REVIEW: NIGHT BEACH, BY JOANNE DEMAIO

 

Everything was in place for the perfect beachside gathering. Lace-wrapped jars hung from white chairs on the sand. Paper lanterns and tiki torches glimmered in the twilight evening. A rowboat draped with roses and vines waited in the wings. Love floated on the salt air.

Until the arrival of a mysterious guest named Shane Bradford, a lobsterman with a tangled past in this little New England beach town.

Like a sudden sea breeze, the special evening quickly turns. And the residents of Stony Point must tread the darker water Shane brings to their Night Beach.

My Thoughts: In Night Beach, the chaos left behind after the cancelled ceremony brought up memories for those in the beach community. Flashing back to the past and to a time before Shane Bradford did whatever he did to earn being “evicted” from their lives offered a peek into how things were back then.

Whatever he did was not readily apparent to the reader, and even some members of the community were in the dark.

Multiple narrators take us back to the past, as we watch the “time clock” of the present…and slowly we learn more.

Along the way, the author takes us on a walk near the driftline, and we can almost see the ocean stars in the sea. As we peek into the cottages where the residents talk and share their thoughts, we feel a part of the community. In a little cabin in Addison, where Kyle and Lauren seek respite from the detritus of the day, we imagine how they will begin to heal.

I always enjoy these characters, even the parts where they blunder along, making a mess of things. In the end, they manage to move beyond whatever disturbance they have created. A lovely 5 star read.

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