The Book:
The Beach Trap by Ali Brady
Published June 14th 2022 by Berkley Books
Date read: June 14, 2022
The Characters:
Kat
Blake
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
When twelve-year-olds Kat Steiner and Blake O’Neill meet at Camp Chickawah, they have an instant connection. But everything falls apart when they learn they’re not just best friends—they’re also half-sisters. Confused and betrayed, their friendship instantly crumbles.
Fifteen years later when their father dies suddenly, Kat and Blake discover he’s left them a joint inheritance: the family beach house in Destin, Florida. The two sisters are instantly at odds. Blake, who has recently been demoted from regular nanny to dog nanny, wants to sell the house, while social media influencer Kat is desperate to keep the place where she had so many happy childhood memories.
Kat and Blake reluctantly join forces to renovate the dilapidated house with the understanding that Kat will try to buy Blake out at the end of the summer. The women clash as Blake’s renovation plans conflict with Kat’s creative vision, and each sister finds herself drawn into a summer romance. As the weeks pass, the two women realize the most difficult project they face this summer will be coming to grips with their shared past, and learning how to become sisters.
The Review:
Happy pub day to The Beach Trap by co-authors Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey!
Thank you to @prhaudio for the ALC, and to @berkleyromance for including me in their blog tour.
I loved everything about this book. It was one I was really looking forward to–I adored Alison Hammer’s previous book Little Pieces of Me, and have been following Bradeigh on Bookstagram since I joined. I’m eagerly awaiting her thriller coming this fall. When I heard they were co-writing a book, I knew I would have to read it asap!
The Parent Trap was one of my favorite movies as a kid. The Beach Trap is kind of that storyline in reverse–best friends at camp realize they’re half-sisters, and then fifteen years later their father hatches a plan to force them to mend their relationship.
Kat and Blake were so well-written. They’re complete opposites: Kat is a fashion influencer who grew up wealthy, and Blake is very handy and resourceful, used to doing everything for herself. They have stored up fifteen years worth of resentment towards each other and their father, so of course they butt heads when they both arrive at the beach house. Eventually, though, they begin to see things from the other’s perspective.
I enjoyed the romance plot, but also loved that it took a back seat to Kat and Blake’s relationship. We got a little bit of everything with this story: sisterhood, opposites attract/second chance romance, hunky guy next door, and a cute dog! Both of the men were amazing secondary characters, and I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite.
I LOVE a home renovation story, and setting this one on the beach made it even more fun. I’m a sucker for the renovation and design details.
Whether you’re headed to the beach this summer or just wish you were, pick up a copy of The Beach Trap to bring along! I’m definitely hoping these authors continue to write together.
Audio Review: I couldn’t have asked for a better narrator than Imani Jade Powers. Her voice was so fitting for these characters, and she did a great job of changing it just enough to help me keep Kat and Blake straight. I’ve only listened to one book narrated by her before–The Drowning Kind–but I’ll certainly be looking out for more of her narrations in the future.
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