Sandcastles

Sandcastles always wash away with the tides, but a family's love is forever.

In Luanne Rice's Sandcastles this is just what is expected from the Sullivan family. Sisters, Regis, Agnes, and Cecilia have never seen love as strong as that shared by their parents, John and Honor Sullivan. Their passion feeds off of each other and creates the innovative painter and sculptor that they are. The girls always thought their family's love would last through anything.

One stormy, fateful day on a trip in Ireland, the Sullivan family is changed dramatically when John is sent to prison over a mishap with one of his sculptures. Six years later, Honor and her daughters are living their lives alone at Star of the Sea Academy in Connecticut under the careful watch of Mother Superior Bernadette Ignatius, John's sister.

All five girls wait patiently for John's return only to find that he will be arriving much sooner than expected. His daughters are excited for their father to come home to them. They can't wait to inform him of everything he missed in their lives while he was away, most importantly about the engagement of his eldest daughter, Regis.

Naturally Regis, Agnes, and Cecilia expect their mother to be just as excited for John's return as they are. They imagine she'll run into their father's arms, just like in all the romantic movies. But for Honor, John's homecoming brings mixed feelings. She doesn't know how to let go of what happened in Ireland, nor does she know how to react to a husband that's been gone for so long.

Although she still loves him, he broke her heart six years ago, and she doesn't believe that it has fully healed. Honor worries about how her daughters will respond to their father that they barely know.

Bernadette is the only one who knows the truth of Honor's feelings, and even through she's ecstatic for the return of her brother, she also worries about her nieces. Things become even more worrisome when secret messages are inscribed in the chapel at Star of the Sea. Faded memories become real, leading to the appearance of an archangel and the disappearance of one of the Sullivan daughers.

Sandcastles is a painstakingly real novel that defines the true love that can only come from a family. It's full of hope, love, and the reassurance that family will always be there through thick and thin, no matter what hardships may come along in life.

What I Did for Love

Glamour, fame, and fortune: the life of a Hollywood star. Everyone knows your name, who your friends are, your films, family members, life story, personal drama...

In What I Did for Love, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Georgie York leads this exact life. At first everything is certainly glamorous all around, until the paparazzi captures her heartbreaking divorce with one of the top actors in Hollywood and pastes it on the front cover of every popular entertainment magazine.

Georgie began her career as a star on the sitcom "Skip and Scooter", with her loathed costar, Bram Shepard. Everyone on the set catered to Bram and his dreaminess, while Georgie took a back seat and watched his career slowly go up in flames due to alcohol, drugs, and bad influences.

Now, it is Georgie's career that's going up in flames as the world is shown her every raw emotion and open wounds from her devastating divorce. To top it off, every headline on the entertainment magazines highlights some good deed that her ex-husband's new wife is performing to save the world.

Just as she thinks her life can't get any worse, she wakes up in bed with a strange man. This man just so happens to be Bram Shepard, and he just so happens to have their wedding certificate in the pocket of his pants.

Naturally, this scandal would shoot Georgie's career through the roof and most likely make it disappear forever, so she can't do anything but go along with the show, just like the good little actress she is. Luckily Bram agrees to go along, as well, since he's trying to resurrect his acting career from the dead. Plus, Georgie agrees to pay him.

Flames and fire shoot through Bram's house as the not-so-happy newlyweds try to get along for the paparazzi. As the drama unfolds, Georgie begins to see the bad boy in a new light, and Bram concludes that there's nothing wrong with being a goody-goody. But it's all part of the act, right?

What I Did for Love is an excellent novel full of scandal, deceit, and of course, lots of acting. This book brings the Hollywood life into a new light and places an excellent heroine in the spotlight. With humor and many surprise romances, readers will love following the adventures of Georgie York and Bram Shepard.

The Beach House

Nothing can be more relaxing and therapeutic than a few days by the water, sun, and sand.

In The Beach House, by Jane Green, Nan, the sixty-five year old, rambunctious woman who everyone in Nantucket knows of, opens her home to guests wanting a few days of blissful vacation by the beach.

First, there’s Daniel, needing space away from his wife for the summer, who decides to come to Nan’s beach house. He and his wife have spent months with a therapist, struggling with a marriage that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Daniel is quiet and finds it difficult to open up to his wife, especially about his one secret that would tear their family apart forever.

Next comes Daff, a real-estate agent needing some serious alone time with her thoughts and herself after her overwhelming divorce. Her young, teenage daughter struggles so much with the divorce, that Daff actually considers letting her spend some time with her father and his new girlfriend. Although guilty at first, Daff finally is free to just be herself and not have to worry about walking on eggshells in the presence of a teenager.

Finally, Nan is ecstatic to have her son, Michael, come home for the summer. Michael has been so busy as a top jeweler in New York that he barely has time to visit his mother in Nantucket, his home and favorite place in the world. After ending yet another disastrous relationship, he escapes to Nantucket to help his mom with her lovely home on top of the bluff.

Nan is so happy to have her home bustling with people again, that she doesn’t even focus on the money that’s slowly fading away in her bank account and the huge mansions that are being built all around her beach house, taking the place of previous small, beach homes that have always made up Nantucket.

As the group slowly receives their much needed relaxation, some visitors arrive in Nantucket that change the leisure time to anxiety time.

The Beach House is a wonderful beach read that tells the tale of numerous characters who all form a solid connection in the end. This novel looks at many different perspectives that all tie into one destination- finding one’s true self.