Camilla Fogle

A Summer Alone Camilla Fogle

Eighteen year old Claire Bryte Cloud has been challenged by her brothers to spend her summer alone. Colin and Carter are both pursuing their education in Europe and worry that their sister is becoming a homebody. Claire and her brothers were given up to an orphanage in Cherokee, North Carolina when they were only three days old. Claire is young but she has benefited from the wisdom of her orphanage parents - Maxine Pauline McKee Cook and Henry and Louetta Wolfe. Claire doesn't want to go to Europe so she cuts out a map of the coast of North Carolina and throws a dart to determine where she'll live for the summer. The dart lands on Holden Beach, North Carolina - an island off the North Carolina coast. Claire makes her reservations for the summer on line and expects to see a deserted cottage on a lonely beach where she can write to her heart's content and not be bothered. Claire's dream of being alone is thankfully not to be; the cottage she has chosen is right between two other cottages and the beach is full of people. She gets new neighbors each week - some good and some not so good. She decides that Como's Kitchen will be her breakfast haven for the summer and meets the Como Family. Como's is a few blocks up from her cottage and there she meets the handsome Como boys and their sisters. The Como's become her summer family and the constant drama of the Como Family keeps things from ever being dull. Claire goes on her first date and then seriously considers a couple of the Como brothers. Claire's neighbors during the summer range from the square dancing senior citizens from Iowa and the former Flying Zombies of Vancouver. The summer includes a brush with a serious tropical storm and a field trip to Charleston to leave the Como drama behind for a bit. Claire's natural friendliness leads her to several people who become fixtures in her life. When Maxine comes for a visit they make a fascinating find and Maxine shares some bad news with Claire. Claire is in touch with her brothers over the summer by Skype and she manages to survive the summer alone. Some of the Como family will be in her life on beyond the summer.