Davis Bunn’s latest offering, A SEA GLASS CHRISTMAS, has all the tenets of a good comfort read: a charming coastal setting, a flawed but earnest lead, and a second shot at love, all set against the backdrop of the holidays. But to call this novel a comfort read would be doing it a disservice. The book centers on complex family relationships, unrequited love that just might stay that way, moral-testing work issues, and the illness and looming death of a loved one.

Thirty-year-old Brody Reames returns to his charming Outer Banks hometown of Fortunate Harbor after being summoned by his mother, Mia. Brody left this place right before his 21st birthday, vowing to make his nautical dreams come true, crewing on various ships and participating in A-list competitions and races. For the most part, that has worked out for him. Until it didn’t. Now, he is home and bracing for the not-so-surprising news that his mother has left his father after many turbulent years. She’s been planning this for a while but wants to make sure that her children, Brody and Olivia, know the truth and what might be coming down the pike. Their father is known to be violent, so this might get ugly.

"Filled with family turmoil, work struggles, and romantic highs and lows, it’s more than just a cozy holiday read. It...demonstrates that universal quest to find the person and the place that embodies the true meaning of home."

Unfortunately, Brody is dealing with a lot more than just his family situation. Under the tutelage of his boss, Jacob Whitinger, he has enjoyed the unique privilege of working in finance as well as heading up a racing crew on one of Jacob’s boats. No other job would allow him to do both. But lately, Brody has felt more imprisoned than emboldened and is not quite sure how that happened. Since Brody created a sensation when he spoke at a recent conference, Jacob has been less than pleased. He wants Brody to shine but never to outshine him. Now, Brody is faced with an unbelievable ultimatum: he either accepts Jacob’s unfair practices and forfeits his bonuses for the last two years as punishment, or he can leave, but good luck finding a new crew position. Jacob will make it his mission to ensure that it never happens.

However, a bright spot appears in the form of Rae Alden, a Fortunate Harbor local and private practice attorney who dated Brody in his late teens. Rae loves her work and her Aunt Emma, who has cared for her since her parents passed away. But Emma has been ailing for a while, and the prognosis is not good. Rae is now her caretaker. The end is coming, and it’s apparent to everyone, except Rae, who can’t imagine her world without Emma in it. Maybe it's because her world doesn’t include much beyond her aunt and her work. She’s always desired a loving partner to share her life.

Brody reaches out to his former flame to elicit her help with his fractious work situation. Despite the hurt over their past, Rae sees that Brody is in crisis. So she sweeps all her unresolved feelings to the side and gets down to what she does best: solving seemingly impossible conflicts in high-stakes business settings. She knows exactly how to respond to Jacob’s manipulative ways.

But as Brody begins to feel those old romantic stirrings towards Rae, he questions if he’s capable of love after all he’s been through. Rae is wondering the same; she can’t allow herself to be hurt again. But Olivia posits that maybe he should trust his gut this time. Brody and Rae have to accept that the past is the past and move towards the future, which could include them as a couple. When Brody takes Rae, Emma, her nurse and Mia on a boat trip around Fortunate Harbor (realizing it might be Emma’s last), they remember what she told them years ago: “Emma had brought them here. To Lookout Bay… [S]he told Rae the secret of sea glass. How years of hardship and grinding forces and solitary turmoil fashioned those simple elements into nature’s finest gemstones.”

A SEA GLASS CHRISTMAS is the second book in Bunn’s Outer Banks trilogy. With its complex characters and real-life situations, set against a beautiful North Carolina backdrop, it feels more like the work of Nicholas Sparks than Debbie Macomber. Filled with family turmoil, work struggles, and romantic highs and lows, it’s more than just a cozy holiday read. It has, in the words of millennials, “all the feels” and demonstrates that universal quest to find the person and the place that embodies the true meaning of home.