McBride’s assured debut launches her Potomac Shores series with a turbulent but uplifting romance centered on a trifecta of serious concerns (mid-life crises, whirlwind courtships, COVID lockdown), ultimately positing that the only way to navigate rough waters is by taking the helm. At 48, Katherine Young is everybody’s steady Katie: dutiful daughter, protective parent, faithful friend, exemplary employee. After dropping her daughter at college, the single mother feels unmoored, but that’s not an unfamiliar sensation. Katie loves escaping land to explore the waterways of her native Virginia, and envies her brother, who lives on a yacht, and proclaims, “Home is where your anchor drops.” After accepting a tempting job offer in Miami (a professional upgrade to IT infrastructure manager), Katie is swept off her feet by the exuberant bon vivant J.C., James Conrad Bland III, a D.C. high-society fixture who offers just the kind of freewheeling life Katie craves after decades of stifling stability. She rides his romantic wave, which crests at their October 2019 wedding, but McBride doesn’t send Katie crashing onto the rocks just yet. Marry in haste, repent at leisure: Katie’s wish-fulfillment fantasy melts away drop by painful drop, heightened by stupefying grief and COVID isolation.
McBride, a former National Geographic magazine staffer, imbues The Cicada Spring with a profound love of nature and infectious curiosity about the Occoquan River and Virginia’s history, going back to its ancient inhabitants. Deftly capturing the forced introspection of the 2020 shutdown era, she steers Katie toward her core values, including faith in American institutions (like the government agencies that converge to address environmental devastation). The pandemic shifts Katie’s perspective to the long view, from selfless people-pleaser to steward of the land and its generations of inhabitants. While the cultural shifts from COVID still reverberate, McBride’s briskly told story proposes, with persuasive heart and wisdom, that it’s the recalibration of individual lives that will power our collective future.
Takeaway: Uplifting middle-age romance alive with wisdom and love of nature.
Comparable Titles: Rachel Hanna’s The Beach House, Pamela M. Kelly’s The Nantucket Inn.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
"McBride adeptly intertwines the lives of Katie and Rhiannon, and themes of love, family, loss, and betrayal emerge. McBride sets a vivid scene, and her storytelling consistently engages. An involving tale that balances struggle, love, and hope."
