Title: Sunshine Beach
Author: Wendy Wax
Series: Ten Beach Road, #4
Narrator: Amy Rubinate
Published: June 2016, Penguin Audio / Berkley
Length: 12 hours 52 minutes / 420 pages
Source: Audio – Personal copy via Audible / Print – ARC Paperback via Publicist
Summary:
In this brand-new summer read by the USA Today bestselling author of The House on Mermaid Point, three women join forces to bring a historic seaside hotel back to life…
There’s nothing that a fresh coat of paint and a few glasses of wine can’t fix…
After
losing their life savings in a Ponzi scheme, Maddie, Avery, and Nikki
have banded together to make the most of what they have left, using
their determination, ingenuity, guts, and a large dose of elbow grease.
It’s Maddie’s daughter Kyra who stumbles across a once glorious
beachfront hotel that has fallen into disrepair. The opportunity to
renovate this seaside jewel is too good to pass up—especially when they
come up with the idea of shooting their own independent television show
about the restoration. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything. With the cameras rolling, Maddie’s second-chance romance
with her all-too-famous new boyfriend gets complicated, Avery struggles
with grief over the loss of her mother, and Nikki’s reluctance to commit
to the man who loves her could leave her to face the biggest challenge
of her life. Even the hotel seems to be against them, when their
renovation uncovers a decades-old unsolved murder which just might bring
their lives tumbling down all over again…
My thoughts: This is the 4th book in Wendy Wax’s Ten Beach Road series and I really enjoy this series. I do think though, this is one of those series that in order to really understand the full impact of the characters and their history and backstory, you really do need to read this story in order…especially with this book where some characters from previous books pop back in. It just makes for a more richer reading experience, in my opinion. That being said…all these books really are fun, enjoyable reads that just seem to get better and better, so why not pick up the whole series?
So, in this latest installment, we find the gals looking for their next project and the one that they stumble upon comes with quite a twist – a murder mystery! That’s one of my favorite parts of this series – each one of the books so far have been so very different. Because this one involved this murder mystery, more time seemed to be devoted to that than the actual renovation work that we usually get, which is not a criticism in any way, just a change a of pace. I actually liked it – it added an extra dimension to the story.
I love that with each book, we see how the friendships between these women continues to blossom. These women don’t always see eye to eye, yet they listen to each other, work out a compromise and are willing to help when one needs it. They truly care for each other and I admire that. And they make me laugh…and crave cheese doodles (no matter how bad they are for you!) while I’m reading the book. Do you have a book or series of books that make you crave a certain food because it’s mentioned so many times? If you read this book or any in the series, you’ll know why I mentioned the cheese doodles!
Audio thoughts: This is the first time I’ve listened to one of the books in this series and I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. I have listened to Amy Rubinate before, so I already knew going in I was in for a treat and I was very pleased with the way she narrated this book. She gave all the characters distinct voices and I her pacing and tone were pleasant to listen to. This was a great audio to listen to while getting some house cleaning and other stuff done around the house – it made all those chores much more pleasant!
Books in this series:
2. Ocean Beach
4. Sunshine Beach
5. One Good Thing
5.5 A Bella Flora Christmas
6. Best Thing Ever – due out May 2018
I just bought Bella Flora Christmas to read, love this group of women so much.