Legacy of the Tropics - Mary Deal, Author

“Why don't you sleep in our house, Mama,” Pablo asked. “So we can be a family, like my friend Jose next door. His mama and papi live together. A renter lives in their cottage.”

Pablo, son of Rico Rey and soon to be step-son of Ciara Malloy, doesn't quite understand why the two people he loves most in the whole world aren't married and living together. Neither Pablo nor Ciara knows the secret that Rico holds that keeps them apart. Rico has promised that soon, they will be a complete family but first he has promised to take them on a vacation that will have them sailing the seas near their home east of Puerto Rico. All goes well, until a sudden freak storm blows in, sinking their ketch and leaving them struggling for their lives.

“People die at Ke'e Beach, Lillian,” he said. “Why do you keep going back there?” She forced herself to remain quiet a moment longer than usual to quell an urge to put Glen in his place. “Careless people,” she said, enunciating each word, “die at all beaches.”

Lillian Avery is an underwater photographer who has made her home on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. She has her goal set to take pictures of every fish living in the beautiful waters around her island but became distracted by the docile green sea turtles that seemed to take a liking to her, nipping at her bathing suit. Her friend Glen tags along with her and all goes well until a vicious rip current pulls them both well out to sea till losing sight of land. Will Glen’s neuroses and actual fear of water cause their drowning deaths as he loses control of his emotions?

“Hurricane season's almost over,” Ciara said. Rain pelted down outside the window. “Most likely that storm south of us will die out, don't you think?”

“All the others have this year,” Lilly said. “But every storm is different.”

This tropical storm had more to offer than either could foresee.

Ciara and Lillian had lived next door to each other years earlier in Puerto Rico but had never met. Ciara had always wanted to meet the lady next door who took much sought-after underwater pictures. Lilly had always wanted to meet the lady next door who wrote darling children books. It never came to be until some years later when Ciara moved to Hawaii with her grandson and bought the house next door to Lilly. Even though the two ladies had never met, they found they had a lot of history to share as they caught each other up on their lives.

Life in the tropics seems to be going great until the hurricane hits their island. Will these two ladies, who have lived through so much already, be able to ride out yet another storm in their lives? Or will this be the end of a friendship or even their lives which seem to have come full cycle? Will Lilly finally learn Rico’s secret that even Ciara has kept hidden all these years?

This book has taken me to Puerto Rico and Hawaii, two places I've never been but now feel like I've been there many times. It has taken me under the waters watching not only the fish but the beautiful sea turtles. It has taken me through two storms that I hope and pray I'll never have to live through in real life. Even though I've experienced all of these through reading, it still feels like it has all been real. A great book that gives you three stories, or novellas, that combine to make one incredible adventure for these ladies, a true Legacy of the Tropics.