Publisher: Berkley Trade | Published: June 26, 2012
428 pages | Genre: Contemporary Romance & General Fiction
Wendy Wax Website
Have I got a book for your pool or beach trips this summer ~ It has a little bit for everyone and rallies into a book of hope for anyone suffering from the Ponzi scheme, economic woes, relationship issues with significant other….with mothers….and with our closest girlfriends.
In Ten Beach Road where we first meet Maddy, Kyra and the gang, it is Kyra who films the unlikely group as they re-do a home left to the four strangers…then she posts the videos on YouTube leading to a possible Lifetime show if they can make the pilot a success. All of the women are surprised when they get to the do over home that the network is looking at the show as being more reality tv rather than home improvement.
Kyra is a single mother of a six-month old toddler….the father is a famous Hollywood star I would almost compare to a Brad Pitt type of star-quality. They met during Ten Beach Road, had a tumultuous affair leading to the bambino….but the star did not want to leave his wife and their four adopted children. Kyra was broken-hearted and left to raise the baby with the help of her mother.
Maddy is the consummate mother who had to step up as the breadwinner when her husband lost his job and entered into a deep depression. She has two grown children, Andrew and Kyra. In Ocean Beach, Maddy chooses to follow her daughter and 6-month old grandson to film a pilot entitled do over rather than stay in Atlanta with her husband of 25 years. (side note…the daughter obviously needed Maddy more than the husband did, but he is a big, giant baby about it!)
I have not read Ten Beach Road and wish that I had prior to reading Ocean Beach. It’s not absolutely necessary, but I think it would have helped me understand the dynamics of the women earlier in Ocean Beach. I felt I was playing catch up until about half-way through the book.
Nicole ran a millionaire matchmaker business until it came out that it was her brother who ripped off thousands in the Ponzi scheme. She had nothing to do with it, did not know about it (as far as I can tell in reading Ocean Beach) but she did lose all of her money to her brother and lost her business contacts in the process. The chance of filming the pilot for do over is really a life do over for her.
Avery and her mother Deidre are at odds throughout most of the book. Avery is the contractor in charge of the project in Miami but she has a ton of baggage to deal with like the interior designer brought in by the network (her mother, Deidre), with her ex who “stole the show” Avery and he had on HGTV, and with her current beau who is trying to help her out but she’s guy shy (or is that gun shy). Out of all the characters, I disliked Avery the most but probably also learned the most – what a dichotomy, hmmm?
Deidre is an interior designer of high-end homes, Avery’s mother, and a woman trying to overcome past mistakes. She walked out on her husband and teenage daughter to follow her dream job and trying to wean her way back into Avery’s life is taking a lot of work. Avery has never forgiven her mother’s abandonment and no matter how many times Deidre apologizes nor how much she does for Avery, it seems as though their reconciliation is doomed from the start.
Ocean Beach is about so many things – relationships, forgiveness, revenge, art deco (really cool design stuff in here!) and making lemonade out of lemons. Each character was so finely drawn and detailed that I felt as though I knew them personally by the end of the book. Speaking of characters – the two who stole the show were Max and The Millicent! Max is the 90-year old owner of The Millicent where he lived for over 50 years with the absolute love of his life, Millie. He made a death-bed promise to his bride that he would return The Millicent to her glory days. Max and Millie were a stand up vaudeville act back in the day…appearing on such shows as The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy. And Max’s ability to make people smile and laugh shines through.
Ocean Beach is human nature at its best…worst…and everything in between. I plan to take Ten Beach Road with me on vacation so I’ll be all caught up when hopefully Wendy Wax comes out with a third installment of the do over ladies!
Many thanks to the publisher for the complimentary review copy.
