Shannon ParkerWhen Phoebe Buffay declared on-again off-again couple Ross and Rachel to be each other’s lobster on the sitcom Friends, an entire generation latched on to the misbelief that lobsters mate for life. Correcting that untruth is the first topic that female lobsterman Charlie Pinkham tackles when her best friend begs her to pinch-hit for her blog in Shannon Parker’s Love & Lobsters. Charlie doesn’t consider herself a talented writer or someone who excels at romance, but when her “decidedly unromantic” post goes viral, she’s encouraged to continue writing and leans on a subject she knows well: lobsters.
Charlie lives in the fictional small Maine town of Christmas Cove. Identical to the real Christmas Cove, in Bristol, only in its midcoast geography, the town has a village common, a single diner where regulars feel comfortable enough to cook their own meals on the grill, and Cove Light, a decommissioned sparkplug lighthouse that was once kept by several generations of Pinkham women but is now Charlie’s Airbnb. As the story opens, Logan arrives to rent the lighthouse for the month of December. Charlie takes one look at Logan’s wingtips and brand-new puffer jacket — not to mention his out-of-state license plates — and immediately doubts he’ll last a month of isolation at “the edge of the world.” It may not surprise the reader that Logan’s resilience ends up proving Charlie wrong, but the book’s plot line is anything but predictable as deeply real characters ground Charlie as her ideas about romantic love start to shift.
Whether it’s her Yankee pragmatism or the loss and grief she’s experienced, Charlie admits early on that she’s not sure she believes in happily-ever-afters. Yet as her grandmother begins a new romantic relationship and the holidays draw closer, Charlie wonders if the same fierce dedication she bestows on her friends, community, and industry could transfer to one person in the form of romantic love.
All the while, Charlie looks to lobsters for life advice, drawing parallels between defending her fishing area to protecting her heart, the molting process of lobsters to a human being’s ability to grow and change, and the chances of catching a 1-in-100-million cotton-candy lobster to the chances of finding true love. “At some point or another we all wrestle with the same question,” Parker says. “Do our hard shells protect us, or prevent us from finding a once-in-a-lifetime love?”
Parker wrote Charlie as a fourth-generation fisherman to showcase the perennial energy that helps Mainers adapt and move forward while respecting their roots. “The Maine way of life isn’t an accident,” she says. “It’s cultivated by the work people do to maintain it.”
Love & Lobsters has garnered favorable trade reviews, including Kirkus, which called the work “A heart-skipping small-town love story with tight pacing, captivating prose, and memorable characters.” Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops chose Love & Lobsters as a staff pick. Early love for the instantly iconic lobster heart featured on the book’s cover has inspired a line of Maine gifts and apparel for those looking to honor their 1-in-100-million love.
Parker’s cinematic seaside setting is the perfect Maine backdrop for the celebration of many facets of love — the fierce love best friends have for one another, the traditions and love that bind a community, romantic love found later in life, the love of land and sea, and a deep love for Maine, its people, and their inherent kindness. “I get goose bumps thinking about how lucky we are to live here,” Parker says. “My goal was to showcase the unique beauty and resilience of Maine and its people.”
