Good evening, I thought I would share a book from Brenda Novak The Seaside Library: A summer beach read. I received in exchange for this review.
Being someone who loves to read I’ve seen a lot of books by Brenda Novak but I don’t think I’ve read any of her novels until I received the Seaside Library which made me very happy because I was able to check out a new Author and her style of writing which I enjoy doing. Are you this way as well? Have you read any of Brenda Novak novels?
THE SEASIDE LIBRARY by Brenda Novak is a women’s fiction/mystery/suspense mash-up with romantic elements.
Three friends, Ivy, Ariana, and Cam are inseparable on Mariners Island even though their family circumstances are very different as they grow up. During the summer of their sixteenth year, a young girl goes missing and the police are focusing on Cam. Ivy and Ariana swear to protect him even though they must lie to the police.
Twenty years later, the case is still unsolved, but a walker and her dog uncover the girl’s body. Ariana has returned to the island for the summer, Ivy runs her family’s library and Cam has become a restoration architect, but the rumors and accusations against him still abound. Over the summer, the friends are determined to find out what happened that night. Will it fracture their friendship or bring them even closer together?
The three friends are well developed and realistically drawn. The cold case murder mystery/suspense kept me turning the pages with unexpected revelations. There is a balance between trust and suspicion between the friends throughout the story with a budding romance that I feel was handled believably. All the plotlines are pulled together in the end and left me satisfied.
The setting of Mariners Island is well-crafted, and the descriptions of the town and surrounding area are vivid and engaging. The exploration of the three friends’ past and the traumatic events that shaped them is also intriguing and provides some depth to the characters.
THE SEASIDE LIBRARY is a standalone
I loved this book! It had me captivated from the beginning. The story of three friends finding their friendship again with the possibility of romance between two. At times I did feel bad about the odd person out and wondered if she would ever find love herself. There were two people that I had in mind as the killer, and Brenda Novak kept us hanging on until the end to find out the truth.
About the book:
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookstore on the Beach There are secrets that bring friends together, and others that drive them apart…
Mariners Island is barely ten miles long, but when Ivy, Ariana and Cam were teenagers, it was their whole world. Beyond the pristine beaches and iconic lighthouse lies the beautiful old library that belongs to Ivy’s family. While that bound Ivy to the island as an adult, Ariana could not leave Mariners behind fast enough. The town holds too many…memories. Not only her unrequited feelings for Cam, but the tragedy that left a scar on the community.
When a young girl went missing, a teenage Cam was unthinkably the prime suspect. Ariana and Ivy knew he couldn’t have hurt anyone, and they promised to protect him—even if it meant lying on his behalf.
Now, twenty years later, Ariana returns to Mariners just as new evidence emerges on the case, calling into question everything the three friends thought they knew—and everyone they thought they could trust. What really happened that night? Over the course of one eventful summer, Ariana, Ivy and Cam will learn the truth—about their pasts, their futures and the ties that still bind them as closely as the pages of a book…
Don’t miss these other great summer beach reads from Brenda Novak
About the Author
Join Brenda at one of 32 stops when she goes on a two-month traveling bookstore (Airstream) tour across the United States—from Sacramento to Connecticut—in April and May of 2023 to celebrate the release of THE SUMMER ON THE ISLAND, which comes out April 11th. For more information, go the events page of my website or sign up on my mailing list.
It was a shocking experience that jump-started Brenda Novak’s career as a bestselling author–she caught her day-care provider drugging her children with cough syrup to get them to sleep all day. That was when Brenda decided she needed to quit her job as a loan officer and help make a living from home.
“When I first got the idea to become a novelist, it took me five years to teach myself the craft and finish my first book,” Brenda says. But she sold that book, and the rest is history. Her novels have made the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists and won many awards, including eight Rita nominations, the Book Buyer’s Best, the Book Seller’s Best, the Silver Bullet and the National Reader’s Choice Award.
Brenda and her husband, Ted, live in Sacramento and are proud parents of five children–three girls and two boys. When she’s not spending time with her family or writing, Brenda is usually playing pickleball or raising funds for diabetes research (her youngest son has this disease). So far, Brenda has raised $2.6 million!
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
