STILTSVILLE

STILTSVILLE by Susanna Daniel

From the back of the book:

One sunny morning in 1969, Frances Ellerby finds herself in a place called Stiltsville, a community of houses built on pilings in the middle of Biscayne Bay.  It's the first time the Atlanta native has been out on the open water, and she's captivated.  On the dock of a stilt house, with the dazzling Miami skyline in the distance, she meets the house's owner, Dennis DuVal - and a new future reveals itself.

Turning away from her quiet, predictable life back home, Frances moves to Miami to be with Dennis.  Over time, she earns the confidence of his wild-at-heart sister and the approval of his oldest friend.  Frances and Dennis marry and have a child - but rather than growing complacent about their good fortune, they continue to face the challenges of intimacy in the complicated city they call home.

With Stiltsville, Susanna Daniel weaves the beauty, violence, and humanity of Miami's coming-of-age with an enduring story of a marriage's beginning, maturity, and heartbreaking demise.

Another ho-hum book.  Again, I didn't connect with any of the characters, especially Frances.  I didn't feel the love between Frances and Dennis until the very end of the book, and even then it wasn't what I would have expected after their long marriage.

I had anticipated a book about characters living in these homes, built in the middle of the bay.  What a fantastic place to live.  But very little of the book actually took place there.  And once everyone was back on dry land, the book became slow and not very interesting to me.

After reading some reviews, I had expected much more from this book.  Maybe other people were able to get more out of it than I did.  For me, this book will go back on the shelf and reside there until my next book-clearing binge.