Autumn Divic's husband, Rick, had been missing for 18 months when that summer began. He'd left the house one morning on a business trip and had never returned and never heard from since, leaving behind in Tampa a desperate and grieving wife and two teenage children: a son, Caden, and a daughter, Taylor. Speculation was rife that he'd left Autumn for another woman. Still, she'd never had any indications that he was unhappy or unfaithful, and he'd left all his considerable financial assets behind and untouched. Hired private investigators uncovered that he was working on a secret job for the FBI and last seen in Ukraine, where his trail just disappeared. Even the FBI was unable to determine his ultimate whereabouts or his fate.
With school out for the year, Autumn takes the children, as she and Rick had done many times in years past when life was still normal, to spend the summer with her mother in her childhood home in Sable Beach. She hopes this return to a familiar pattern and place will help the three of them leave some of their grief behind and get on with living, relegating Rick's memory to the past.
Autumn's mother, Mary, eagerly awaits their return, welcoming them back with open arms. She owns and operates the local bookstore with her sister, Laurie, and Autumn always joins them during her summers home working there. Autumn is her only child, and she, too, hopes that this visit will be a big step toward healing the pain of her loss. But Mary has her own problems, and a secret she's kept from Autumn her entire life is threatening to bubble up into the open.
Taylor and Caden are also looking forward to the summer in Sable Beach. For Caden, it's the sun and sand and new friends that he hopes will chase away the dark clouds for a while. But Taylor, in addition to the devastation she feels over her missing father, harbors a secret dread. Grieving his disappearance and the perceived betrayal of his memory by her younger brother trying to move on with his life, she had had a drunken and reckless lapse in judgment at an end-of-the-school-year party back in Tampa. Now she was discovering there may be life-long consequences for her actions that night.
Brenda Novak's THE BOOKSTORE ON THE BEACH is told from the viewpoints of three different women from the same family. Each one faces huge personal challenges, any one of which would make for an awesome book on their own. However, here they all are, skillfully woven together to create an absorbing and intricate tale of family, resilience, forgiveness, and growth. Even with three different points of view, I was easily and immediately drawn into this story. I could relate to these women's emotions, which urged me to keep reading to find out how everything was going to work out. Thinking about all the things that happened in this story, I feel like I've just finished the largest and best meal I've ever had and am now completely and totally satiated.
Because I could identify with all three of the main characters at different points in the book, THE BOOKSTORE ON THE BEACH was an immersive reading experience for me, and I enjoyed it from start to finish. There was love, loss, desperation, laughter, and ultimately, satisfying resolution. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy family dramas, romance, suspense, or even a coming-of-age story.
How do you start a new chapter of your life when you haven’t closed the book on the previous one?
Eighteen months ago, Autumn Divac’s husband went missing. Her desperate search has yielded no answers, and she can’t imagine moving forward without him. But for the sake of their two teenage children, she has to try.
Autumn takes her kids home for the summer to the charming beachside town where she was raised. She seeks comfort working alongside her mother and aunt at their bookshop, only to learn that her daughter is facing a huge life change and her mother has been hiding a terrible secret for years. And when she runs into the boy who stole her heart in high school, old feelings start to bubble up again. Is she free to love him, or should she hold out hope for her husband’s return? She can only trust her heart…and hope it won’t lead her astray.
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