THE GUEST HOUSE by Erika Marks is an awesome story of love,
forgiveness, and letting go of the past. Lexi Wright
returns home to
Harrisport after being away for two years studying. She is
an architectural
photographer who is hired to photograph the Moss summer
home. She
receives a phone call one day from Cooper Moss. He is the
younger
brother of Hudson Moss. Hud broke Lexi's heart eleven years
ago and
even though she thinks she is over all of that she is
worried about what is
going to happen going back to at house.
Lexi's mom, Edith, also had her heart broken by a Moss.
Cooper's father,
Tucker, in 1966. This starts a war between the two families
that lasts for
decades. Tucker is a summer kid, a "wash ashore" and Edith
is a local.
She knows better than to fall for him, but can't help
herself. He pursues her
hard and wont take no for an answer. They met while Edie
was working
on the construction crew building the Moss guest house.
They fall hard for
each other, but Tucker fails to tell her that his father has
already picked a
wife for him. His friend Jim finally fills Edie in and she
confronts Tuck. He
swears he is finally going to tell his father he wants to be
with Edie and
doesn't want to be a lawyer like his dad. Well, that never
happens.
While Lexi is photographing the house, feelings for Cooper
start to surface.
Eleven years ago, he was the one to drive her home after
Hudson
destroyed her heart. They shared a kiss that night and
neither one of them
has forgotten it. Both of them wonder if the other ever
thinks about that
night but neither one of them brings it up for fear of being
the only one that
remembers. Try as she might, Lexi can't stop herself from
comparing
Cooper to Hudson. Now the problems start and the past comes
between
them. Lexi and Cooper both learn that the past as they know
it, isn't
exactly what happened all those years ago between Edith and
Tucker.
THE GUEST HOUSE is filled with secrets and heart break. I
couldn't stop
turning the pages once I started. I was quickly caught up
in all the
characters lives and wanted to drive to the Cape for all the
awesome food
Erika talked about. THE GUEST HOUSE goes back and forth
between
present time and 1966 but it is very easy to follow and a
delight to read.
Fall in love with Harrisport and all its characters. Once
you start it, you
won't be able to stop.
For generations, the natives of Harrisport have watched wealthy summer families descend on their Cape Cod town, inhabiting the massive cottages along the town’s best stretches of beachfront. But when rich Southerner Tucker Moss breaks the heart of local girl Edie Wright in the summer of 1966, an enduring war starts between the two families that lasts for generations.... Edie’s youngest child, Lexi, should know better than to fall in love with a Moss, but at eighteen, she falls hard for Tucker’s son, Hudson—only to find herself jilted when Hudson breaks off their engagement. Eleven years later, Lexi returns home after two years away studying architectural photography, just in time for yet another summer on the Cape. When Hudson’s younger brother, Cooper, arrives unexpectedly to sell the seaside estate after the death of his father and hires Lexi to photograph it, an unlikely attraction forms, and Lexi finds herself torn once again between passion and family loyalty. Then renovations at the Moss guest house reveal a forty-six-year-old declaration of love carved into a piece of framing—and a startling truth that will force two women and the men who love them to confront the treacherous waters of their pasts.