Sweet and sensual, with a happy ending. Just as good as everyone said, and a lovely vacation read to boot. The healing power of food, family, and place reminded me a bit of Weetzie Bat. Also, I adore Evanelle. Her need to give people things (that later become useful in unexpected ways) creates a delightful suspense. (Side note: I read this on the Kindle and it included previews of her next books, that surely were not out when this book was published on paper. This is an advantage of e-books that hadn't occurred to me.) 
 Favorite quotes: 
 "She drove a convertible, wore diamonds with denim, and she never missed a homecoming game. She was so Southern that she cried tears that came straight from the Mississippi, and she always smelled faintly of cottonwood and peaches." 
 "She understood now that she'd loved him, and he was probably the only man she'd ever loved like that, with such hope." 
 "It's taken me a long time to realize that I did you a great disservice, Fred. And myself also. By trying to make you happy, I prevented you from knowing how to figure it out on your own. By trying to give you happiness, I lost my own." 
 "And what was once youthful indiscretion, two twenty-one-year-olds quitting school and moving in together, finally answerable to no one, turned into more than thirty years of companionship. To Fred, those years seemed to pass like quickly skimming a book and then finding the ending wasn't what he expected. He wished he had paid more attention to the story. He wished he'd paid more attention to the storyteller." 
 "You are who you are, whether you like it or not, so why not like it?" 
 "Love always hurts. That's one thing I know you know," Sydney said. "But it's worth it. That's what you don't know. Yet."