Christina Cann

Last night, my husband and I were walking home from the bus stop and he pointed out a fragrant bush in a neighbor’s yard.

“Honeysuckle,” he said, and it took me back.

Here’s the summary of the book from the author’s website:

Fourteen years ago, when Grayling was just a baby, her strangely remote mother left her behind with Grandmother. The circle of women who share Grandmother’s big old house have puzzled over the matter, but for Grayling life is good. As she says, “This is my grandmother’s house, where the honeysuckle rain falls in the summer, where most stories have beginnings, middles, and ends.” The women watch over one another, and everyone watches over Grayling and her friend Colleen.

But this summer will bring changes – a new friendship for Grayling with Aaron, and the reappearance of her mother. She visits her mother in San Francisco and meets the strange young man who calls himself Dancer but might better be called Danger. Impulsively, far from home, she puts herself in jeopardy.

Grayling’s encounters with death, love, romance, and peril help her discover the ending of one part of the story and join the circle of the rain catchers.

When the honeysuckle rain falls, the women, including Grayling and Colleen, catch it and use it to rinse their hair. I have always wanted to do this, ever since I read this book. Maybe I’ll snip a clipping of my neighbor’s bush and plant one in my own yard.

This book is so beautifully told that it stays with you. It’s a slow story, focusing on character and backstory, which I’m not sure would be published today. Parts of it still stay with me, like the honeysuckle rain and the image of a house with hands on the clocks. And one rule of etiquette I’ve always liked came from Grayling’s grandmother; she says that a good guest never drops by and stays for longer than an hour.

And that cover! That might be the part of the book that lingers the most. Despite Grayling being a quiet girl, the cover is so bold and beautiful with its yellows and oranges. I simply love it.