Summer at the Cape - by Raeanne Thayne

Thanks to Book Club Cookbook and Harlequin Trade Publishing via Get Red PR for an advance reader copy, plus NetGalley for a digital copy. All comments and opinions are my own. This was an easy-to-read summer beach book. Romance, romance, and romance….it’s no surprise when all three couples work out their differences by the last page. But getting to that point are tangled family dynamics amid issues of forgiveness, as well as loss and grief. While this is #4 in the series, it’s my first one and can easily be read as a standalone. There are three sisters, two of them twins and one has recently died tragically while saving two young girls from a dangerous riptide. The setting is the beautiful and rugged Northern California Cape Sanctuary, which seems to be a stand-in for the actual town of Mendocino. The girls’ mother, divorced for over 10 years, asks the girls to come home and help with the newly launched upscale “glampground” of Wild Hearts. In addition to the logistics of running the resort, each woman has an attraction to a man - mother Rosemary, older sister Cami, and remaining twin Violet. Author RaeAnne Thayne navigates between an enemies to lovers and two second chance romance storylines. This book was just “OK” for me. I thought the characters were one-dimensional. Even with the chapters changing points of view between three characters, I didn’t really connect with or care about them. I liked the conceptual themes of family, loss, and forgiveness, but there weren’t any exciting or surprising plot developments, and the novel overall was very predictable. If you want an easy beach read with an ending neatly tied up with a bow, this is the book for you.

Summer at the Cape by RaeAnne Thayne has Cami Porter and her younger sister, Violet heading to Cape Sanctuary. Cami received an urgent call from her mother, Rosemary. She finds herself in a pickle and needs her daughter’s legal expertise to resolve a lease dispute. The family is still grieving over the loss of Violet’s twin sister, Lily who died in February saving two little girls. Cami is also hoping this will allow her to grow closer to her sister and mother. After her parent’s divorce when she was a teen, Cami lived with her father in Los Angeles while the twins lived with their mother in Cape Sanctuary. She feels disconnected from them and hopes to rectify the matter. She is unprepared for the handsome son of the next-door neighbor who is challenging the lease agreement. Violet hopes she can get through the summer without seeing her old beau. It has been ten years since he broke her heart, but she has yet to get over him. In a town as small as Cape Sanctuary, that is too much to ask. Every time Violet turns around, she runs into him and his sweet little girl. It is going to be an unexpected summer for the Porter ladies. Summer at the Cape is well-written with realistic characters and situations. The story is told in alternating points-of-view (Cami, Jon, Violet). I thought the author captured the beginning of Alzheimer’s with Franklin’s character. I loved the town of Cape Sanctuary. I can see why Rosemary loves to live there. Cape Sanctuary is a caring community. You could tell that Rosemary loves the area and she knows everyone who lives there. It was interesting learning about the glamping business dreamed up by Violet’s twin, Lily. The story delves into grief, family relationships, Alzheimer’s, second chance romance, forgiveness, and a new romance. I liked seeing the characters grow, resolve their past issues, and move forward with hope in their hearts. It is an emotional novel that is also uplifting. It is a good escape novel (a good vacation book). I am glad the author included an epilogue. Summer at the Cape is a heartwarming tale with lease wrangling, a striking son, a grief-stricken sister, jovial glampers, a singular storyteller, an unforeseen romance, and a charming conclusion.