In Bretton's fine follow-up to Shore Lights, firefighter and bar owner Aidan O'Malley and radio-show host Maddy (DiFalco) Bainbridge prepare for their upcoming nuptials in Paradise Point, N.J. Their pre-wedding jitters are magnified when PBS films a documentary on Jersey Shore towns and focuses on the O'Malley and DiFalco families, who settled Paradise Point and are now being joined in marriage. Maddy and Aidan are salt-of-the-earth characters, grounded in the realism of past disappointments and tragedy. Aidan raised his teenage daughter, Kelly, on his own, his young wife having died when Kelly was an infant. Maddy in turn lost her previous love when he broke off their relationship after she became pregnant with their young daughter, Hannah. The well-observed interactions between friends and family add depth. Claire, part owner of O'Malley's bar and widow of Aidan's philandering brother, Billy, must come to terms with her deceased husband's infidelity, especially when she remembers Billy's affair with Gina, Maddy's colorful cousin, who has secrets of her own. Kelly, however, may be keeping the biggest secret of all, and it could tear Maddy and Aidan apart. Alternately poignant and humorous, this contemporary romance gracefully illuminates life's highs and lows.
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