Jersey Girl Book Reviews: May 2023

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

The Visitor by Joanne DeMaio (Book Review)

Book Review

The Visitor by Joanne DeMaio

Book #18: The Seaside Saga Series

Publisher: Joanne DeMaio

Publication Date: May 15, 2023

Format: Paperback - 272 pages

Audiobook - 7 Hours 51 Minutes

Kindle - 2120 KB

Nook - 850 KB

ISBN: 979-8364604859

ASIN (Audiobook): B0BPJXSSVH

ASIN (Kindle): B0BMWG8SQT

BNID: 2940185606292

Genre: Women's Fiction

Buy The Book:

Amazon

Buy The Series: The Seaside Saga Series

Book 1: Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans

Book 2: The Denim Blue Sea

Book 3: Beach Blues

Book 4: Beach Breeze

Book 5: The Beach Inn

Book 6: Beach Bliss

Book 7: Castaway Cottage

Book 8: Night Beach

Book 9: Little Beach Bungalow

Book 10: Every Summer

Book 11: Salt Air Secrets

Book 12: Stony Point Summer

Book 13: The Beachgoers

Book 14: Shore Road

Book 15: The Wait

Book 16: The Goodbye

Book 17: The Barlows

Book 18: The Visitor

Book 19: Stairway To The Sea (Publish Date: Aug 1. 2023)

Amazon

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for my honest review.

Book Description:

From New York Times bestselling author Joanne DeMaio comes The Visitor, Book 18 of The Seaside Saga.

In the dark of a summer night, everything can change. A moment can tip on edge. The salt air might stir. Or still. The waves might roll in. Or recede. A heart might fill. Or break. In two different cottages, the night is coming undone. As the sun sinks into the sea, as evening presses in, the summer calm is broken. Until an unexpected visitor arrives.

And The Seaside Saga continues.

My Book Review:

In The Visitor, the beach friends' story continues where The Barlows left off. Author Joanne DeMaio transports the reader back to the tranquil seashore town of Stony Point, Connecticut. The story picks up in early September, where our beach friends lives are like the tides, sometimes they keep moving and changing, but they will always have the support of their friends and family.

In The Visitor, Author Joanne DeMaio easily captivates her readers' attention with this beautifully written tale through a seamless and flowing storyline, and with a wonderful description of a tranquil beach setting that wraps itself around the reader like a sun-warmed beach towel. The characters draw you into their lives with a strong emotional pull, their complexities and flaws are true-to-life, it is easy to relate to them with compassion, empathy, and hope.

The Visitor is an intricate story of interweaving friendships and ever changing life events. It is a wonderful story that continues to demonstrate the power of the magical sweet salt air that will cure what ails you. In this eighteenth installment in The Seaside Saga Series, the author weaves a story that focuses on a traumatic incident that affects Shane Bradford, and how his family and friends provide support and love to help him cope with it.

Shane unexpectedly has to deal with a traumatic incident on the lobster boat that will forever change his life. He is very distraught and panicked so he calls Jason ... needless to say the beach friends and family reach out to Shane at his home in Rockport, Maine, to assist him in coping with his grief, and how to deal with his life one hour at a time.

I loved how this installment's main focus is on Shane, and how a traumatic incident provides a life lesson, and strengthens the love and support provided to him by the beach friends and family, and how it shows the beach friends how to embrace and live in the moment. As the beach friends embrace Shane and each other in good and bad times, life's surprises and changes shows them how some things are trivial, and how it's the people in their lives that are most important. I think this was the most emotional of the books in the series, you can't help but feel the full gamut of emotions as Shane deals with a very traumatic incident, and how his struggle is lessened by the love and support of his friends and family.

At the end of the book, the author teases her readers with another cliffhanger ending: waiting on how Elsa, Cliff, Mitch, Celia and Shane's relationships will turn out. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what is revealed in Stairway To The Sea, the nineteenth installment of the series ... sigh.

In this installment in the series, the reader follows along with the beach friends' lives that are full of friendship, love, secrets, regrets, challenges, heartbreak, grief, surprises, and second chances. As you read this installment, the beach friends continue along in their life journey in Stony Point.

So now that I have whet your interest in the beach friends latest comings and goings, drive under the railroad trestle and enter the enchanting beach town of Stony Point ... pull up a beach chair ... and visit with the close-knit longtime friends in author Joanne DeMaio's delightful novel, The Visitor.

The Seaside Saga Series is a heartwarming series of stories of friendship, family, painful secrets, new beginnings and second chances. Author Joanne DeMaio weaves a wonderful tale written in the third person narrative, that is set in the present with flashbacks to the past. The reader is transported to the tranquil seashore town of Stony Point, Connecticut, where they follow along with Celia, Maris, Eva, Matt, Jason, Kyle, Lauren, Nick, Elsa, Cliff, and Shane as their lives change like the tide's ebb and flow on their little tranquil coastal town.

RATING: 5 STARS

About The Author

Joanne DeMaio is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction. She enjoys writing about friendship, family, love and choices, while setting her stories in New England towns or by the sea. The Visitor is her newest novel. She is currently at work on her next novel. Joanne lives with her family in Connecticut.

Author Website
Amazon Author Page

BookBub
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Goodreads