Day: May 14, 2021

This book had a great hook, and it was even better that the author carried through on the promise of the blurb.

I’ve mentioned before how that doesn’t always happen, or that the blurb gives too much away. In this case, it was the perfect amount of information to pique my interest but not so much detail that I already knew what was going to happen.

I could recommend this book on that alone. But there was way more to make it a great beach read.

I really liked Jill from the very beginning. It was obvious that she was out of her element and uncomfortable, and we’ve all been in that position at one time or another. Problem was that it was pretty much Jill’s entire life. It was unsustainable.

And when it went sideways, boy did it really go sideways.

I was actually glad to see it happen, because Marc rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning. I mean, I know he was meant to, but he was really, REALLY awful.

One of the things that I appreciated most about the book was that the author didn’t try to hide any twists or big revelations. It was a simple story that progressed naturally, so all of the surprises occurred organically.

That’s a fancy way to say that the story was told well and had me engrossed in Jill’s progress.

In fact, I enjoyed just how simple everything was. Nobody was a caricature or stereotype, nobody seemed fake. Everyone was genuine (even Marc and Cush in their ugliness).

I especially liked that the townspeople of Dewberry Beach were authentic. That’s a location I would love to visit.

When retribution comes, and it does in the most wonderful way, I couldn’t help but cheer for Jill. She truly stood strong, embraced the person she was always meant to be, took a leap of faith (backed by some street smarts) and came out better for it.

Oh, and once again, I love the image of Kintsugi art as a symbol of a character’s re-creating themself. Very clever.