Review: Beach House for Rent by Mary Alice Monroe (Beach House, #4)

Genre:
Women’s Fiction, Romance

Format:
E-ARC

Publisher:
Gallery Books

Release Date:
June 20,. 2017








Synopsis from Goodreads:

New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe returns to her beloved Isle of Palms to tell the poignant, charming story of two women, one summer, and one very special beach house.

When Cara Rutledge rents out her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Wyatt for the entire summer, it’s a win-win by any standard: Cara’s generating income necessary to keep husband Brett’s ecotourism boat business afloat, and anxiety-prone Heather, an young artist who’s been given a commission to paint birds on postage stamps, has a quiet space in which to work and tend to her pet canaries uninterrupted.

It isn’t long, however, before both women’s idyllic summers are altered irrevocably: the alluring shorebirds—and the man who rescues them—begin to draw Heather out of the shell she’s cultivated toward a world of adventure, and maybe even love; at the same time, Cara’s life reels with sudden tragedy, and she wishes only to return to the beach house that had once been her port amidst life’s storms. When Heather refuses to budge from her newfound sanctuary, so begins the unlikeliest of rooming situations. While they start out as strangers, as everything around the women falls apart they learn that the only thing they can really rely on is each other.

And, like the migrating shorebirds that come to the island for the summer, these two women of different generations must rediscover their unique strengths so by summer’s end they, too, can take flight in ways they never imagined possible.

My Review

Heather Wyatt’s life is turned upside down when her father rents her a beach house for the summer so he can spend time alone with his new wife. This is all new to Heather who suffers from anxiety attacks when she’s out of her normal environment. However, it’s the perfect place for her to paint birds for her postage stamp commission that she has been hired to do. So, Heather reluctantly agrees with her father’s plan.

Cara Rutledge is happy to have rented her beach house for the summer as she can use the money. However, tragedy strikes and she desperately wants her house back. She has no intention of waiting for the summer to end. She wants and needs it now. Heather, who has fallen in love with the house, has no plans to leave until the agreed upon time.

This is the fourth book in Mary Alice Monroe’s Beach House series. It’s the first one that I read and I didn’t feel as if I missed a thing. I do want to go back and read the first three books. I’m truly interested in learning the back story of the beach house and its occupants. The book doesn’t leave you hanging. It all wraps up nicely in the end.

The storyline is poignant and touching. The characters aren’t perfect. They are realistic. They are people you can truly care about.

I’ve never read a book by Mary Alice Monroe before, but this definitely will not be my last. I enjoyed her writing style, characters and story. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.