Summary:
Luanne Rice is a rarity among novelists today; she’s a true storyteller. Her unique ability to weave together the bonds of love and family with the challenges and rewards of everyday life has garnered her eight consecutive top-ten New York Times bestselling paperbacks. With Beach Girls , Luanne Rice returns to the place that she was born to write about—the Connecticut shore—to tell a story about a family of women whose lives encompass three generations, their histories intertwined with that of the mystic coastal town that has forever bound them to one another. Beach Girls explores the complex and contradictory territories of love, family and friendship. Luanne Rice’s sensuous prose and unforgettably rich and textured characters guide us toward a truth that lies within and sometimes beyond our dreams—an enduring strength that we all must embrace to find our way home and into the hearts of those we cherish most. Beach Girls is an enthralling novel of haunting beauty that will resonate long after the final page is turned.
My take: 3 looks
I read this book solely for a Summer Reading Challenge from my very fantastic online Bibliophile group, where I had to meet the criteria of “Read a book that has a summer theme in the title”. I am notoriously short on imagination, so I went for the obvious.
This is a series, evidently, with Beach Girls being the fifth, I think. It was a nice stand-alone story, though, with no trouble at all in not reading the others in the series. I am under the impression that the common thread throughout the series is the location and not the characters, which is an intriguing basis for a series and makes for easing reading out of order.
Story of a widower and his daughter in the aftermath of a horrible car accident, the story is familiar and predictable, but still good storytelling. Throw in the Connecticut coast, a dilapidated castle, a hermit rumored to be a witch and two celebrated artists and you have yourself a nice summer novel!
I was fairly uninvested in this one, but not because it was not a good book. I was uninvested because I had already read my “palate cleanser” book of late in the Melody Carlson book Christmas at Harrington’s and I was not yet in need of another. I would recommend this one, but only if you need a light and predictable read to cleanse you from a book you can’t get off your mind.
