The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery Published by MIRA on May 31, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Family Life / Marriage & Divorce, Fiction / Family Life / Siblings, Fiction / Friendship, Fiction / Romance / Contemporary
Pages: 400
Format: Softcover
Source: Bookstore
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
"A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism."—Kirkus
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery comes a book-about-books story of friends who become family, giving each other courage to start over.
When fate brings three strangers to a charming space for lease on the California coast, the Boardwalk Bookshop is born. Part bookstore, part gift shop, part bakery, it's a dream come true for Bree, Mikki and Ashley. But while their business is thriving, their personal lives are…not.
Bree, wounded by brilliant but cold parents and her late husband's ultimate betrayal, has sworn to protect her heart at all costs. Even from Ashley's brother, a writer and adventurer who has inspired millions. He's the first man to see past Bree's barricades to her true self, which terrifies her. Mikki has this divorce thing all figured out—somehow, she's stayed friends with her ex and her in-laws…until a new man changes how everyone looks at her, and how she sees herself. Meanwhile, Ashley discovers that the love of her life never intends to marry. Can she live without being a wife if it means she can have everything else she's ever wanted?
At sunset every Friday on the beach in front of the Boardwalk Bookshop, the three friends share a champagne toast. As their bond grows closer, they challenge one another to become the best versions of themselves in this heartachingly beautiful story of friendship, sisterhood and the transformative power of love.
Don't miss New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery's heartwarming summer novel, The Summer Book Club, where conversations over a glass of wine turns into something much more in this journey of motherhood, friendship and love.
Get lost in more beach reads by Susan Mallery:
- The Summer Book Club - Coming February 2024!
- The Happiness Plan
- The Sister Effect
- The Summer Getaway
- The Stepsisters
My Review
” I thought there’d be more sex.” Bree Larton stared at her seventy-something-year-old customer, not sure how to respond. These first couple of lines in the book had me hooked not to mention the floppiness of the book itself. I mean come on if you are a reader then you know exactly what I am talking about when I say the floppiness of the book, there is nothing like it. So about those first lines, I want to be clear that this is not a book about sex nor did I find it to be steamy. I enjoyed the romance in the story but more importantly, I enjoyed these three women and the struggles they each had to overcome in order to find happiness.
This is the story of three women who meet entirely by accident when they are viewing a property that non of them are able to afford. These women are each looking for a new location for their businesses. Bree owns a bookstore, Mikki owns a gift shop and Ashley owns a bakery. They all want this property that is located right on the beach because for one it is beautiful and for two they have a feeling it will really bring in customers. The three women decide to get the place together because it is big enough to hold each of their businesses without any issues or overcrowding. So what starts out with three shops coming together to create a perfect shopping experience soon morphs into three women becoming close friends. Each woman is from a different background and is of a different age but it just seems to work for them.
Bree is a single woman who has no use for a man other than a quick couple of romps in the hay. She prefers to be alone and makes that perfectly clear to each man she decides to take to bed (not her bed of course but their bed because they are not welcome in her home), the relationship will not go anywhere beyond being physical. This sounds completely heartless but I have to say that with the way Bree was raised or really in her case neglected and then used by her husband before his death, it makes complete sense why she is the way she is, it is a defense mechanism for her. I really enjoyed reading her story and how her past really had an impact on her present and future. On page 397 there are a couple of lines that really spoke to me from Bree that I am going to share because I think that they really touch on her as a character and one who has experienced trauma throughout her life. And because every now and then she wondered what it would be like to be the same as everyone else. Part of her longed for the freedom of being normal, but she wasn’t sure of the price she would have to pay.
Mikki I thought was such a fun character because I feel that she could be so relatable to so many women especially ones who have divorced or have grown up in the 1990s and 2000s basically a millennial. Mikki is a single mom to two children. One is a girl who is super smart and off to college and the other is a teenage boy around sixteen who is obsessed with cars. She thinks that she really has this divorce thing figured out because she has remained friends with her ex-husband and still has contact with her in-laws. Basically, it is like they are married but they do not live together and are not physically intimate with one another. However, after three years of being divorced, using Earl (her vibrator), and the fear of ending up like her mother, she decides she wants to hit the dating scene again. The problem comes with the fact that she has absolutely no idea how to go about it or the confidence to put herself back out there. Thank goodness that she has her girl tribe to help her out. In this story, we follow along with Mikki coming to terms with who she is, what she wants, and how she looks. We follow her while she is navigating her relationship with her ex and also trying to figure out how to maintain a relationship with a new man.
Ashley is a fun character who is in a relationship with the man of her dreams. The only thing she is waiting on is his proposal for marriage, I mean it only makes sense right because they live together already and are talking about buying a house, having kids, and getting a pet. Seth however has other ideas because he does not believe in marriage which completely knocks the wind out of Ashley. She needs to decide if her relationship with Seth is worth giving up her dream of becoming a wife or if she needs to break it off with him and just move on. I must point out though that this is just part of Ashley’s story because there is so much more to her than just a love story. She is the sister of a famous author, an employer of felons, a volunteer at an outreach program for foster kids that her brother and his friend Dave created, and well just so much more. I really enjoyed seeing how her story played out and I was delighted with the ending of it.
This story is about friendship and found family. It is about overcoming struggles and discovering who you are and what it is that you want out of life. If you are looking for a book about these things all while following along with these three remarkable women then please pick this book up. I enjoyed it so much and I am happy to say that this will not be my last Susan Mallery book. There are trigger warnings to be aware of so please check them down below.
Trigger Warnings:
- Parental Abuse
- Death of a Spouse
- Life Altering Car Accident
- Divorce
- Heart Attack of a Parent
- A Little Talk of Suicide
- Trauma