Publication October 8, 2024-She Writes Press-Women’s Fiction-304pp
Book Summary
The Texas Gulf: beautiful yet unpredictable.
A beach town destroyed. Her mother’s candy store swept away. This is what Teddy Wainsworth faces when she returns to Bird Isle. Meanwhile, Jack Shaughness, owner of a popular barbecue restaurant chain and widower still grieving the death of his wife, receives permission to cross over to the island with a smoker full of brisket to feed hurricane survivors. Soon after arriving, he meets Teddy and immediately finds himself drawn to her—which makes him feel he is betraying his wife. When the two find a lost dog, Jack convinces Teddy to take it home while they attempt to find the owner, creating a bond that brings them closer.
In the wake of the hurricane, Bird Isle residents fear the Aransas Wildlife Refuge will not be ready for the whooping cranes’ annual migration south. Seeing that Jack has important connections and a love for the island, they enlist him to help restore the habitat of the endangered cranes before they fly to Padre Island for the winter. With their rescued dog always nearby, Teddy and Jack work side by side to rebuild Bird Isle for the return of the whooping cranes. But Jack is harboring a secret that may ruin everything he and Teddy are creating—and he won’t be able to keep that secret forever.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
I’ve personally experienced many hurricanes and evacuations growing up in south Louisiana. With these experiences and as an annual visitor to the Gulf Coast of Texas, I assure readers that Diane Prettyman’s Love is for the Birds accurately captures the visual devastation and emotional trauma of the residents of Bird Isle. The novel is based on the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, 2017, known as the “hurricane of the century” on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
Prettyman’s main characters are grieving losses that we have all endured in one way or another: loss of a wife, mother, partner, relationship of a child, and through the hurricane, massive loss of property. Teddy, who’s lost her mother and her business, wisely realizes that for all the residents loneliness is the common denominator. In the backdrop of Prettyman’s novel are the recovery efforts on Bird Isle and the residents’ devotion to restoring the Aransas Wildlife Refuge for the annual arrival of the Whooping Cranes. This novel of second chances and life changing epiphanies, like a hurricane aftermath, packs another punch with vivid sensory descriptions of the marsh and the delicate balance of nature to support the threatened Whooping Cranes, Brown Pelicans, and Gulf Coast ecosystems. Another outcome of hurricanes is the vast number of misplaced pets and the plight of rescue shelters. Prettyman focuses readers’ attention on this fact when a “mud covered mutt” wrangles her way into the recovery efforts. The loyalty of a lost dog, two people clawing their way out of grief, and the restoration of a community built on faith and hope; factors in the forecast for the return of clear skies and sunshine along the Texas shore. Eco-fiction with a storm surge of romance!
Whooping Cranes and the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/aransas/species
Diane Owens Prettyman is the author of the romantic adventure story Thin Places and the twentieth-century historical novel Redesigning Emma. She is also a frequent contributor to the Austin American-Statesman. She stays true to her belief that every story has a happy ending, though perhaps sometimes, maybe even often, one has to wait for the perfect finale. Diane lives just a few hours’ drive from the Texas Gulf. She is an avid boogie boarder and spends her summers in the water. Her husband and two black standard poodles provide her room and board in Austin, Texas.
The Grateful Reader 