Cloud Nine

Cloud Nine by Luanne Rice is a romance novel about a woman named Sarah Talbot, who at thirty-seven has just miraculously beat a terminal brain cancer diagnosis and has a new lease on life. She meets up with a charter pilot to take a plane ride over New York and her happiness eats away at his morose, negative exterior. The pair find themselves running into each other over and over in small-town upstate New York, until they find true romance on Elk Island, a remote island off the coast of Maine where Sarah ventures to reunite her broken family. At the center of the book is the question of whether or not love is enough to conquer all troubles; perhaps even love has its limits.

The novel opens with the meeting of pilot Will Burke and protagonist Sarah Talbot. Sarah has recently recovered from a long battle with what was presumed to be terminal brain cancer. Feeling as if she has cheated death, Sarah is uncommonly optimistic – she believes anything is possible. Her happiness is addictive to those around her, including the pilot of the charter plane she takes when she is treated to a trip above upstate New York for her birthday. Will Burke is a relatively gloomy man, who is plagued by his own traumas. After meeting Sarah, however, he begins to feel a new kind of hope, one he hasn't experienced in decades.

Sarah and Will both have troubled family lives. Sarah grew up on remote Elk Island off the coast of rural Maine. When she moved away to find a life for herself, she upset her father, who never forgave her for leaving the family behind. Later, Sarah had a son named Mike, who ran away as a young teen to Elk Island to live with his grandfather. Sarah is devastated by the loss of her son, and wants to get him back, and reconcile with her father, who struggles to forgive her for abandoning him so many years before.



Will, on the other hand, has his own struggles. Will was a Navy rescue operative with a successful career, but he forced himself to quit after his young son Fred died by drowning, and he wasn't able to save him. The trauma of the loss of their child caused Will and his now ex-wife to divorce, and took a toll on Will's surviving daughter, Susan. Susan now lives primarily with her mother and her step-father, whom she loathes – Will is unsure how to help his daughter cope with her new life.

After their initial meeting, Sarah and Will run into each other again at a county fair. The meeting feels like more than a coincidence, particularly for Will, who is drawn to Sarah's shiny optimism. Sarah has her own interests, though – at the fair she asks Will to fly her on his plane to her home on Elk Island, where she hopes to retrieve her son Mike and talk with her dad. Mike agrees, and soon the couple return to the skies to find Elk Island and hopefully reunite Sarah's family. Susan comes too, as a surprise stowaway, hoping to escape her know-it-all stepfather for at least a little while.

Upon arriving at Elk Island, everything seems perfect. Sarah's childhood memories return, and she finds herself falling more and more in love with Will, who of course loves her in return. Susan adores Elk Island and Sarah, whom she finds more open and happier than her own mother. Mike, despite his rebellion, warms up to Will when he nearly drowns and Will uses his Navy training to pull Mike out of the water and save his life. Everything is going perfectly, but of course perfection can't last – tragedy seems to be around the corner in this novel, and even perpetually happy Sarah begins to ask herself is love like this can really last.



Luanne Rice is a romance novelist and the author of more than thirty novels, including one romance novel for young adults. Her titles include The Secret Language of Sisters, Last Kiss, Silver Bells, and others. Her books have been optioned for film and adapted for Broadway, and she has received a number of awards for her books, including an honorary doctorate from St. Joseph College in Connecticut, where Rice lives for most of the year. Rice is also an active environmentalist and advocate for victims of domestic violence, and she works as an affiliate for the Safina Center, which seeks to connect artists and scientists in order to more deeply connect with the natural world.