The Book:
The Bookstore on the Beach by Brenda Novak, 2021
The Characters:
Autumn and her children Caden and Taylor
Autumn’s mother Mary
Autumn’s love interest, Quinn
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Eighteen months ago, Autumn Divac’s husband went missing. Her desperate search has yielded no answers, and she can’t imagine moving forward without him. But for the sake of their two teenage children, she has to try.
Autumn takes her kids home for the summer to the charming beachside town where she was raised. She seeks comfort working alongside her mother and aunt at their bookshop, only to learn that her daughter is facing a huge life change and her mother has been hiding a terrible secret for years. And when she runs into the boy who stole her heart in high school, old feelings start to bubble up again. Is she free to love him, or should she hold out hope for her husband’s return? She can only trust her heart…and hope it won’t lead her astray.
Mary was really Bailey North, who was abducted as a 12 year old and kept captive in a rich couple’s basement. The husband would rape her, and was Autumn’s father. Mary had Autumn alone in their basement, and then somehow escaped.
Taylor is pregnant and also is realizing she is gay. She lets the father walk away without responsibility for the baby.
Autumn and Quinn fall in love and buy a house together, planning to stay in Sable Beach and raise Taylor’s baby and have one of their own while Taylor goes to college.
The Ending:
Nick shows up way too close to the end for a proper resolution. I knew he’d show up, but figured it would be around halfway through! He had been kidnapped in Ukraine because they thought he was a spy, and one day they released him and he came home without letting anyone know he was free.
In a very rushed ending, Autumn and Caden move home to Tampa with Nick while Taylor stays in Sable Beach.
Autumn returns for Quinn’s mother’s funeral, and Taylor tells her she’s made a big mistake. On the very last page, she decides to go back to Quinn. Too fast!
The Review:
Wow. So much happening to one family over the course of a single summer! The Bookstore on the Beach sounds like it would be a quaint little romance in a beachfront town, but it turned out to be so much more. This book follows Autumn, her mother Mary, and her daughter Taylor.
There was a lot to the plot: a missing husband, Russian ties, kidnapping, rape, attempted murder, teen pregnancy, questioning sexual identity, family secrets, false identities, cancer, and probably more themes I can’t even remember. It made for a very interesting story, but it also made the storyline a little crowded at times. How many bad things can possibly happen to the same family in such a short period?
The highlight of this whole book was Caden’s character. I’ve never met such a selfless teenager in real life. I really enjoyed his relationship with his sister Taylor. He was constantly willing to sacrifice for his mom and sister, and was able to comfort and guide his older sister in a way that my brother never would have. I thought his character was a really wonderful light in this book, and I would love to have a son like him! I also really enjoyed Quinn. Despite scandal with his ex-wife and despite his mother dying of cancer, he was able to be an anchor for Autumn through all her drama. He is another character that I would love to know in real life.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to the bookstore or the beach besides serving as meeting places for the various characters. I was hoping for more descriptions of a cozy seaside town, and of the bookstore itself (like the way the bookstore was described in Amelia Unabridged). My only other gripe was that I wish there was more to the ending. I got whiplash at the end as one of the characters tried to make up her mind, and would have liked to see more of how her final decision played out.
This is the first novel of Brenda Novak’s that I have read in a long time, but I am definitely going to have to go back for some of the ones I missed!
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