SWEET SALT AIR by Barbara Delinsky is a wonderful story of betrayal, love, family, life,and forgiveness.  Charlotte and Nicole used to be best friends growing up together and spending summers at Nicole's summer home on  Quinnipeague Island in Maine.  Many years and many secrets later, the women have grown apart.  Nicole thinks it is  because she married Julian but Charlotte knows better.  Charlotte's  job as a freelance writer has given her the perfect excuse to stay away as it takes her to many foreign places.  When Julian gets sick with MS Charlotte knows she must come clean with Nicole.  She has something that could save Julian's life.   What she has to tell her once best friend could destroy her and their friendship.

Charlotte decides to go to Quinnipeague Island to help Nicole.  She is working on a cook book of local recipes and needs Charlotte's help with it.   While she is there she is drawn to the property of Cecily Cole.  She was a woman who grew all kinds of herbs and plants in her gardens and supplied all of the locals on the island for their recipes.  She is considered the matriarch of island cooking.  Charlotte meets Leo Cole.  She has heard many stories about him and at first she is leery of him, but she soon learns she shouldn't believe everything  she hears.  He is a loner who never leaves the island but she is instantly taken with him as he is with her.  He has secrets too and one of them blows Charlotte away!

Nicole is trying to stay on track with her cookbook while packing up the island house that will be going up for sale soon.  Since her father died, her mother has been wanting to sell the house.  Before Charlotte came to the island she kept Julian's secret of having MS to herself for four years. No one knew, only her and Julian.  Over time, she comes clean with Charlotte and her mother.  They are both sympathetic but can't understand why she didn't tell anyone.  They could have helped her.  Meanwhile Nicole is trying to hold on to her marriage and feels as if Julian is pushing her away.  Is he just not  interested in her anymore or is it his illness?

Once I started reading SWEET SALT AIR I was instantly on the island with  Nicole and Charlotte.  I could almost smell the salt air and all the different herbs in Cecily's garden.  I fell in love with the island and it's locals and the only thing missing from this book are the recipes.  I think it would have been great if Barbara had included some of them.  SWEET SALT AIR is perfect for a summer beach read and Barbara will pull you right in from the very first page.  You will find yourself flipping the pages furiously to see where the story goes and if Nicole ever finds it in her heart to forgive Charlotte.  

Book Summary

On Quinnipeague, hearts open under the summer stars and secrets float in the Sweet Salt Air...

Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole's coastal island house off of Maine. But many years, and many secrets, have kept the women apart. A successful travel writer, single Charlotte lives on the road, while Nicole, a food blogger, keeps house in Philadelphia with her surgeon-husband, Julian. When Nicole is commissioned to write a book about island food, she invites her old friend Charlotte back to Quinnipeague, for a final summer, to help. Outgoing and passionate, Charlotte has a gift for talking to people and making friends, and Nicole could use her expertise for interviews with locals. Missing a genuine connection, Charlotte agrees.

But what both women don't know is that they are each holding something back that may change their lives forever. For Nicole, what comes to light could destroy her marriage, but it could also save her husband. For Charlotte, the truth could cost her Nicole’s friendship, but could also free her to love again. And her chance may lie with a reclusive local man, with a heart to soothe and troubles of his own.