Beach House Rules

Bonds of family, friendship, and community bind an engaging story about how a mother and daughter put their lives back together after a scandal rocks their family.

Beach House Rules by Kristy Woodson Harvey sensitively traces how a mother and daughter scramble to steady and rebuild their lives. 

The story takes place in Juniper Shores, a charming, “beautiful Southern coastal town” where the New York-based Sitterly family--Bill, Charlotte, and teenager, Iris--took refuge during the Covid-19 pandemic. For three years, the Sitterlys called idyllic Juniper Shores home. Bill worked remotely. But when Bill is accused of securities fraud--serving jail time while maintaining his innocence--Charlotte and Iris are left homeless and destitute, unable to even access family finances. This leaves Charlotte to suffer a meltdown at the bank, where she is calmed by a local woman, 45-year-old widow, Alice Bailey, who befriends Charlotte and Iris. 

Alice--whom local gossip sites claim might’ve killed her three previous husbands--invites them to come and live with her, as she shares her big beach house, a former B&B, with other women who face troubles of their own. This includes Julie, Alice’s niece, a journalist and single mom. And Grace, a divorced mom who is also a social media sensation. This small tribe of strangers keep house and support each other. The shared living arrangement--deemed a “mommune,” like a commune, something of a “lost ladies’ hostel"--offers stability for Charlotte and Iris. But complications ensue when the past resurrects and comes calling again. 

Woodson Harvey (A Happier Life) plots exciting turns via many story threads. Alternate points of view, along with elements of mystery and romance, make for a greatly entertaining story that will appeal to a wide audience.

Beach House Rules by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Gallery Books (Simon and Schuster), $28.99 hardcover, 9781668074800, 368 pages

Publication Date: May 27, 2025

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Link HERE to learn more about Kristy Woodson Harvey

The Empress of Cooke County

A sweet and sassy, coming-to-terms mother-daughter saga that sparkles with juicy secrets and scheming, 1960s Southern Gothic flare. 

Scheming Southern flare sparkles in The Empress of Cooke County, a first novel by Elizabeth Bass Parmen.  

Set in 1966 in Spark, Tenn., Cooke County, this split point-of-view narrative centers on a fraught mother-daughter relationship. Posey Jarvis is an outspoken, 38-year-old, wife and mother who idolizes Jackie Kennedy. She and her “sweet,” good-natured husband of twenty years, Vern, appear settled in the folksy small town. However, Posey still carries a secret torch for a man who jilted her years before—swigs of gin from a tucked away flask help her to cope. Posey’s broken heart still colors her life, especially her high-hopes for 18-year-old daughter, Callie Jane. When Callie is blindsided by a public marriage proposal, she suddenly must confront the expectations that have shaped her life. And when her mother inherits a once-glamorous, now delipidated house from a long-lost aunt--and Posey decides to spruce up the house for Callie’s upcoming wedding and Posey’s 20^th high school reunion--the stakes are raised. A lifetime of angst, secrets, and rebellion escalate between overbearing, conniving Posey and Callie Jane, who fights to finally come into her own. 

Escalating drama sharpens brisk plotting that includes story-threads about a renegade, local peeping Tom and changing mores of the social-climbing South. Fans of unfaltering Southern Belles in the vein of authors Fannie Flagg and Kathryn Stockett will bask in the sassy charm of Parmen’s stellar debut.

The Empress of Cooke County by Elizabeth Bass Parmen

Harper Muse, $18.99 paperback, 9781400342594, 304 pages

Publication Date: September 3, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (September 13, 2024), link HERE 

Swan Song

A burned down mansion and a missing young woman permeate the riveting finale of Elin Hilderbrand’s glitzy Nantucket series of novels.

With high drama and a boatload of mystery, Elin Hilderbrand (The Five Star Weekend, Golden Girl, The Perfect Couple) reels in the stunning final installment in her Nantucket-based series of novels. Readers will savor Swan Song, as it nostalgically brings back characters from former books and adds a host of dynamic new ones.

 

When enigmatic, middle-aged, island newcomers, Bull and Leslee Richardson--a “hot commodity” power couple--purchase a lavish, 22-million-dollar oceanfront property, they enlist the help of Colleen “Coco” Coyle, an aspiring screenwriter in need of a job. Coco serves as their “personal concierge,” assisting their quest to integrate into island society culture. Coco is befriended by Kacy—a dedicated nurse from California who recently broke up with her girlfriend. She returns home to visit her Police Chief father, Ed Kapenash, who has suffered some health challenges and is now facing retirement.

 

When the Richardson mansion mysteriously burns down and Coco goes missing on the same day, many questions are suddenly raised. A police investigation coupled with town intrigue slowly starts to reveal the true identity of the Richardsons and their modus operandi. In doing so, spicy details are also revealed regarding those in their orbit. This includes socially connected friends, a real estate agent, an architect, a boat captain, sommelier, a masseuse and others.

 

Romance and island glitz infuse Hilderbrand’s spellbinding 30^th novel that packs a juicy, suspenseful wallop for devoted readers of her last 29 books and rare latecomers to the captivating Hilderbrand ‘brand.’

 

Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand

Little, Brown and Company / Hachette Book Group, $30.00 hardcover, 9780316258876, 384 pages

Publishing Date: June 11, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (July 5, 2024), link HERE 

15 Summers Later

A moving, thought-provoking story about how a shared, horrific experience from the past resurfaces and upends the lives of two, estranged sisters. 

The different ways individuals process, cope with, and try to move on from trauma marks the central theme of 15 Summers Later, a thought-provoking novel from prolific author, RaeAnne Thayne. 

The past is never past for the Howell sisters of Emerald Creek, Idaho. The two girls suffered a life-changing trauma in their childhoods that became a secret that impacted and forever changed both of their lives…and also estranged them. 

The one sister, Ava, moved away and built a new life for herself via a seemingly happy marriage to Cullen. However, when Ava publishes a memoir that details the private horror from the past--the book becomes a best-seller--Cullen cannot deal with the publicity. He feels Ava, harboring a shocking secret, has betrayed him. Thus, their marriage comes undone. With her ‘perfect’ world in a shambles, Ava returns home to try and make amends with her sister, Madison. 

“Madi” has taken years to overcome and heal. Tenacious, she, too, has struggled to move on. Working hard to establish a “no-kill” shelter for abandoned pets, she finds herself falling in love with her long-time, secret crush—local veterinarian, Dr. Luke Gentry. But when Ava resurfaces in her life and the past again comes calling, questions are raised: If Luke knew the truth about Madi (and her sister)--the horrors faced fifteen years before--would he, too, turn his back on her? 

Readers--especially fans of Debbie Macomber, Susan Wiggs and Robyn Carr--will bask in Thayne’s (The Café at Beach End, Christmas at the Shelter Inn) characteristically sensitive, compassionate storytelling. Readers will not soon forget this suspensefully drawn story--infused with themes of love, forgiveness, and redemption--that maps sibling drama, family loyalty, affection for animals, and two, tender love stories that unfold side-by-side.

15 Summers Later: A Novel by RaeAnne Thayne

Canary Street Press (Harlequin Books/HarperCollins Publishers), $17.99 paperback, 97813350009333, 352 pages

Publishing Date: June 18, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE