“A lush and atmospheric ode to the power of family and home that will leave you looking for everyday magic . A must read for the summer!”—Adrienne Young, New York Times bestselling author of A Sea of Unspoken Things
July has a peculiar gift. And it might be just the thing this island community needs.
Ebey’s End isn’t like other small towns. There’s a chicken situation going on at the postman’s house that it would be better not to discuss. And no one, including the pharmacist, can agree on the pharmacist’s name. To outsiders, it’s all a little strange, but to Anita, the town’s only grocer, it’s familiar and comfortable, even if it’s also a little lonely. That is, until fourteen-year-old July shows up.
Taking in the recently orphaned daughter of an estranged cousin had not been on Anita’s to-do list. In fact, everyone agrees this is a terrible idea. Anita is ill-suited, ill-prepared, and absolutely certain the entire enterprise will end in disaster—for both of them.
But all is not as it seems. From the moment she arrives, July has an uncanny knack for “knowing” what each customer at the Island Grocery needs. They’re small things: a housekeeping magazine slipped into old Mr. Daly’s basket or a coconut cream pie pressed into the hands of Pastor Chet. But one by one, these gifts start to change the lives of nearly everyone in town in ways much larger than they—or July—could have imagined.
It doesn’t take long before secrets are exposed, questions emerge, and everyone in Ebey’s End has to open their hearts a little wider. Afterall, sometimes you’re born into your family, sometimes you choose your family, and sometimes you find a whole island worth of family just waiting for you to show up.
“Set on a quirky island in the Puget Sound where there’s nowhere to go and the ferry service is erratic, The Peculiar Gift of July is an absolutely charming novel of families and small-town life, and how the simplest mysteries of our lives touch all those around us. Ashley Ream is a fabulous writer who turns a great phrase, amuses with clever humor, and adds just the right amount of sentimentality and emotion for a satisfying ending—book clubs will love this book!”—Garth Stein, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain
“Immersive, heartwarming, even a little bit magical, The Peculiar Gift of July juggles an enormous cast of characters in a perfectly-sketched small town on a chilly island in the Pacific Northwest so beautifully you feel like you’re there. Ashley Ream offers peculiar — and wonderful — gifts indeed: the secrets harbored by close communities, the surprises in store even for people who already know everything about each other, the many forms families take, and the joys (and challenges) of neighbors who are there for one another, come what may.”—Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is
“The characters of this wonderfully engaging novel may inhabit an island, but their concerns are universal, and Ashley Reams finds dignity, humor, and more than a touch of magic on every page. A novel that is light on its feet, but deep in its heart.”—Meg Howrey, author of They’re Going to Love You