To all my gals (and guys, if you are in to Chick Lit) who live in the land of third winter and have experienced the brief hint of what is t
[image]
To all my gals (and guys, if you are in to Chick Lit) who live in the land of third winter and have experienced the brief hint of what is to come as far as weather goes and now anxiously await summertime – boy do I have a book recommendation for you.
The story here is told from Julia’s perspective right after she has succumbed to a brief battle with cancer. Her husband has fled the expected seven day Shiva to hide out at their beach house on Fire Island. It is there Julia gets the opportunity to spend one final Summer as an observer before officially passing to the other side. Not only will she watch over Ben and their neighbor Shep as they navigate their way through the grieving process as recent widowers, but she’ll witness her best pal Renee heal her own broken heart after being cheated on by her husband and have a little summertime fling, see Matty and Dyl attempt (and fail) to procure a condom in order to officially come of age before Dylan heads off to college, and see if Bay Harbor can finally beat Oceanview in the end of season baseball game now that Renee’s ex isn’t eligible to play and be the strikeout king.
This one is perfect for fans of Kristin Higgans. A beachy read with tons of feels that most definitely won’t leave many a dry-eye in the house upon wrapping up the final pages. It felt like a warm hug and made me eager for those first days of sitting out on the deck with the sun kissing your shoulders. Every Star.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review....more
But since I’m a fool as soon as the temperatures went from 30 below to 60 above my TBR got chucked right out the window so I could take a trip to my Summer home . . .
Okay, my IMAGINARY Summer home. But seriously, though, you give me a hint of Spring and I am all about Elin Hilderbrand and Kristan Higgans who are my go-to gals for some beachy good times. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this and just took a gander at the blurb now that I’m finished to see exactly what I should/should not be spoiling. I’ll keep the details to myself, but just be forewarned it’s not quite as breezy as the lighthearted synopsis might have you believe and if you are a crier, you best get your Kleenex ready because there’s more to this fake dating trope than meets the eye.
I didn’t realize there would be more than one narrator so that sort of threw me for a loop and it took me a little while to enjoy Lark’s mother. The landlady, though? Oh I want to be her when I grow up. Maybe this wasn’t my favorite Higgans’ story (because I was expecting something much lighter), but she’s still an auto read for me so I’ll happily round up my 3.5 Stars.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ...more
Let’s be transparent here - I 100% requested this book from the library simply because I love that bird flip on the front (you’re lucky I loved this sLet’s be transparent here - I 100% requested this book from the library simply because I love that bird flip on the front (you’re lucky I loved this so much, cover artists, because shouldn't it have been a “V” since this took place in London????).
Even though Grace was a Read With Jenna pick I have not seen it making the rounds much on either The ‘Gram or Goodreads so I was able to go in completely blind.
Pretty much right from the start I thought this was the female equivalent of . . . .
(With maybe a little Where’d Ya Go, Bernadette? thrown in for good measure.)
And upon finishing I discovered that film was this book’s inspiration. I’ll be honest and say the all over the place timeline was a hindrance for me at the start and the not knowing what had happened between Grace and her daughter was aggravating until I settled in. That being said, it was miserable and rainy here so I read this in one day. Had I stopped and restarted my rating may have suffered while I tried to reboot my brain and get back in the rhythm of things.
Buuuuuuut that didn’t happen and as a woman of a certain age who always feels like she might be on the cusp of a quality Menty B I found a new best friend in Grace.