One of the best things about being a book blogger is that I occasionally get to read a hidden gem like Safe Harbour by Christina Kilbourne. I haven’t seen a lot of marketing for this book, which is sad, because I really liked it. A big thank you to Netgalley and Dundurn Press for the Advanced Reading Copy!
Harbour Mandrayke is on an adventure. For most of her life, she’s been living on a boat with her father near Florida, and now she’s been sent to Toronto, with her dog Tuff, to wait for him. She’s living in a tent, for now, waiting for his arrival. She has plenty of food, if you like tuna and crackers, but he’s late. He was supposed to arrive a couple of weeks ago.
She befriends a homeless girl named Lise, who suspects that things aren’t exactly as Harbour claims they are. As the weeks continue to pass with no sign of Dad, Lise helps Harbour navigate through a world that’s continuing to get colder. As a reader, I’m increasingly wondering what happened. Did something happen to Harbour’s dad? Did he just send his daughter to Toronto to get rid of her?
All of these questions do get answered by the end of the book, which I won’t give away the ending to. Not everything ends up happy for Harbour, but it does have a satisfactory, hopeful ending.
Good Things About Safe Harbour
I have a lot of good things to say about this book. First, I liked the characters. They were believable and likeable. Harbour was intelligent but a little naïve. Lise was caring, as was the librarian.
I also loved the setting of this story. Safe Harbour takes place in Toronto, which fills in the box for Canada in my Read Around the World Challenge. As the book progressed, I could just imagine the Canadian summer change to winter, with the leaves falling and snow eventually blanketing the ground. It made me thankful for this warm house, especially as Harbour toughed it out in a tent.
The book also brings up the subject of homelessness. Why don’t people go to shelters? Can homeless people use libraries? I had to google that last one. Hopefully most of the book’s readers will never have had to worry about sleeping out in the snow in a tent (unless they want to), and reading will be their only experience with this subject.
There were some unexpected twists in this book. There were a couple points where I was like “wait, what?” but by the end of the book everything made sense.
Any Downsides?
There isn’t really anything I can find I didn’t like about this book. I was invested enough in Harbour’s life to want to keep reading, and ended up reading this book in two days.
Conclusion
I’m sad that some books don’t get the marketing they deserve. That’s the case with Safe Harbour. It’s a great book I think a lot of people would like. It comes out on December 10th, but you can pre-order it now.