared a fierce love for the austere beauty of Rhode Island’s South County ever since Neve guided Mickey’s first baby steps along the sandy shore. Now, with Mickey a teenager and Neve’s last hope for happiness with her daughter’s loving but unstable father gone, both will struggle to make a new life together amid the windswept landscape that sustains them.
Captivated by a fragile wildlife sanctuary, Mickey will move toward womanhood in the company of a lonely boy who shares her instinctive way with the creatures of the coast. And Neve will find herself drawn to a man who has devoted his life to the sanctuary, but who is unable to share the pain of a recent loss—or reconnect with the father who still bears the scars of World War II.
As winter gives way to spring, and spring to summer, a secret will emerge that has lain buried in the depths just offshore for decades, a secret that will galvanize the small seaside community. For the waters bear their own vestige of the past—and their ceaseless rhythms may point the way to hope and new beginnings.
Lyrical, luminous, and utterly captivating, The Edge of Winter is Luanne Rice at her most penetrating and insightful, in a moving exploration of the bonds that shape us and set us free.

From Misty:
Reviewing one of my all-time favorite authors for today.  Not sure I can say much more than the very thorough overview above, so I will just say this: I love the way Luanne writes characters so real you always feel like you know them.  I love the way she writes families complete with jealousies, hang-ups, and sibling rivalries all mingled together with the deepest of love.  I love how she writes her heroes vulnerable and human and yet still so strong you cheer for them from the very first word you read about them. 
I always connect so well with Rice's use of metaphor and motif to underscore her themes, many of which revolve around families, returning to one's roots, making things right, respecting nature, accepting loss, embracing change.  As with many of her books, the writing in The Edge of Winter is lyrical, the prose beautiful, and the descriptions vivid.

I give this one 4 1/2 of 5 stars.