Abandoned by Booklikes

I do love Mary Alice Monroe. Her books set in the Low Country always makes me want to visit the Isle of Palms. This is book number four in the series. I have read everything so far, except for "Beach House Memories". 

This fourth book comes with major changes for the character of Cara Rutledge. Now 10 years after coming home to the Isle of Palms, she is happily married to Brett, but wishing that she had something passionate to be involved with. Doing the books for Brett's eco-tourism boat is okay, but it's not enough for her. Readers know that Cara and Brett tried multiple times to have children, and after multiple miscarriages, came to the decision that they were not meant to have children. Cara and Brett rent out Cara's deceased mother's cottage every summer. Now this year, they need the money more than any other time due to Brett's business struggling. 

This brings us a new character, Heather who is being ushered out of her family home after her father's new marriage. Heather is going to evoke a lot of sympathy with readers. Still dealing with anxiety and PTSD after a car accident that left her mother dead, Heather is not good around people. Her father rents Cara's cottage in order to get her away from his new bride (near her age) and to allow Heather time to complete her commission by the U.S. Postal Service to pain shorebirds for new stamps. I have to say that Heather's profession was definitely a new one on me. 

Monroe goes back and forth between Cara and Heather. You get to see two strong women in different points in their lives. One of them is dealing with something so huge though that it had me tearing up in sympathy too. Make sure that you keep tissues nearby. What I did like is that both Cara and Heather are going through things that are making them wish for their mothers to be there to comfort them. Instead they eventually start up a friendship that I loved. 

I will complain though that I wanted more Flo and Ellie (Cara's long time friends and cheerleaders). I also think that Cara's brother Palmer is annoying. I did love how he stepped up for her in this one though. I wanted to see more of the other characters that we have been reading about for ages though like Toy and Little Lovie (see "Swimming Lessons"). 

The writing was like coming home again though. Being laid up I needed a comfort read. I had some books that were not doing a blessed thing for me that I sent back to the library. This one definitely hit the spot. The flow was good too. I just think that after a while I was more invested in Cara's story and Heather's story felt a bit too unfinished to me. 

I absolutely loved that my Kindle version showed pictures of the different birds. I just wish it had been in color.

The ending surprised me, in a good way. Due to the changes in Cara's life, she decides a change is needed, and we have her trying something new. Immediately after finishing this, I went and bought "Beach House Reunion".