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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. ( )

Violet and Lilly are twins with an older sister, Cami. They have not been raised together because when their parents split up, Cami went to live with her father. But, when Lilly passes away it changes their family dynamics.

Lilly had a plan for a unique glampground. Rosemary, her mother, decides to make her daughters dream come true posthumously. It has turned into more than she bargained for. She reaches out to Cami to come fix some of the details. This throws Cami into a situation which may make her change her life plans!

It has been a while since I have read this author. In my opinion, this is her best book. I absolutely love all the characters especially Franklin Rafferty. He is the one which will pull at your heartstrings. Then there is Jon, he is at a loss on how to handle his father’s decline. He is doing the best he can and he has a huge heart. That definitely shows throughout this novel.

And…how could you turn down this cover. Oh my…it just wants the reader to jump in and get lost!

Need a good summer read that will have you smiling, laughing and sometimes crying….THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review. ( )

Terrific story of family, loss, and love. Told from alternating points of view, I loved seeing how each character processed what was going on around them. The people are realistically portrayed, their feelings and actions believable.

When oldest daughter, Cami, was fourteen, her parents divorced. She stayed in LA with her lawyer father, eventually becoming a lawyer herself. Her twin sisters, Violet and Lily, went to Cape Sanctuary with their free-spirited mother, Rosemary. Cami always felt like the odd one out when she visited. Twenty years later, Lily drowned while saving the lives of two little girls in Cape Sanctuary. Rosemary begs Cami to help untangle some complicated issues involving Lily's dream of a glampground on neighboring property.

I ached for Cami. She's still trying to process her grief over Lily's death while working long hours at her father's law firm. Though she doesn't know how much help she'll be, getting away to the peace of the beach sounds like exactly what she needs to recharge. As she nears her destination, she stops to help a man wearing a sling with a flat tire. Sparks fly between them, but Cami doesn't expect to see him again.

The man is Jon, an archaeologist who has been called home to deal with his estranged father. They haven't spoken in several years, but he gets word that Franklin is behaving oddly. He arrives home to discover his father in the early stages of dementia, tents set up on property that should be vacant, and the suspicion that the neighbors are trying to pull a fast one on his father.

Cami's sister Violet, Lily's twin, is a special education teacher in Sacramento. She comes to Cape Sanctuary for the summer to help Rosemary with the glampground. She struggles with the loss of her sister and best friend. She also feels guilty over an argument with Lily that they hadn't made up before Lily died. Complicating matters, she can't avoid running into Alex, her first love, whose daughter Ariana is one of the girls Lily died while rescuing.

I loved the intertwining of the various storylines. While Cami would like nothing more than to fix the glampground leasing issue, Jon's first thought is protecting his father. Cami is sympathetic to his problems and finds herself stepping in to help Jon with his dad. At the same time, the sparks between Cami and Jon continue to grow. There were some sweet scenes of the two of them together, with and without Franklin. It's easy to see their growing feelings, but there are also obstacles to a future together.

Franklin's medical issues are heartbreaking to watch, but on his good days, he is a delight. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him interact with Rosemary and the glampground guests. I was thrilled to see him and Jon repair their relationship with each other.

I ached for Violet and her tortured feelings. She loved Lily, but she also frequently felt like the pale imitation of her vivacious sister. Without Lily, though, she feels as if a piece of herself is missing. I liked seeing Violet and Cami begin to strengthen their bond in their shared grief. The night-time scene on the beach with them and a bottle of wine was emotional, funny, and eye-opening for them. It was also a great start to a new closeness.

Violet also must deal with her unresolved feelings for Alex. He makes it clear that he still cares about her and would like a second chance, but Violet is wary of trusting him with her heart again. There are several great scenes where Alex is there when she needs him and helps her work through her grief. I especially enjoyed the scene on the boat when she helped him with the whale-watching trip for the glampers. The question is whether she can let go of the past enough to move forward into the future with him and Ariana.

There's a heartwarming scene where the town holds a ceremony to honor Lily and her sacrifice. The kind words of the mayor and the heartfelt speech by Ariana make a world of difference to Lily's family. Cami's dad, Ted, was also there, and he wasn't what I expected. I enjoyed seeing him and Rosemary together. There are some intense moments near the end when Franklin wanders off, and Jon feels overwhelmed by what lies ahead. I loved his surprise at how people came together to help find him and Jon's realization that he's not alone. A moment of clarity in a discussion between Franklin and Jon reveals an unexpected twist in the leasing issue. I loved seeing Jon and Cami look at exploring their feelings for each other.

The epilogue was a terrific look at their lives a few years down the road. There's happiness and heartbreak, love and loss, but above all, the importance of family.

#netgalley ( )