Book picks similar to
Gulf Coast Cottage by Maggie Miller
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A Secret in the Keys
Hope Holloway - 2021
One month earlier, Beck’s seemingly ideal existence imploded when her husband of thirty-four years announced he was leaving her. Now, so she has to sell her house, get a job, and somehow put her broken heart and life back together. She can’t do all that if she runs off to visit a woman she barely remembers. Or can she?Accompanied by her grown daughter who also longs for an escape, Beck heads to Coconut Key, where she’d lived the earliest years of her life. There, she forges a life-changing relationship with a woman she never really understood, dips her toes into the waters of a new romance, and begins the process of starting over. But when a secret kept for nearly fifty years comes crashing down on them, all of Beck’s dreams are once again threatened. Can she forgive the lies that have shaped her life, or will the past ruin her chance at a new beginning in Coconut Key?
Return To Me
Katie Winters - 2021
The mother she's resented for over twenty years. A return to Martha's Vineyard, where healing can finally begin.Janine Potter grew up on the other side of the tracks. Her mother, Nancy, struggled with just about everything: alcohol, men, money -- and Janine made a pledge to herself that she would never be like her.At age nineteen, Janine met Jack Potter, the son of an oil tycoon, and never looked back. Her life became a series of cocktail parties and multi-million-dollar apartments all across the world and rubbing elbows with celebrities. Slowly, memory of her mother faded -- although the trauma never really did.Fast-forward to the present. Janine is forty-three, with two beautiful daughters, a perfect apartment, a handsome husband who betrays her beyond her wildest dreams.Soon, Janine is cast out from her picture-perfect life. She has nothing.Her mother, Nancy, who's gone through trials and triumphs of her own over the previous twenty years, sees Janine's very public devastation as an opportunity to reach out to the daughter she's missed so desperately over the years."Come to Martha's Vineyard. Return to me. Let's heal together, after the shared trauma of our past."Janine has nowhere else to turn. For the first time in twenty-five years, her mother is her only answer.But the world that awaits her on Martha's Vineyard is beyond her wildest dreams. There are new friends, two step-sisters, beautiful ocean waters, and even a potential love interest -- a summer she'll never forget.Can Janine and her mother find a way to heal the wounds of their past? Can Janine overcome the ultimate betrayal?Dive into book one of The Katama Bay Series -- a heartwarming journey of motherly and sisterly love, healing, and promise for better days, all on the island of Martha's Vineyard, with its gorgeous ocean views, its endless summer days, and its bubbly cast of islanders.For fans of Susan Mallery, Jill Shalvis, and Debbie Macomber.
Beachcomber Motel
Meredith Summers - 2021
The motel is even more dilapidated than it looked like in the pictures and it turns out that renovating it includes working with her estranged cousins Maddie and Gina—the same cousins who caused her to fail at running the last motel. But there’s no getting around the stipulations in Gram’s will, and Jules needs to make a success of the Beachcomber, not only because of the promise she made but also to prove to herself that she’s not a failure.Nick Barlow doesn’t understand why anyone would want to renovate a dusty old hotel in a town that has no tourists, but when Jules comes in asking for the loan, he’s smitten and can’t get the application off the printer fast enough. Things are dull around Shell Cove and he’s looking forward to doing business with his new client... until his grandfather, the bank president, gives him a dire warning about Jules and her family and then refuses to approve the loan.Maddie Montgomery has made a promise to her grandmother, too. She needs to help Jules and Gina reconcile. But, as she soon finds out, that might not be the only reason Gram sent her to Shell Cove. The town needs her special brand of optimism and organization to keep it from dying out completely.Gina Gallagher’s life has hit rock bottom. Her real estate tycoon husband has disappeared after cleaning out both their business and personal bank accounts. When her grandmother makes her promise to learn to find joy in the little things and help out at the Beachcomber, she has no energy to refuse. Right now she has nowhere else to stay, but she doesn’t plan to keep her promise for long... until her stay at the Beachcomber yields some unexpected surprises.None of them really wanted to come to the Beachcomber, but could the old motel be the exact thing each of them needs?
True to Me
Kay Bratt - 2019
All of that comes undone by her mother’s deathbed confession—the absentee father Quinn spent thirty years resenting is not her real father at all. With that one revealing whisper, Quinn embarks on a journey to Maui, her mother’s childhood home, a storied paradise that holds the truth about her mother’s past and all its secrets Quinn is determined to uncover.But settling on the island has its complications, and with the fiancé she left behind questioning every choice she makes, Quinn’s quest for her truth is even more difficult than she expected. As time passes and she digs deeper into her family history and her own identity, one thing becomes clear: Maui is as beautiful as she’d always imagined, and its magic is helping uncover the woman that Quinn was always meant to be.
The Summer Girls
Mary Alice Monroe - 2013
Three months. One summer house. In this enchanting trilogy set on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe captures the complex relationships between Dora, Carson, and Harper, three half-sisters scattered across the country—and a grandmother determined to help them rediscover their family bonds. For years, Carson Muir has drifted, never really settling, certain only that a life without the ocean is a life half lived. Adrift and penniless in California, Carson is the first to return to Sea Breeze, wondering where things went wrong…until the sea she loves brings her a minor miracle. Her astonishing bond with a dolphin helps Carson renew her relationships with her sisters and face the haunting memories of her ill-fated father. As the rhythms of the island open her heart, Carson begins to imagine the next steps toward her future. In this heartwarming novel, three sisters discover the true treasures Sea Breeze offers as surprising truths are revealed, mistakes forgiven, and precious connections made that will endure long beyond one summer.
The Pearl Shore Inn
Grace Meyers - 2021
Then he vanished without a trace.When Cade disappeared, Elizabeth Anderson’s life was thrown into chaos. Having thought that their newly inherited beach house would be the perfect place to refresh their marriage, she never believed the last time she would see her husband was the day he took their boat out to sea. With no body recovered and an investigation ongoing, a heartbroken Elizabeth is left to fear the worst.But as she digs deeper into her husband’s disappearance, she begins to uncover a strange series of mysteries. With odd financial decisions and an enigmatic novel which he had been working on before his disappearance, she starts to worry that maybe he vanished on purpose…Struggling to rebuild her life and take care of their two children, Elizabeth grapples with everything she thought she knew about the man she loved. As their world comes crashing down, she’s faced with the daunting task of navigating her new reality while clinging to the hope that her husband will return.Perfect for fans of gripping mysteries set with a backdrop of suspense, drama, and a beautiful beachside setting, the Otter Bay Series will capture your attention from beginning to end. Scroll up and grab your copy now!This is book 1 of 6 in the series.
Magnolia Nights
Ashley Farley - 2017
Ellie Pringle has spent endless hours and countless dollars working with a therapist to remember the lost years of her childhood. She’s baffled and more than a little intrigued when the grandmother she hasn’t seen in thirty-four years dies and leaves her a fortune. The time has come to face her past in person. Still reeling from a recent breakup of a long-term relationship, and with nothing to keep her in San Francisco, Ellie packs her meager belongings and boards a plane for the South Carolina Lowcountry. Standing in the entryway of her grandmother’s antebellum home on South Battery Street in Charleston, Ellie faces the first of many ghosts who will soon haunt her. On her first night in the creepy, creaking mansion, as she’s perusing the titles in a dusty bookcase, she comes across her deceased mother’s leather-bound journal. Her mother’s words create more unanswered questions and send her on a quest to find more journals. As Hurricane Lorene bears down on the South Carolina coast, Ellie encounters Juan Hagood, a handsome architect who has the talent to restore her dilapidated mansion and the charm to mend her broken heart. But as Ellie reads her mother's diaries, they dislodge a stone in the wall that safeguards her memories, causing her world to come crumbling down. Revelations about her childhood lead Ellie on a harrowing journey of discovery that will hold spellbound until the dramatic conclusion.
Dear Carolina
Kristy Woodson Harvey - 2015
Jodi, her husband’s nineteen-year-old cousin, is fresh out of rehab, pregnant, and alone. Although the two women couldn’t seem more different, they forge a lifelong connection as Khaki reaches out to Jodi, encouraging her to have her baby. But as Jodi struggles to be the mother she knows her daughter deserves, she will ask Khaki the ultimate favor…Written to baby Carolina, by both her birth mother and her adoptive one, this is a story that proves that life circumstances shape us but don’t define us—and that families aren’t born, they’re made…
Porch Lights
Dorothea Benton Frank - 2012
Charlie idolized his dad, and now the outgoing, curious boy has become quiet and reserved. Trusting in the healing power of family, Jackie decides to return to her childhood home on Sullivans Island.Crossing the bridge from the mainland, Jackie and Charlie enter a world full of wonder and magic — lush green and chocolate grasslands and dazzling red, orange, and magenta evening skies; the heady pungency of Lowcountry Pluff mud and fresh seafood on the grill; bare toes snuggled in warm sand and palmetto fronds swaying in gentle ocean winds.Awaiting them is Annie Britt, the family matriarch who has kept the porch lights on to welcome them home. Thrilled to have her family back again, Annie promises to make their visit perfect — even though relations between mother and daughter have never been what you'd call smooth. Over the years, Jackie and Annie, like all mothers and daughters, have been known to have frequent and notorious differences of opinion. But her estranged and wise husband, Buster, and her flamboyant and funny best friend Deb are sure to keep Annie in line. She's also got Steven Plofker, the flirtatious and devilishly tasty widowed physician next door, to keep her distracted as well.
The Beach Trees
Karen White - 2011
At that tender age, her little sister disappeared-never to be found. It was a loss that slowly eroded the family bonds she once relied on. As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her sister, she can't help feeling protective. It is a friendship that begins a long and painful process of healing for Julie, leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ravaged by hurricane Katrina, and to stories of family that take her deep into the past.
Beach Colors
Shelley Noble - 2012
A week after he disappeared, the bank foreclosed on Margaux's apartment and business.Suddenly broke, betrayed, and humiliated, Margaux has nowhere else to turn to but home: the small coastal town of Crescent Cove, Connecticut, where she once knew love, joy, and family before she put them behind her on the climb to fame. When she's stopped for speeding by local interim police chief Nick Prescott, Margaux barely remembers the "townie" boy who worshiped her from afar every summer. But Nick is all grown up now, a college professor who gave up his career to care for his orphaned nephew, Connor. Though still vulnerable, Margaux is soon rediscovering the beauty of the shore through young Connor's eyes . . . and, thanks to Nick, finding a forgotten place in her heart that wants to love again.But as she continues to work on a bold new line that will get her back into the game, Margaux realizes that soon she will have to make the most important, most difficult decision of her life. . . .
Hello, Summer
Mary Kay Andrews - 2020
Conley Hawkins left her family’s small town newspaper, The Silver Bay Beacon, in the rearview mirror years ago. Now a star reporter for a big-city paper, Conley is exactly where she wants to be and is about to take a fancy new position in Washington, D.C. Or so she thinks.For small town scandals... When the new job goes up in smoke, Conley finds herself right back where she started, working for her sister, who is trying to keep The Silver Bay Beacon afloat—and she doesn’t exactly have warm feelings for Conley. Soon she is given the unenviable task of overseeing the local gossip column, “Hello, Summer.”And big-time secrets.
Then Conley witnesses an accident that ends in the death of a local congressman—a beloved war hero with a shady past. The more she digs into the story, the more dangerous it gets. As an old heartbreaker causes trouble and a new flame ignites, it soon looks like their sleepy beach town is the most scandalous hotspot of the summer.
Summer Island
Kristin Hannah - 2001
Now she is a famous talk show host. Her daughter Ruby is a struggling comedienne. The two haven’t spoken in more than a decade. Then a scandal from Nora’s past is exposed, and Ruby is offered a fortune to write a tell-all about her mother. Reluctantly, she returns to the family house on Summer Island, a home filled with frayed memories of joy and heartache. Confronting a past that includes a never-forgotten love, a sick best friend, and a mother who has harbored terrible family secrets, Ruby finally begins to understand the complex ties that bind a mother and daughter—and the healing that comes with forgiveness.From the Paperback edition.
Summer Blowout
Claire Cook - 2009
The owner is her father, Lucky Shaughnessy, a gregarious, three-times-divorced charmer with Donald Trump hair, who is obsessed with all things Italian and still carries a torch for his first wife, Bella's mother. After Bella's own marriage flames out spectacularly when her half-sister runs off with her husband, Bella decides she has seen enough of the damage love can do. She makes a vow: no more men.Then Bella meets a cute entrepreneur at a college fair, and despite their bickering, they can't seem to stay away from each other. He also gives her a brilliant business idea, one that just might allow her to share her makeup expertise with the world. A small, well-tressed dog finds her way into her life, and her heart, and she decides to chance that, too. When the whole clan heads to Atlanta for a big Southern wedding, sparks fly—in a summer blowout no one will ever forget.This hilarious, rambunctious novel is pure Claire Cook: full of juicy conflict and unconditional love.
The Guest Cottage
Nancy Thayer - 2015
She knows her role in life: supportive wife of a successful architect and calm, capable mother of two. But on a warm summer night, as the house grows quiet around her and her children fall asleep, she wonders what’s missing from her life. When her husband echoes that lonely question, announcing that he’s leaving her for another woman, Sophie realizes she has no idea what’s next. Impulsively renting a guest cottage on Nantucket from her friend Susie Swenson, Sophie rounds up her kids, Jonah and Lacey, and leaves Boston for a quiet family vacation, minus one.Also minus one is Trevor Black, a software entrepreneur who has recently lost his wife. Trevor is the last person to imagine himself, age thirty and on his own, raising a little boy like Leo—smart and sweet, but grappling constantly with his mother’s death, growing more and more closed off. Hoping a quiet summer on the Nantucket coast will help him reconnect with Leo, Trevor rents a guest house on the beautiful island from his friend Ivan Swenson.Best-laid plans run awry when Sophie and Trevor realize they’ve mistakenly rented the same house. Still, determined to make this a summer their kids will always remember, the two agree to share the Swensons’ Nantucket house. But as the summer unfolds and the families grow close, Sophie and Trevor must ask themselves if the guest cottage is all they want to share.Inspiring and true to life, The Guest Cottage is Nancy Thayer at her finest, inscribing in graceful, knowing prose matters of the heart and the meaning of family.