Book Spotlight: Beach Blues by Joanne DeMaio

Beach Blues by Joanne DeMaio

Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling author Joanne DeMaio invites you to spend the summer by the sea, in a quaint New England beach town where friends and love await just outside the cottage doors.

Celia Gray finds herself house-sitting a silver-shingled cottage at Stony Point. She arrives with her guitar, a few staging jobs ... and a bit of summertime sadness. That is, until an unforgettable group of beach friends draws her in like a breath of salt air.

Sal DeLuca heard the words in a dream: Take me to the sea. So after a decade of demanding work, he takes his first vacation in years. Trading in his suit and tie for blue jeans and boat shoes, Sal unexpectedly arrives at his mother's shabby inn on the Connecticut shore, winding his way into the lives and hearts of the close-knit beach community.

When Stony Point's two wash-ashores, Sal and Celia, meet, some say it's a match made in beach-heaven. And so begins a sweet seaside summer ... forging friendships, adventures and new love. But all is not at ease in the gentle sea breeze as a dark secret turns the tide for the Stony Point crew.

Beach Blues is a novel bringing you right to its secluded fishing shack and weathered boardwalk, to its wooden rowboat and lantern-lit porches. A novel that welcomes you, as much as it may break your heart.

Author Bio:

Joanne DeMaio is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction. She enjoys writing about friendship, family, love and choices, while setting her stories in New England towns or by the sea. Beach Blues is her seventh novel. Currently at work on her next book, Joanne lives with her family in Connecticut.

To learn more about the author, visit Joannedemaio.com. She also enjoys hearing from readers on her Facebook Page.

My Review:

Beach Blues by Joanne DeMaio
Have read all the author's prior works and know this will be up to the same high standards of literature that she's produces.
Set along the CT shoreline we travel back to Stony Point. Some of the characters were introduced in prior novels but you are brought up to speed so you are not left in the dark by not having read the other books.
Such an easy going lifestyle of friends. The new wash ashores-weren't born, raised or ever lived at SP, have been led there for various reasons. One is Celia and she's agree to stage the cottage the owner is putting on the market. She wants to retain it's beachy feeling.
Sal is another and he's not been back to the area for many years. He needs a break from Wall Street.
Others welcome them both into their circle of friends. Elsa is having an inn created and her son Sal surprises her with a summerlong visit. She's been working with Jason and some of Neil's sketches from his journal to do the remodel. It gets confusing at the very beginning as to who is who and how they are related but within a few chapters it all becomes clear.
Maybe a family tree at the beginning of the book would clear the confusion.
Love hearing of all the things ongoing with the regulars along with those away from SP. Even the walk around the neighborhood at night with lanterns lit on porches I could move in right now.
Feel so friendly knowing others would accept me if we moved there. They'd welcome you with open arms as they have done with Sal and Celia.
When I first got the book and realized it was 400 pages long I thought that is just way too long but before you know it you're halfway through and you're enjoying the read. Every now and then I have to close the book and sit back and my memories take over from when we spent summers at the beach living in the island house. Every weekend we visit the coast I can't breathe in enough of the sweet salt air. It is calming and treasured.
Love hearing of all the characters and their work careers, learning new things in the process.
Lots of trouble, upheaval with the newly appointed SP commission, not only the Hammer Law for the summer months but other ordinances that effect a lot who do live there. Lots of secrets, seems everybody has a few that they are hard to tell to even their best friends...
Super read as it deals with many during the summer holidays on the SP shores. People from all over, different lifestyles and agendas as their lives entwine with one another and their loved ones. Sit back and relax as this read will take you along with them. Wow powerful ending!
I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.