Shelley Noble

On the surface, Forever Beach appears to be a typical, breezy summer read. And, that’s just what it starts off to be. However, once you get into the meat of the story, you realize there’s so much more here.

Forever Beach is a relatively simple story at its core. A single woman, Sarah Hargreave, is fighting a never-ending battle to adopt her foster daughter, Leila, whose birth mother can’t seem to tackle her struggles with addiction and poor choices in partners. That’s it. Simple, show more right? Not so much…
For starters, we discover that Sarah herself is a product of the foster care system, and thus carries many scars. Perhaps most difficult of all was her abandonment by her best friend in the foster system, her ‘sister,’ Nonie, who was adopted by a rich couple and never heard from again. Sarah’s goal is to prevent Leila from acquiring some of those same scars, but when Nonie suddenly comes back into the picture, the question remains whether she truly is a friend or foe.

There is a lot to be learned in these pages. Having been fortunate enough to grow up as part of a loving, intact family, I don’t have much knowledge of the adoption process, nor am I familiar with the pain and uncertainty of growing up as a foster child. Like me, your familiarity with those subjects may extend only as far as a recent television show, or a short newspaper article. But, this book delves deeper, and leaves you feeling like you’re the one riding that dramatic see-saw.

Parts of the book were downright disturbing. (I dare you to get through Chapter 28 unscathed). But, that simply speaks to the writing talents of Ms. Noble and her ability to make the reader identify with her characters.

In closing, this book was so much more than I anticipated. It’s a thought-provoking, moving story wrapped in the insulation of soothing ocean breezes. Who says you can’t learn something from a beach read?

Many thanks to Library Thing for providing me with a free copy of Forever Beach, in exchange for an honest review. show less

Lady Philomena Dunbridge is recently widowed and also in the midst of a new scandal when she helps solve a crime. At twenty-seven, she feels to young to be considered a dowager and too old to be back under the thumb of the father who married her to the much older and dissolute earl when she was seventeen.

Phil decides to travel to New York to visit an old school friend and start a new life for herself. Unfortunately she arrives just in time to find her old friend in the midst of a scandal of show more her own. Bev's husband Reggie is found dead in the arms of his mistress. He was shot with a gun he had given Bev. Worse yet, they return to Bev's home and enter her husband's locked office to find another dead man. This one is a stranger.

The police in the person of Detective Sergeant Atkins are convinced that Bev killed her philandering husband. Phil is certain that she did not and is going to clear her name and protect her own reputation. Phil is assisted by her new maid Lily and her butler Preswick who accompanied her to New York.

Phil finds herself looking into Reggie's life and especially his horse racing stable. He has the current favorite for an upcoming race. Phil is also being followed by a mysterious stranger who seems as comfortable with costumes and undercover work as the fictional Sherlock Holmes.

This story took us from the social scene of 1907 New York City and to the underbelly of corrupt police, racing conspiracies, and murder. Phil investigates the mistress, the right-hand man, Reggie's cousin Freddy and his wife Marguerite among many others as she tries to untangle a complex situation.

At first I wasn't too fond of Phil. I thought she was a little useless and aimless. But then I realized that she was a product of her environment which didn't place any more value on women than their appearance, reputation, and social clout. Once Phil decided to do something, she revealed some intelligence and skills at investigation.

I can't wait to see what happens next for her and her employees. show less

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

“I'm closing the Sentinel.”

When Phoebe's fiance Gavin walks into the local newspaper The Sentinel's offices, the newspaper that Phoebe has been working hard to keep afloat ever since Gavin inherited it from his father, Phoebe's mentor, and declares today is the last day because he sold it, her world comes crashing down. Phoebe realizes that her dream of show more writing local and inspiring stories is becoming lost to her and that her fiancé has been lying to her for two years as he's been looking to sell the paper. Phoebe loses her job, fiancé, a place to live, and any sense of security in one fell swoop. When she calls her mother, Phoebe realizes she's not the only one.

“No, absolutely not. I'm fine. Unless you...”
“No, I'm fine.” it was a lie; neither one of them was fine.

Ruth has been married for over 30 years and made herself into the perfect wife, even going along with her husband's idea to sell their family home and move into a condo. Then one day he comes into the kitchen and announces he is leaving her because he has fallen in love with someone else. All those years of shrinking herself and giving all to her family begin to come crashing down on Ruth. When one of her three daughters calls her and tells her about losing her job and fiancé, Ruth has to come clean that Phoebe's dad left her a week ago. With Phoebe not having a place to live and Ruth not wanting to be around with her cheating husband comes to collect the rest of his things, they decide to escape and spend the weekend at Granna Alice's place, the matriarch of the family.

You couldn't push away grief, wrestle it out of your heart, trample it underfoot, ignore it until it went silently away. You could only live through it.

Ty was nominated by his two brothers to spend the summer with their grieving father after he's fallen into a deep depression over the death of his wife. Ty was always the black sheep of the family, only his mother understood him, and it's a constant battle with the father that never understood him and doesn't seem to want to live life anymore. When the women next door invite him and his father over for dinner, Ty goes even if his father still won't leave the house and he starts to feel an outlet in talking with the grown-up Phoebe that used to annoy him with all her questions when they were younger.

Summer Island is the perfect summer read that will suck you into the lives of these characters. It's mostly lead by Phoebe but all the characters have decisions they must face and choices to make. There wasn't much heartbreak over Phoebe's break-up with her fiancé, there didn't seem to be much love there and I think that's why the sliding through thread of building friendship to romance between Phoebe and Ty works. While there are tough emotional decisions being faced, the overall tone still stays away from sinking into deep angst, which I felt perfectly places this in the beach read category; there's satisfying emotion but you won't feel wrung out after reading.

How would she ever come out whole on the other side?

While Phoebe is deciding what direction her life should take, sticking with her dream of writing local stories or going for a more ambitious approach like editor at a big newspaper, she does some soul searching. This comes about through talking and listening to her mother, grandmother, great-aunt, Ty, and a local man who is fixing up old cars to turn into homes for homeless vets. Phoebe's the connector into all these characters that fill in and fill out the story. Her mother also has a strong showing with dealing with her husband leaving her and discovering that it was the wake-up call she needed in life. Ruth realizes that she let herself become erased over the years as she slowly started to live in service of her husband and children and the “suburban wife” mold. I think Ruth's story will touch a lot of woman, especially when she gets the strength to stand-up for herself and excited, nervously takes the first step to reclaiming herself.

Ty provided some of the heartache and sweetness with the grief he and his father had over the loss of his mother and then the slowly blooming friendship and romance between him and Phoebe. He was a harder character to know because of his stoic personality and propensity to show no emotion on his face but his steadiness and calm was a perfect match for what Phoebe needed. This was definitely contemporary, women's fiction but there was enough friendship and romance between the two (some kisses but firmly door shut) to mollify romance genre readers, too.

Phoebe's unsettled question of should she follow her own personal passion, her mother's fear of where it all went wrong, Ty's hurt of not being understood by his family, and the handful of other characters will pull you in and be a favorite beach read of the summer. show less

Ever since the publication of Thomas Wolfe’s novel, “You Can’t Go Home Again” the title as a phrase is well-known across the generations even if the individual has never read the novel and knows nothing but the title. “Whisper Beach” provides a twist to become the question, “Can Vanessa ‘Van’ Moran go home again?” A reader quickly becomes engrossed in wonder of all the possibilities as it is learned that Van left her hometown of Whisper Beach without goodbyes 12 years ago show more and some people think she might even be dead. Van’s cousin Gigi gave her all the money she had saved for nursing school as Van left town but Gigi doesn’t know the true reason Van was so desperate to leave. There’s only 1 girlfriend that knows the truth. As Van returns for the funeral of her cousin’s husband Clay Daly, the plan is simple, attend the funeral, stay a few days for Gigi, perhaps put the old beach cottage that has been passed down through the female generations of her family up for sale, and then enjoy some vacation time as reserved at the 4-star hotel and spa in Rehoboth Beach. Simple. Organized. Planned. Life as Van prefers and has created with the success of her own business, Elite Lifestyle Managers, in New York.

I loved this book! “Can you go home again?” A timeless question and this novel reveals the possibilities with thoughtfulness as each relationship that touches Van’s life is explored. The character descriptions are revealed at perfect pace as various encounters begin on Van’s return to Whisper Beach. Van seems not the only one to have secrets.

One of the aspects about this novel that I loved the most was the exploration of the human character. How we sometimes presume we know what we know about family and friends when we really know nothing at all about what another has gone through because we haven’t walked all the miles alongside them – we’ve only been with them for pieces of their life journey. How we sometimes are judgmental with the best of intentions but again without all the facts. When we reveal the secrets of our lives to one another and the truth brings not the judgment as anticipated, not the criticism as feared, but we are given acceptance, understanding, and love.

I’m sure this novel will bring lively discussion at book club meetings. But, I’m hoping the novel will also be discovered by readers that might not necessarily be interested in book club participation but that would benefit by a little self-introspection before taking the next steps on their own life journey. It is a story that might also offer encouragement, courage and hope to someone wondering if it’s time to unburden their heart and share their secret.

The cover art is beautiful in its simplicity and seems to invite each reader individually to the beach and to reminisce of their own past summer experiences at the beach. The cover art then changes to a slightly different scene but as a pen and ink drawing to open each chapter. The author gives credit to The William Morrow Art Department in the acknowledgments and I effusively concur. Simple. Picturesque. Welcoming.

I can’t wait to read more of this author’s novels.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this title as an “Early Reviewer” from Library Thing. show less