Reviews of what you should be reading next.

Tag: summer

THE SHORE by Katie Runde

Set over the course of one summer, this perfect beach read follows a mother and her two daughters as they grapple with heartbreak, young love, and the weight of family secrets.

Brian and Margot Dunne live year-round in Seaside, just steps away from the bustling boardwalk, with their daughters Liz and Evy. The Dunnes run a real estate company, making their living by quickly turning over rental houses for tourists. But the family’s future becomes even more precarious when Brian develops a brain tumor, transforming into a bizarre, erratic version of himself. Amidst the chaos and new caretaking responsibilities, Liz still seeks out summer adventure and flirting with a guy she should know better than to pursue. Her younger sister Evy works in a candy shop, falls in love with her friend Olivia, and secretly adopts the persona of a middle-aged mom in an online support group, where she discovers her own mother’s most vulnerable confessions. Meanwhile, Margot faces an impossible choice driven by grief, impulse, and the ways that small-town life in Seaside has shaped her. Falling apart is not an option, but she can always pack up and leave the beach behind.

The Shore is a powerful, heartbreaking, and uplifting novel infused with humor about young women finding sisterhood, friendship, and love in a time of crisis. This big-hearted family saga examines the grit and hustle of running a small business in a tourist town, the ways we connect with strangers when our families can’t give us everything we need, and the comfort to be found in embracing the pleasures of youth while coping with unimaginable loss.

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for this review copy!

The Shore is a book where the location makes perfect sense. There is something about salty air and the sound of the sea that makes the summer perfect. Anyone from New Jersey will totally understand this; others will be able to picture the setting easily as they race through this enthralling book.

Nearly all of the characters are sympathetic; Margot (the mother) seemed a little annoying to me as she constantly avoided having serious, adult conversations with her daughters. Both seemed mature enough to talk to, especially as they dealt with the burden of their father’s illness. Looking back, it seems as if all three of them came of age as the book progressed, although it took a long time for Margot to grow mentally and emotionally.

Summertime is always an opportunity to experiment with yourself as the warm air encourages growth before the serious autumn comes along. Evy and Liz look inward as their father’s illness progresses and makes him a burden to his family. Their realization of who they are and who they want to be is beautifully described as the days go by. Liz’s relationship with Gabe was especially poignant; first love can either be a wonderful memory or a painful experience. I was also happy to see Evy and Olivia explore their feelings for each other; the author managed to describe their relationship with just the right balance of detail without bogging it down with forced intimacy.

As I read, I wondered how I would react if I were in Margot’s shoes, or even her daughter’s. Losing the patriarch of a family is a weighty situation, and each of the characters’ reactions showed some of the ways to manage such an issue.  THE SHORE is at once enthralling and sad, as the themes of loss and growth are explored in such a way that makes the reader think as well as feel. Despite the serious theme, the book is easy to read, and you will become invested in the characters right away.  No matter where you are when you read this, you will be able to smell the air and hear the crashing of the waves on the beach. The author’s excellent description of boardwalk activities and tourists brings this book to life. It may be meta to bring this to the shore with you, but I urge you to read this – it’s the perfect beachy read!

You can pick up your copy here.

One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski

One sultry summer in the 1980s, a teenage girl arrived in the wealthy vacation town of Opal Beach to start her life anew—to achieve her destiny. But before the summer was up, she vanished.
Decades later, when Allison Simpson is offered the opportunity to house-sit in Opal Beach, it seems like the perfect chance to regroup and start fresh after a messy divorce. It’s the off-season, after all, which means peace and quiet, and more importantly for Allison, safety.
But when Allison becomes drawn into the story of a girl who disappeared from town thirty years before, she begins to realize that Opal Beach isn’t as idyllic as it seems. Beyond the walls of the gorgeous homes hide dark secrets. And as Allison digs deeper into the mystery, she uncovers not only the shocking truth, but finds herself caught in the middle of a twisted plot.

Part electric coming-of-age story and part breathtaking mystery, One Night Gone is an atmospheric, suspenseful novel about power, privilege, and ultimately, sisterhood.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

This dark story takes place in Opal Beach, a Jersey Shore-like town with authentic details such as the Boardwalk, carnivals, and winter residents (who hate the summer with a passion). These residents are insular and secretive with good reason – a girl went missing years ago and no one knows what happened to her.

When Allison, a disgraced meteorologist, scores a house-sitting job in Opal Beach she discovers just how insular the townfolk can be. The story is told from various points of view, with the main story being that of Allison and her demons. Maureen, the vanished girl, has demons of her own but has a youthful optimism that makes her more appealing than Allison. I was instantly on Maureen’s side and was hoping for a good outcome for her. Allison had her moments, but it seemed that she was slow to make a move due to past events. I understand how she was written, but I wanted her to have a little more backbone. Perhaps she was outshone by the brightness and promise of Maureen. I absolutely loved, loved, loved that Maureen considered herself a mermaid, with her tail flapping at times when she was most confident. It’s too bad that some of that confidence didn’t rub off on Allison.

Allison is befriended by a few friendly residents of Opal Beach and shunned by others. As the plotlines converge and we see characters commit actions in their youth, the reader will find out that what happens in the 80’s does not stay there. The author is skilled at creating the carefree attitude of summer down the shore, both in her character description and the environment. Laskowski is adept at setting a mood with weather; I wondered if that was a subtle nod to Allison. Maureen’s weather is mostly warm, sunny, and full of promise, while Allison’s is bleak and cold. There has been quite a lot of books written with converging multiple points of view, and I may be growing weary of that. However, the author managed to keep my interest going until the plot twists captured my attention – then I didn’t put the book down until it was finished.

The themes of sisterhood and betrayal illuminate just how brutal it can be when women turn on each other. Women grab onto their anger and never let go until the death, either literally or figuratively. ONE NIGHT GONE places the reader firmly in the middle of this anger and doesn’t let go.

Want your own copy? You can pick it up here.

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