SECRET OF IRELAND


Susanne O'Leary (2021). The Lost Secret of Ireland.


O'Leary has no formal degrees that i could verify...with 30+ novels to her credit, she is a prolific author.

This is the 2nd of a series of novels set along the Irish coast in a place called Sandy Cove where the Starlight Cottages (a former coast guard station) are...each book in the series explores the life of another character that lives/visits one of the cottages. In this story Ella, an artist, recovering from an accident, is visited by 85-year-old Lucille (best friend of her mother who recently died) who aids in her recovery with positive, go get em, zest for living attitudes...In time, Ella falls in love with Rory, one of Lucille's sons, and the big secret is revealed: one of the former Starlight Cottage residents was convicted of a minor crime, sent to an Australian penal colony, and after serving their time, started a prosperous business and became involved in politics, and now has returned to Ireland.


One practice based on the story is to honor elders' autonomy before trying to protect them, to ask them what kind of life feels alive to them and help them move in that direction--we can all ask that question, and move our lives in direction that supports what's alive in us.




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