53 pages • 1-hour read
Fragile Sanctuary
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Prologue-Chapter 10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, illness or death, and mental illness.
Prologue Summary
After her first boy-girl party, 13-year-old Rhodes rides home with her best friend, Fallon Colson, and Fallon’s mother, Nora. Rhodes tells Fallon about her first kiss with Felix Hernandez. At home, Rhodes talks with her mom about her crush on Felix and her worry that he doesn’t reciprocate it. Her younger sister, Emilia, overhears and demands details, sparking a minor argument. Rhodes goes to bed feeling guilty for being unkind to Emilia.
A smoke alarm wakes Rhodes in the middle of the night. Flames block her bedroom door, so she crawls onto her balcony to escape. A window explodes behind her, and the blast throws her to the ground, knocking her unconscious.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Rhodes”
Fourteen years later, 27-year-old Rhodes returns to Sparrow Falls, Oregon, to restore the remains of her family’s home. She reflects on the fire that killed her parents and sister, which authorities attributed to faulty wiring. She spent a month in the hospital, and Nora Colson took her in after her aunt refused guardianship. Nora arrives with her mother, Lolli, who hands over a handmade diamond art piece—an image composed of hundreds of tiny rhinestones—that depicts a penis. Rhodes feels guilty using her trust fund to fix the house, but Nora reassures her. Standing in the overgrown gardens, Rhodes strengthens her resolve to restore the home.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Anson”
Anson Hunt, a fire-restoration expert for Colson Construction, shops at the hardware store. His boss, Shepard “Shep” Colson, calls and asks him to meet at the burned Victorian. Shep invites him to dinner, but Anson declines, keeping his distance. As he drives, he pushes away a happy, childhood memory of his sister, Greta, reflecting on how happy memories are the most painful because they remind him of what he has lost.
Anson arrives at the property and studies the charred structure. He questions the owner’s choice of an expensive restoration over a rebuild but focuses on the logistics, feeling a sense of foreboding as he does so.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Rhodes”
At the guesthouse on her property, Rhodes hangs Lolli’s diamond art and texts with her foster siblings. She unpacks a few smoke-damaged books from her father, then feels a pull toward the main house. She crosses the grounds and steps into the burned shell.
The smell of smoke and the sight of the half-destroyed rooms overwhelm her. In the gutted library, she promises herself she will bring it back. She starts up the unstable main staircase to see her old bedroom. A man shouts a warning from below, startling her. A broken step gives way, and she pitches sideways through a damaged section of railing.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Anson”
Anson sees Rhodes on the stairs, yells for her to stop, and lunges to catch her as she falls. She accuses him of sneaking up on her. He tells her she is reckless for trespassing in a dangerous structure. She declares it is her house.
Shep arrives, formally introduces them, and scolds Rhodes for the risk before sending her outside. Anson urges Shep to ensure Rhodes locks her gates because the site is unsafe. While Shep checks on her, Anson resumes his assessment. Unsettled by the near accident, he thinks to himself that he knows what bad things can happen to women if they aren’t careful.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Rhodes”
Outside, Rhodes ignores an unwanted text from her ex-boyfriend, Davis. Shep checks on her and explains that Anson’s past can make him difficult. Fallon arrives and dares Rhodes to crack Anson’s grumpy shell.
Rhodes approaches Anson to invite him to dinner. He refuses her handshake, tells her he doesn’t want friendship, and warns her to stay away. Shocked and offended, Rhodes walks off.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Rhodes”
That evening, Rhodes has dinner at the Colson family farmhouse. Her foster brother, Trace, arrives with his six-year-old daughter, Keely. Trace, Shep, and their brother Kyler banter, and Kyler mentions Lolli’s “dick flower” art piece in front of Keely, causing confusion.
Nora and Lolli lament that Anson declined the dinner invitation. Lolli jokes that he’s too handsome to be alone, and Rhodes counters that his attitude makes him poor company. As the evening ends, Rhodes notes the warmth around her and remembers the pain she saw behind Anson’s cold stare.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Anson”
At his remote mountain cabin, Anson works on a crossword. Shep drops by with leftover lasagna and urges him to talk about his past. Anson refuses and steers the conversation back to the job.
After Shep leaves, Anson has a flashback to the night he found his sister, Greta, murdered by a serial killer. The killer targeted Anson, psychologically torturing him by killing his sister. He believes that the killer is still stalking him.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Rhodes”
The next day at Bloom & Berry Nursery, Rhodes’s boss, Duncan, offers her a promotion, which she declines. Anson arrives to pick up plants and speaks to her curtly. Later, Nancy from Wags & Whiskers Animal Rescue asks Rhodes to foster a dog that fears men, and Rhodes agrees.
Back at the cottage, the dog barks and lunges when Anson comes near. Anson kneels, uses treats and calm cues, and settles the dog. He admits he likes dogs more than people, then leaves. Rhodes brings the dog inside, then begins unloading plants for her garden as Davis pulls up uninvited.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Anson”
Anson notices Davis arrive and assesses him as controlling and angry. A coworker mentions that Davis and Rhodes recently broke up. Anson watches Davis invade Rhodes’s space and steps in, giving her a work-related excuse to break away.
Davis leaves angrily. Anson tells Rhodes he doesn’t like seeing men intimidate women, then retreats to the job. When Shep arrives, Anson flags Davis as a bruised ego and advises Shep to be cautious.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Rhodes”
One week later at the nursery, Rhodes helps a shy customer named Thea, who applies for a job and suggests Rhodes name her foster dog Biscuit. Rhodes takes the suggestion. When Thea asks for cash pay and offers no contact information, Rhodes wonders what the woman is hiding.
That evening at the guesthouse, she banters with crew members Silas Arnett, Owen, and Carlos. She finds a charred family photograph on her welcome mat. The sight triggers traumatic memories of the fire that killed her family. She has a severe panic attack and starts to lose consciousness.
Prologue-Chapter 10 Analysis
By opening with a prologue set 14 years prior, the novel immerses the reader in the inciting tragedy of Rhodes’s life, framing her adult identity through the lens of loss. The subsequent shift to an alternating first-person narrative—shifting between protagonists Rhodes Stirling and Anson Hunt—creates dramatic irony, as the reader is privy to the parallel internal struggles of both protagonists before they are. Their inner monologues reveal a shared foundation of grief and suggest that each protagonist’s character arc will be about Confronting the Traumas of the Past. While Rhodes’s trauma is the novel’s anchor, Anson’s nightmare about his sister’s murder reveals his own unprocessed grief, positioning their eventual connection as a convergence of two lives stalled by survivor’s guilt.
The Victorian house is the novel’s central symbol, an extended metaphor for Rhodes’s fractured psyche. The building’s state—half-destroyed, half-intact—is a direct analogue for Rhodes’s own condition, a life defined by memories of what was lost and the challenge of rebuilding from what remains. Her decision to restore the structure rather than demolish it illuminates her character arc; she seeks to integrate the trauma, to heal the damaged sections while honoring the foundation of her memories. The restoration project becomes a tangible metaphor for the psychological labor of her healing process. Anson’s introduction as a fire-restoration expert deepens this symbolism. His professional skills make him uniquely capable of navigating the literal wreckage of Rhodes’s past, foreshadowing the role he will play in helping her navigate its emotional equivalent. His initial, pragmatic assessment of the project as a costly endeavor contrasts with Rhodes’s deep emotional investment, highlighting the chasm between his detached avoidance and her direct confrontation with memory.
The narrative establishes the opposing emotional states of its protagonists through the motif of Color and its Absence. Rhodes is intrinsically linked to vibrancy and nature. Her work at a nursery and her plans to create an “explosion of color” (30) in her mother’s gardens situate her as a cultivator of beauty in the face of decay. She actively seeks the warmth and energy of the Colson family, embodying a determined resilience. Anson, conversely, inhabits a world of self-imposed grayness. His remote mountain cabin, avoidance of social gatherings, and gruff dialogue signify a life deliberately stripped of emotional color as a form of self-punishment and self-protection. His professional focus on the aftermath of fires—char, soot, and ash—aligns him with destruction. Their initial interactions crystallize this dynamic, with Rhodes’s attempts at friendliness breaking against Anson’s defenses. This contrast establishes the central tension of their relationship, foreshadowing a journey where her vitality will challenge his darkness.
Against the backdrop of individual trauma, the novel champions the theme of Finding Sanctuary in Chosen Family. The Colson family, a self-described “patchwork family” (16), functions as the primary vehicle for this idea, representing a community forged by choice and acceptance rather than by blood. Nora Colson acts as the architect of this sanctuary, a matriarch who creates a haven for those who, like Rhodes, have been failed by traditional family structures. The loud, supportive chaos of the Colson farmhouse stands in direct opposition to the isolating silence of both Rhodes’s and Anson’s grief. While Rhodes’s healing has been nurtured by her immersion in this environment, Anson’s persistent refusal of dinner invitations externalizes his resistance to connection. The handmade art piece from Lolli serves as a humorous symbol of the family’s ethos; its irreverence represents a form of love that offers laughter as an antidote to sorrow.
While building its central romance, the narrative simultaneously lays the groundwork for its suspense plot, cultivating an atmosphere of dread that underscores the theme of The Deceptive Nature of Appearances. The fire described in the prologue establishes an atmosphere of danger, and Rhode’s return to the scene of this tragedy foreshadows a confrontation with whatever malevolent force was behind the fire. The small-town setting of Sparrow Falls is populated with potential threats and red herrings. Davis’s possessiveness, Silas Arnett’s flirtations, Owen’s temper, and Thea’s request for cash pay and refusal to offer contact information create a sense of unease, suggesting that danger is a hidden element within the seemingly safe community. The placement of the charred family photograph on Rhodes’s welcome mat shatters the illusion of safety. This act is a deliberate psychological attack, transforming the symbol of her past from a private memory into a public threat. Anson’s background as a former profiler provides him with a unique lens through which to view these events. His immediate analysis of Davis and his concern over the property’s lack of security establish his narrative function as a protector, capable of perceiving the darkness that hides behind a familiar face.
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