Review: The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry

The Bookshop at Water's End

by Patti Callahan Henry

Publisher: Berkley

Pages: 352

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  The women who spent their childhood summers in a small southern town discover it harbors secrets as lush as the marshes that surround it...

Bonny Blankenship's most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Amid the sand dunes and oak trees draped with Spanish moss, they swam and wished for happy-ever-afters, then escaped to the local bookshop to read and whisper in the glorious cool silence. Until the night that changed everything, the night that Lainey's mother disappeared.

Now, in her early fifties, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor, and her marriage crumbles around her. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. During lazy summer days and magical nights, they reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long ago loves return like the tide.

Kritters Thoughts:  Bonny Blankenship has a something major happen at work and it throws her life for a spin, so she decides to go back to the place where she felt the most at peace and at home - a summer beach house that her and her brother still own after their parents have passed away.  Bonny thinks that escaping here for a moment can help her find a new north and send her down a better path in life.  Her best friend will meet her there, but her best friend has some negative memories but maybe returning can help her find peace.  

I absolutely adored this story.  I loved Bonny and Lainey and their friendship felt so real and true and I loved seeing small glimpses into their first few summers together and then the full story of their adult relationship.  I also adored the small town it was such a great setting for both of them to go to to regroup and you could see that pushing the pause button in the small town was easy.  

I am embarrassed to admit that I own quite a few Patti Callahan Henry and all of them sound like they will be great reads, but this was actually my first book of hers that I completed.  I loved her writing, characters and setting, so I will be picking up her others one very soon!  

Have any of you read any of her books?  What should I read next?


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Berkley NAL.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.