Unfortunately "Songs of Willow Frost" doesn't measure up to Ford's first book "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet". It's not a bad book, but my expectations were so high that I was disappointed. Even so, it's a good read about a mother and her son.

At first I thought "The Edge of the Earth" was going to be one of the many haunted lighthouse mysteries that I've encountered. I was duly impressed that that was not the case. Yes, there is a mystery involved, but it doesn't overwhelm the storyline of the supplanting of an almost rich city girl to the solitude of a desolate piece of rocky earth.
The shell, animal, sea-life examination was somewhat reminiscent of Tracy Chevalier's fascinating "Remarkable Creatures". But where "Creatures" is largely about artifacts, Schwarz's "Edge" more about relationships, choices and survival, although I thoroughly enjoyed her explanations of the tidal pool and it's inhabitants. I read the book in one day (and night), finding it difficult to put down.