May 12, 2021 | No Comments
The Bookstore On the Beach
by Brenda Novak
Date Published: April 6, 2021
Published By: MIRA
Page Count: 448
Publisher’s Description:
“A page-turner with a deep heart.”—Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of Girls of Summer
How do you start a new chapter of your life when you haven’t closed the book on the previous one?
Eighteen months ago, Autumn Divac’s husband went missing. Her desperate search has yielded no answers, and she can’t imagine moving forward without him. But for the sake of their two teenage children, she has to try.
Autumn takes her kids home for the summer to the charming beachside town where she was raised. She seeks comfort working alongside her mother and aunt at their bookshop, only to learn that her daughter is facing a huge life change and her mother has been hiding a terrible secret for years. And when she runs into the boy who stole her heart in high school, old feelings start to bubble up again. Is she free to love him, or should she hold out hope for her husband’s return? She can only trust her heart…and hope it won’t lead her astray.
“A heart-tugging romance. Readers are sure to be sucked in.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
My Star Rating:
My Review:
The Bookstore on the Beach by Brenda Novak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
You know those books where there’s lots of characters that are connected in one way or another, and they all have their own storylines going on, both separately and together, and you get to follow along with each of them? This, my friends, is one of those awesome kinds of stories, and each character’s storyline is as juicy and intriguing as the last.
I have to admit, out of the gate reading this story, I wondered if it was going to live up to my expectations after having favorited One Perfect Summer last year. I don’t know why I was worried because it very quickly got interesting, with the biggest overall theme being that Autumn’s husband, Nick, had been missing for over a year and a half, and none of them knew where he was, if he was alive or dead, or if he would ever return.
We get to follow Autumn, her two teen children, her mother, and even an old flame of Autumn’s who she runs into when they visit Autumn’s mother during the summer. Everyone has issues, and even just calling them “issues” is such an understatement. Everyone’s issues are kind of epic. There was A LOT packed into this book. From private investigators, to kidnap victim/survivors, to kids with seriously legit daddy issues (hello, the man disappeared and they had no semblance of closure!!), to friends with possibly abusive parents, and best of all, the undeniable attraction between Autumn and Quinn, her old flame who’s so impossibly in love with Autumn who is so impossibly emotionally unavailable it’s not even funny. And even Quinn has his own issues he’s dealing with.
This book was awesome. Great women’s fiction. Brenda Novak will be an auto-buy for me in the future. I hope to see more like this, with so many characters to just fall in love with.