Review: The Beach House by Georgia Bockoven

The Beach House

by Georgia Bockoven

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 432

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  The beach house is a peaceful haven, a place to escape everyday problems. Here, three families find their feelings intensified and their lives transformed each summer.

When thirty-year-old Julia, mourning the death of her husband, decides to sell the Santa Cruz beach house they owned together, she sets in motion a final summer that will change the lives of all the families who rent it year after year. Teenaged Chris discovers the bittersweet joy of first love. Maggie and Joe, married sixty-five years, courageously face a separation that even their devotion cannot prevent. The married woman Peter yearns for suddenly comes within his reach. And Julia ultimately finds the strength to rebuild her life—something she once thought impossible.

With equal measures of heartbreak and happiness, bestselling author Georgia Bockoven's unforgettable novel tells of the beauty of life and the power of love, and speaks to every woman who has ever clung to a child or loved a man.

Kritters Thoughts:  A beach house where the owner rents out the home to the same families for the months of June, July and August and since this has been going on for years, the renters and the owners know each other and are all connected.  This summer is different as the owner - Julia has decided that she wants to sell at the end and this may be the last summer for all of the renters.

Each renter has a month to tell their story, their past, present and potential future.  I saw each renter as a short story within the bigger story.  They were fantastically connected by the neighbor and their contact with the author, they felt like pieces to a bigger puzzle.  There was not one renter that I didn't love and felt moved the story along.  The author didn't lose the owner when she wasn't physically staying at the beach house, her story was still moving and I loved how she worked her throughout the story.  

Beware - this is not the book to read in public, ugly tears may happen!  I was so connected to the characters so quickly, that I cared deeply about where they were headed after their month at the beach house was done.  A fantastic start to a series, can't wait to read the next two!

Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel 
    (reviewing it tomorrow!)

Ebook 2014 Challenge: 29 out of 100