It was a good book, but I think it was a continuation of another book, even though it didn't state that. Tracy is the owner of Happiness Key, where a group of friends live. Each of them dealing with different issues. Tracy is pregnant but is afraid to tell the father because she wants to be sure that he wants to be with her because he loves her, not just because she is having a baby. Maggie, a former cop, has come to the key to help her mother, Wanda, with her pie shop. She is also getting over a broken relationship. Janya wants to have children but has been unable to conceive. Alice is a grandmother taking care of hergranddaughter. They are good friends and help each other out. There is a mystery here when a couple with 2 children become friends with Janya and her husband. They end up leaving their children with Janya, and they are both found dead. At first it's ruled a murder/suicide. But after Maggie has her ex-boyfriend who is a cop, check into it, he thinks it's more involved than that. It ends up that a company run by Blake Armstrong, made repairs to the bridge connecting Happiness Key with the mainland, but they cut corners in the repair, and the husband of the couple finds out. They take the wife and then send him a message that he has to meet up with them or they will kill her. He goes and they both end up dying. Blake thinks they won't be found out, but Maggie goes to search his home when a hurricane is coming, thinking he will have evacuated. Unfortunately, the bridge breaks, and he returns to find her there. Blake hits her on the head and takes her into a waiting boat and he attempts to get away. In the meantime, Wanda her mother is trying to find her and Tracy and her boyfriend help. They all stay at Tracy's boyfriends house during the storm. After the storms they find Maggie clinging for life on part of the broken bridge. Blake is never found, he went overboard. Tracy does end up marrying her boyfriend, and they end up having Alice's granddaughter live with them, because it's too hard on Alice to do full time care and she became involved with a man at the recreation center. Maggie gets back together with her boyfriend, and Janya and her husband get to keep the 2 children who were left in their care. 3 1/2 stars!Sunset Bridge is the third book in a trilogy about the lives of four women living in a small community in Florida:Tracy Deloche lived a life of luxury until her husband was arrested for fraud and the feds took almost everything they owned. Tracy has been dating Marsh Egan, a conservation activist, for a few months,and has just found out she's pregnant. She doesn't know yet if Marsh cares for her, but she knows she wants this baby.WandaGray is an older woman who used to be a waitress but fulfilled her dream of opening her own pie shop. Wanda's daughter, Maggie, has just quit her job as a police officer in Miami and left her long-term boyfriend to come to Happiness Key to help her mother in her pie shop and to think. Her boyfriend still wants her in his life, and she's also met someone else who might be fun to spend some time with.Janya Kapur is a young wife from India who loves her husband although it was an arranged marriage. Janya wants children but previously learned her husband is unable to have children. When a horrible tragedy strikes a young couple they've recently met, their young children are left in the care of Janya and her husband. But Janya and her husband are sure the tragedy is not what it seems at first glance.Alice, a grandmother who's unexpectedly raising her teenaged granddaughter. Alice is tired. She's getting older and is having a hard time keeping up with the demands of being parent to a teenage girl.These women have formed a close friendship in their tiny community of five homes on the island of Happiness Key. My thoughts:Whew! There's a lot going on in Sunset Bridge! I did not read the first book in this series, Happiness Key, but I did read Book 2, Fortunate Harbor, so I knew who the characters are and where they are in life.I liked the pacing in this book. With so many stories to keep track of, normally I'd be all over the place trying to keep track of who was where, but with Sunset Bridge that wasn't a problem. It felt like the story was moving slowly but there was so much going on that I stayed interested. I liked the introduction of Wanda's daughter, Maggie. She's the kind of character that I don't usually see in women's fiction (I have not read too many books in this genre so don't hold me to that) and I really liked her character - tough, self sufficient, stubborn to a fault; but she's also smart, good-hearted and helpful. It was her involvement in Janya's part of the book that I was most interested in.I liked all the characters except Tracy: Tracy is the character I had a problem with in Fortunate Harbor. This time around her weight was pretty low-key but her attitude towards Marsh really drove me nuts. Other than Tracy though, I liked the women and their quiet support of each other. Their weekly meals together, their willingness to assist, even their occasional snaps at each other, all shows the reader a family, if not in name.Sunset Bridge ends with a bang - I was flipping pages quickly as the occupants of Happiness Key were cast about in a chain of events that left them (and me) breathless; it was a wonderful end to the trilogy. Oh, and for those who read Fortunate Harbor, there's a nice little blip about the owners of the restaurant that fired Wanda; it was the best thing that ever happened to her!
What do You think about Sunset Bridge (2011)?
Sorry to see the end of these characters. Great storylines and interesting characters.
—Den
love the Happiness Key series. great author!
—ijeoma
