The Beach House
A Novel
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4.0 • 433 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
From the author of Falling and Sister Stardust comes the New York Times bestseller about finding your place in the place you call home.
Ever since her life took an unexpected turn, Nan Powell has enjoyed living alone on the sun-drenched shores of Nantucket. At sixty-five, she’s just as likely to be found at Windermere, her beach front home, as she is skinny dipping in her neighbor’s pool. But when the money she thought would last forever starts to dwindle, Nan decides to do something drastic to keep hold of her free-spirited life: open up Windermere to strangers.
After placing an ad for summer rentals touting water views, direct access to the beach, and a sexagenarian roommate, Nan’s once quiet house is soon full of noise, laughter, and the occasional bout of tears. Between her eclectic new tenants and the sudden return of her son, Nan gets a taste of what life is like when you have someone to care for besides yourself. But just as she starts to happily settle in to her new existence, the arrival of a visitor from her past threatens to turn everyone’s lives upside down...
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Jane Green’s summery novel is like a refreshing glass of lemonade. When eccentric widow Nan Powell starts renting out rooms in her sprawling Nantucket beach house, she takes in a recently divorced single mom, a married couple in crisis, and her own newly dumped adult son. A summer on the sand doesn’t translate into easy living for any of Green’s characters, especially when someone from Nan’s past returns to turn her life upside down. A charming story full of heartbreak, drama, and hope, The Beach House is an ideal summer read that makes you feel like you’re on Nantucket…even if you’re staying put.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
What begins as edgy and smart gets stuck in the sand in popular chick lit author Green's (Second Chance) soggy beach read. Richard and Daff separate after Richard has an affair, which plays havoc with their daughter, Jess. Bee and Daniel, who go to therapy to bridge their emotional gap, wind up facing the uncomfortable truth of what really separates them. Middle-aged Michael keeps finding all the wrong women, and Michael's dotty and endearing mom Nan, facing flagging finances, raises funds by letting rooms in her venerable Nantucket beach home, only to have to ward off ravenous developers. There's enough upheaval to keep the tale humming until the cast lands on Nan's doorstep, where, with unrelenting good humor and wisdom, the troubles with couples, families, kids, singles and sexual identity are predictably resolved before the Labor Day exodus. Unfortunately, the payoffs diminish as the story wears on.
Customer Reviews
A story full of life!
This story was full of love, joy, grief, fear, all the things that happen in real life in relationships. Maybe not such a glamorous place as Nantucket, but real feelings and people who could be real. Endings and beginnings, grieving loss, hoping for a better future, things we all experience in one form or another. I really liked this story and would have given it 5 stars if not for the annoying lack of page/scene breaks. Once I got the hang of the lack of separation between characters, it got easier to switch between them, but was still annoying.
Boring, predictable
This is an older book and other reviewers have written far better reviews, so I'm not going to bother. Suffice to say it's a 350 page soap opera with one dimensional characters and a highly improbable plot. It's hard to say which of these characters is most unbelievable but the 13 year old daughter is unlike any I've ever met... and I've met many. The only redeeming factor: it was only $1.99.
Good story, great characters
I enjoyed the book- it’s a great beach read and has a nice interweaving of the characters’ stories. The only thing I didn’t enjoy, is how there are no breaks when switching to a different character’a perspective/ sub- story. It just all runs together, and I often found myself rereading a few paragraphs in order to place the action/ character and realize that the author switched gears. A few empty lines to separate these subject switches, or a chapter inserted would be better.