'Summerlong' by Peter S. Beagle - 4 *

[Algernon (Darth Anyan)]

This book might be the exact opposite of the Christmas in July tag: it's about the arrival of summer days in the month of January.
The person responsible appears to be a young waitress at the local pub on Gardner Island, a ferry ride away from Seattle. She claims the improbable name of Lioness Lazos.
An elderly couple, Abe and Joanna, meet Lioness in the pub and invite her to live in their garage when they notice she is a runaway from a mysterious past.
Strange things happen around Lioness: flowers bloom, orcas respond to her calls, beer turns sweet in the barrel and the weather gets abnormally warm and sunny.
People start having weird dreams and impossible yearnings.
Could an old myth have been resurrected on this isolated island?
The lives of Abe and Joanna and of the young Lily are first enchanted and later shattered by the inclusion of the magical into the real.

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This is a fan rating, as I don't think this is the best story written by Beagle, but it was the only one I haven't read yet and I was yearning myself for the beautiful writing and for the kindness that informs all is characters.