Beach House Summer
By Sarah Morgan

Today I am absolutely delighted to be on the blog tour of the wonderfully compelling book – Beach House Summer on Publication Day – Happy Pub Day to you Sarah Morgan. Thanks to the publisher – HQ for gifting me a copy of the book and for the invite to review. Find out more in the blurb and my full review below…

Blurb

A marriage in the spotlight

Joanna Whitman’s high-profile marriage held more secrets than she cares to remember, so when her ex-husband dies, she doesn’t know what to feel. But when she discovers that he’s left behind a pregnant young woman, Joanna is forced to act. She knows exactly how brutal the spotlight on them both will be…unless she can find a way for them to disappear.

A beach house hideaway

Ashley Blake is amazed when Joanna suggests they lie low at her beach house in her sleepy Californian hometown. Joanna should be hating her, not helping her. But alone and pregnant, Ashley needs all the support she can find.

A summer of new beginnings

Joanna’s only goal for the summer is privacy. All Ashley wants is space to plan for her and her baby’s future. But when an old flame reappears, and secrets spill out under the hot summer sun, this unlikely friendship is put to the test….

Review

Beach House Summer is an excellent book to totally escape into. It is told by Ashley, Joanna and Melanie and will get you in the mood for summer and sand. It begins so touchingly and says a lot about the importance of good mums and the role they have when their offspring are growing up. Ashley is alone now, without the safety net of mum, but now she is with a megastar cruising along in his car. The author, however has made some thought-provoking points along the way into these riches, Ashley is now surrounded by, until tragedy strikes and she has no back-up plans.

This is when things start hotting up further as things become much more complicated, when Joanna finds out about her ex-husband’s death on breakfast tv, and later about his new partner, who she ends up helping…

Melanie is having a whole mix of troubles – and and daughter trouble as Eden is at that stage in life where she has finished formal schooling and could go onto higher education, but instead has other plans, not to her parents liking. Melanie (Mel) also works in the family business a cafe, that seems quite buzzy with an influx of life about it; but then there’s also Nate and where her heart lies.
Joanna and Mel were also friends, but things happened and even the past hurts and things are awkward.

Sarah Morgan writes all the entanglement of emotions that aren’t so straight forward and shows that nothing is clear cut in this situation, very compellingly well.  It really is a rollercoaster of a ride through her characters lives, that are enthralling to follow through romance and  unlikely friendships, bringing optimism.
This is a great summer read!