Irene Drago’s wonderful new novel is all about Maine

I loved Irene Drago’s first novel, and have been looking forward to her new book, The Maine Point, published by Maine Authors Publishing. It’s really good.

There is a lot of things I like about Irene’s novels, including that they are set in real Maine places, many of which I have spent time in. For example, in an early chapter a couple spends a night in the Press Hotel in Portland. Linda and I enjoyed a travel column visit there which included a fantastic dinner and breakfast.

Some of this story is set in Bath, another place Linda and I enjoyed and wrote many travel columns about. We loved the Inn at Bath and the restaurant Solo Bistro. And in an early chapter, a man tells another person that his mother was from Lubec. Well, so was my mother!

Irene’s characters and stories are also very real, and sometimes you may feel that you are in the story. In The Maine Point, the stories go back and forth between the late 1930s and 2018 to 2020. And some of the characters in the later story are descendents of those in the early story.

Both stories will keep you reading, and I must say, because we are stuck in our home due to the corona virus, Irene’s book really improved the three days I spent reading it.

You may want to read Irene’s book, Daughters of Long Reach first, because The Maine Point is a sequel to that novel.

Irene grew up in a Navy family, and actually once worked for the Defense Department as a Russian analyst. Eventually she and her husband moved to Bath, where she won the Spirit of Bath award. Irene and her husband spend a lot of time boating around Casco Bay with their kids and grandkids.

Check out Irene’s website: www.irenemdrago.com.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.