Women have often found strength and encouragement from each other and their own inner strength of resolve. Seeking escape from marital issues with her husband Parker, Jessica Coleman decides to take a break in Chatham, Massachusetts. Inviting her college-aged daughter along, they soon settle into the relaxed lifestyle of the Cape and their long-time friends there.
Hearing that the bookstore she liked to frequent there, Jessica makes an impromptu decision. She buys the store, along with a related coffee shop that her daughter soon finds great pleasure in revamping. Could they really make a success in running them? But, what will happen when they leave to go back home to South Carolina?
THE BOOKSTORE BY THE BAY by renowned author Pamela Kelley is a delightful and captivating mother/daughter/friend story that shows what can happen when one deals with what life throws at them. This character-driven novel focuses on the lives of two good friends, Jessica Coleman and Alison Page, and their adult daughters. These long-time friends know how to read each other like well-loved and read books
I really enjoyed how Kelley shows how the women support each other in dealing with what life throws at them, rather than wallowing in pity parties. This is a delightful, thoughtful beach read that can be read any time of the year!
So, get your copy of THE BOOKSTORE BY THE BAY and have a great summer read, no matter the weather outside!
The Bookshop by the Bay is a breezy, escapist beach read from powerhouse bestselling women’s fiction author Pamela Kelley.
Two lifelong friends. One bookshop by the beach. And the summer that could change everything.
Jess loves her work as a high-profile lawyer in the respectable and austere city of Charleston. But when she finds her husband, Parker, has been cheating on her with his assistant, she retreats, with her thirty year-old daughter Caitlin for support, to her childhood home on Cape Cod, in Chatham. Caitlin has always been bright but directionless, looking for her passion but keeps coming up blank. And Jess needs to regroup with the help of good food and wine, the company of her best friend, Allison, and come up with a plan for the future.
Allison’s career has hit a low. After twenty years as an editor for the Chatham magazine, circulation is dwindling and though her boss and long-time friend, Jim, does everything to keep her, she has no choice but to take a step back. With a career on hiatus and her main relationship being with Chris, her ex-husband who is still a good friend, Allison is at a pivotal point in life. Her daughter Julia opened her own artisanal jewelry shop a year prior, and she has the kind of day-to-day fulfillment Allison yearns for.
When Allison stops into her beloved local bookstore one day and learns that the owner wants to sell, a long-held dream turns into a reality, thanks to Jess. Allison and Jess set a plan in motion and what was once a place that held warm childhood memories is now theirs to run. As the two friends, along with the help of their daughters, reopen the doors of the cherished bookstore and adjacent coffee shop to the community, they also open themselves up to the possibility of romance, the bonds of mothers and daughters, and the magic of second chances.