After her mother's sudden death when Nora Cunningham was only 5 years old, her father moved them away from Burke's Island and all the memories of her mother. Decades later, Nora is now a mother of two daughters and wife to a famous politician who stepped out on their marriage with another woman. Wanting to get away from him, the media, and her life, Nora packs up the kids and takes them to Burke's Island to visit her Aunt Maire, her mother's sister.

Nora doesn't remember Aunt Maire that well as she hasn't seen her since she was five years old, but she is drawn to this woman to have some kind of connection to her past. With her father now passed away, there really is no one else to tell Nora the story of what really happened to her mother. Nora is heartbroken and her life is in shambles. Her husband might still be having an affair, her older daughter is acting up, and she is just miserable.

Thankfully, Burke's Island and its small community helps Nora start to mend her broken heart. With the arrival of a mysterious shipwrecked man named Owen, life starts to get a little more exciting for her. Will Nora find the answers to her past, rebuild her future and find love again at Burke's Island? Or will her past come back to haunt her and ruin her future?

THE COTTAGE AT GLASS BEACH is a novel about a family going through a separation, mixed with some folklore to make things interesting. The story starts off at a slow pace and it took me a while to connect with the characters due to a lack of characterization. At one point, I realized I had no idea how old Nora's children were since it wasn't said for quite a while. Nora's age was never given either, but I guessed around 40 years old due to her children's ages and the age of her aunt.

THE COTTAGE AT GLASS BEACH relies heavily on visualization of the beach which the children play at. The seven year old child talked in words way too big for her age and came off in narration more like an adult then a child. The mother seemed to resent her children; left them home alone, to wander alone, and just didn't seem to care about them as much as strangers on the Island did.

The folklore aspects were enjoyable and there were aspects that I found interesting. If the characters were at least described so I could picture them, it would have added so much more. Also Nora as the main character was extremely unlikeable, as was her meddling 12 year old. Overall, THE COTTAGE AT GLASS BEACH just didn't thrill me like I wished it would have.