Book Review: The Shore

A couple weeks ago, I made a bookstagram account (Instagram account focused completely on books). I have a books tab dedicated to book reviews here on the blog. Every month I summarize all books I’ve read the month prior. I wanted to do more, so on my bookstagram (@boatmarked) I sign all book reviews worthy of 5 or 4 stars in American Sign Language.

I also joined a website (Net Galley) for book bloggers, librarians, booksellers, educators and more. It’s a website where you can request advanced copies of upcoming books. The very first book I requested was ‘The Shore’ by Katie Runde. I was excited when I was approved and given the advanced copy to read. Boy, did I know what I was getting!

Synopsis:

Set over the course of one summer, this perfect beach read follows a mother and her two daughters as they grapple with heartbreak, young love, and the weight of family secrets.

Brian and Margot Dunne live year-round in Seaside, just steps away from the bustling boardwalk, with their daughters Liz and Evy. The Dunnes run a real estate company, making their living by quickly turning over rental houses for tourists. But the family’s future becomes even more precarious when Brian develops a brain tumor, transforming into a bizarre, erratic version of himself. Amidst the chaos and new caretaking responsibilities, Liz still seeks out summer adventure and flirting with a guy she should know better than to pursue. Her younger sister Evy works in a candy shop, falls in love with her friend Olivia, and secretly adopts the persona of a middle-aged mom in an online support group, where she discovers her own mother’s most vulnerable confessions. Meanwhile, Margot faces an impossible choice driven by grief, impulse, and the ways that small-town life in Seaside has shaped her. Falling apart is not an option, but she can always pack up and leave the beach behind.

The Shore is a powerful, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel infused with humor about young women finding sisterhood, friendship, and love in a time of crisis. This big-hearted family saga examines the grit and hustle of running a small business in a tourist town, the ways we connect with strangers when our families can’t give us everything we need, and the comfort to be found in embracing the pleasures of youth while coping with unimaginable loss.

Review:

I thought about this book for days when I finished it! I felt like I connected with the family, like a friend on the sideline watching them going through a challenging time. It was a heavly loaded book, but a beautiful story of the reality of illnesses. It made me think a lot of my best friend who I lost to a brain tumor in 2003. The book was sad, heartbreaking but also touching, inspiring. How can it be inspiring? The strength of the family. How they stuck together in their journey, even through each had their own way of grieving. I also smiled as my personal memories of the Jersey shore were stirred up from reading the book. The author’s writing of the boardwalk made me want to teleport there immediately. I loved the nostalgia! Worth a read!

The Shore will be released on May 24th.

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.