Drawing a Line In The Sand

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Books about summer, settings that include a body of water , an author you know will not disappoint – all reasons that I chose to add this to my summer reading list. Not surprised at all that it checked off each box and earned it’s spot. I enjoyed the storyline of the three sisters who all hold juicy secrets that come bubbling to the surface and discovering how they would resolve the issues at hand.

Summer by The Tides will tug at your heartstrings from the moment the three sisters arrive at their grandmother’s Seahaven cottage to find her missing. Those dynamics continue until the end when generational family secrets are exposed. Each sister has her own problems hiding behind closed doors, but it doesn’t take long for them to come barreling  out. The angst between two of the sisters is one I have not yet read in a book, so it was interesting to see how the riff was tackled. “Drawing a line in the sand” brought about many meanings in different chapters. Coastal, boating and ocean themes were brilliantly sprinkled throughout. My coastal loving heart couldn’t have been more smitten with every line I read with a metaphor in it.

And then there is Grams – oh Grams. She doesn’t come on the scene until the last few chapters, but boy does she make a statement. She is in her eighties, spunky and says just what she is thinking. One of her lines is “But things aren’t always as they seem.” and that one line sums up the book!

Love is too big a risk or is it? That is the question that is pondered throughout. Before I even opened the book to read it, I knew it would be a winner. Denise Hunter always has a way of pulling me into her stories. Summer by The Tides is no different.

Grab Summer By The Tides and toss it in your beach or pool bag. It has a great story and touches on family dynamics and everything that comes along with it. Enjoy this coastal read!

NOTE: I received an e-copy of this book for review via NetGalley and Celebrate Lit. In no way has this influenced my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Summer By The Tides is on tour with Celebrate Lit. 

Summer by the Tides on tour with Celebrate Lit

About the Book

Summer by the tides | Author Denise Hunter

Book: Summer by The Tides

Author: Denise Hunter

Genre: Christian Fiction, Contemporary Romance

Release Date: May 21, 2019

From the bestselling author of The Convenient Groom (now a beloved Hallmark Original movie) comes a heartfelt story of family secrets, forgiveness, and unexpected romance.

Following a painful betrayal, Maddy Monroe’s love life is a wreck, and her restaurant career is in shambles. When her grandmother goes missing, she and her estranged sisters converge at the family beach house in Sea Haven, North Carolina. Being with uptight Nora and free-spirited Emma at the place where their family broke apart is a struggle, and undercurrents of jealousy and resentment threaten to pull the sisters under. In the midst of the storm, sparks begin to fly between Maddy and Gram’s maddening neighbor, Connor Murphy.

As the sisters pack up the family belongings, memories of idyllic, slow-paced summers are resurrected. But long-buried secrets also come to light as Maddy discovers that all was not as it appeared that last summer in Sea Haven—nor today in the seemingly perfect lives of her sisters.

As family tensions rise and Connor causes tumult in Maddy’s heart, the sisters must find a way to accept each other for the women they’ve become before the bitterness of the past destroys their hope for a future.

Click here to purchase your copy.

About the Author

Denise Hunter author

Denise Hunter is the internationally published bestselling author of more than 25 books, including A December Bride and The Convenient Groom, which have been adapted into original Hallmark Channel movies. She has won The Holt Medallion Award, The Reader’s Choice Award, The Carol Award, The Foreword Book of the Year Award, and is a RITA finalist. When Denise isn’t orchestrating love lives on the written page, she enjoys traveling with her family, drinking green tea, and playing drums. Denise makes her home in Indiana where she and her husband are rapidly approaching an empty nest. To learn more about Denise, visit her website DeniseHunterBooks.com; Facebook: AuthorDeniseHunter; Twitter: @DeniseAHunter; Instagram: deniseahunter.

 

Read an Excerpt from Summer by the Tides

Maddy Monroe was cowering behind a ficus tree near the hostess station when her cell phone rang. Her hands shook as she silenced the phone before it drew the attention of the staff.

She jabbed the elevator button for the third time. “Come on, come on.” A star could be born in interstellar space, a polar valley carved by a glacier in the time it took the elevator to reach this floor. Stairs were not an option, as she was on the twentieth floor of the Waterford building and sporting heels.

She sniffled. Drat. She seemed to be crying. She swiped a hand under her eyes, heedless of her makeup.

She heard voices, Nick’s boisterous laugh. Maddy shrank deeper into the ficus and finally, finally, the elevator dinged its arrival.

“Maddy?” Noelle’s concerned voice tunneled down the hall. “Maddy, wait.”

“Oh, come on,” she muttered, tapping her fingers against her leg until the gold doors crept open. As soon as she could fit, she squeezed inside and punched the ground-floor button.

She didn’t draw a breath until the doors sealed and the elevator began to drop. She placed a palm over a heart that was threatening to beat its way out of her chest. Her white blouse clung to her back, and her skin prickled beneath her arms.

She closed her eyes, the scene that had just transpired playing out in fast-forward in her mind. And then, as if that montage weren’t painful enough, the image of Nick’s face appeared. The look on his face just before he’d kissed her good-bye last night.

Nick. She clamped her teeth together until her jaw ached.

There had been signs. Many of them, really, she was realizing now. They ranged from whisper-subtle to neon-sign obvious. But like so many other walking clichés before her, she was only seeing them in retrospect.

Maddy opened her eyes to the buttery sunlight streaming through her blinds. She scrambled for her iPhone to check the time. But as she did so, the events of yesterday washed over her like a tsunami. She didn’t have to get up at all, because she didn’t have a job anymore.

Her cell buzzed with an incoming call, and she squinted bleary-eyed at the unfamiliar number on the screen before declining it.

She drooped against her pillow, only now aware of how fat and swollen her eyes felt. Of the persistent achy lump pushing at the back of her throat. Her heartbeat made the bed quake. Her eyes burned with tears. Yesterday’s anger had faded, and something worse had filled its spot.

Yesterday she’d come home, changed into yoga pants, and worked in her little garden until she was too exhausted to do anything but flop on the sofa. She hadn’t fallen asleep until after three o’clock in the morning.

She didn’t want to talk to anyone, didn’t want to see anyone. She didn’t even want to be awake today. She pulled the covers over her head and prayed for oblivion.

Taken from “Summer by the Tides” by Denise Hunter. Copyright © 2019 by Denise Hunter. Used by permission of http://www.thomasnelson.com/.

 

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