Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Goodreads: 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.
Kritters Thoughts: Two sets of lifelong friends and their daughters take center stage in this book. Jess and her daughter Caitlin and Allison and her daughter Julia all end up in Cape Cod for a summer and each have something going on that hopefully can be solved by the end of summer. Jess has recently discovered her husband's infidelity and needs a physical break from Charleston, SC, while her daughter Caitlin recently lost her job and isn't sure what is next for herself. Allison is also dealing with a dwindling career and may need to take a hard pivot to something new instead of the magazine that she has worked at for a long time. And Julia has been building her own jewelry business on Cape Cod and just needs something to make a splash in order to ensure that her basic bills can get paid and her long-term boyfriend Kyle is ready for marriage and she may not be so ready.
With all these things going on, it took a moment to make sure I had everyone and their sub characters straight. I loved the dynamic of both personal and professional drama and while I tend to avoid books with cheating spouses, thankfully I was warned that this was a minor moment in the book and that there was way more plot to enjoy. The one thing that kept me from making this a five star read was the pacing towards the middle of the book, it seemed to slow down for me and at that moment I kind of knew where we would end up and was ready for the author to get there.
My first Pamela Kelley book and will for sure not be my last read. I will share that the summer vibe of this book was perfect to throw in my beach bag on our family summer vacation.
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