Customer Reviews

A Month At The Shore

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An engrossingly interesting story of three siblings, who were considered outcasts while growing up, and their attempt to revive the family business and restore the family's reputation in the quaint Cape Cod community with the help of some old friends and not-so-good friends. In order to accomplish this goal, they need to confront and resolve the issues of their past, and handle new wrenches thrown their way, including solving a crime that occurred on their property and was recently discovered, threatening to destroy all their efforts.

I would have given this a higher rating, but I wasn't convinced that Ken and the Shore siblings came to their crime-solving conclusions based on the evidence their sleuthing came up with. It just seemed to easy that they figured it all out correctly when it wasn't the obvious or typical response. As well, only 2 of the 3 siblings find happiness in the end, and it was unsatisfying that one remained hurting without closure and a happy ending too. I didn't guess who the murderer was (although the victim was obvious from the start).

Ken is a gem! A sturdy rock for Laura to lean on! What a wonderful, down-to-earth man, who was willing to go against popular opinion and believe the best about people, and would go through great lengths to support them. As well, the initial lovemaking scene between Ken and Laura started off wonderfully, but sort of fell apart in a very unsatisfying fashion.

I really didn't enjoy this book that much... I never grew to like the characters. I know this is supposed to be a stupid romance novel, but the plot was overly contrived, the characters all spoke very similarly/had the same personality, and I didn't identify with them. The writing was not bad, and the book was generally ok, but I can't really enjoy a book if I don't enjoy its characters and can predict the entire plot from the first chapter.

Following the funeral of their oppressive father, siblings Laura and Snack Shore return home to Cape Cod for the first time in years unlike their sister Corinne who still lives at home. Corinne persuades her two reluctant siblings to stay for one month to try to turn around Shore Gardens, the family nursery that has been a failure for years because she feels the business can be saved if family was around to do so.

Laura's school classmate Kendall Barclay runs the bank. When he and Laura were children, he took a pounding to rescue her from an assault. He always liked Laura and she him, but nothing major came of it except some heartache. However, when a corpse is found on the property, police investigate. But so does the three Shores. Only Ken keeps Laura safe, as he wants her more than ever and vows no one will harm her, but she still avoids committing beyond a tenuous friendship.

Fans will enjoy spending A MONTH ON THE SHORE as this summer romance contains several enjoyable characters. The Shore siblings are distinct individuals that make it easy to follow them while Ken is a wannabe knight in shining armor when it comes to Laura. The murder mystery takes a back seat to the romance except when Laura (and in some ways more so Corinne) is a damsel in distress. Antoinette Stockenberg provides a strong tale of a family in trouble.

Harriet Klausner