Book Review
The Barlows by Joanne DeMaio
Book #17: The Seaside Saga Series
Publisher: Joanne DeMaio
Publication Date: March 1, 2023
Format: Paperback - 258 pages
Audiobook - 7 Hours 9 Minutes
Kindle - 1972 KB
Nook - 677 KB
ISBN: 979-8846507944
ASIN (Audiobook): B0BN2G5PMX
ASIN (Audiobook): B0BN2G5PMX
ASIN (Kindle): B0B61KZQN6
BNID: 2940186717881
BNID: 2940186717881
Genre: Women's Fiction
Buy The Book:
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 (Publication Date: May 15, 2023)
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 Barlows, Book 17 of The Seaside Saga.
Jason and Maris. To the residents of Stony Point, they're simply known as the Barlows. Their home is a shingled New England cottage on the bluff, where salt air breezes stir and gulls cry and spirits roam. But like wisps of sea fog, darkness has touched upon their lives this summer. Will light and love return to their old weathered cottage by the sea?
And The Seaside Saga continues.
My Book Review:
In The Barlows, the beach friends' story continues where The Goodbye 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.
In The Barlows, 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 Barlows 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 installment in The Seaside Saga Series, the author continues to weave a story that focuses on the reunion of Jason and Maris' marriage; Elsa's attempt to apologize to Celia and her ongoing predicament in deciding who to choose in the love triangle with Cliff Raines and Mitch Fenwick; and the continued blossoming secret relationship between Celia Gray and Shane Bradford.
In The Barlows, the beach friends' story continues where The Goodbye 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.
In The Barlows, 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 Barlows 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 installment in The Seaside Saga Series, the author continues to weave a story that focuses on the reunion of Jason and Maris' marriage; Elsa's attempt to apologize to Celia and her ongoing predicament in deciding who to choose in the love triangle with Cliff Raines and Mitch Fenwick; and the continued blossoming secret relationship between Celia Gray and Shane Bradford.
In this seventeenth installment in the series, the author continues to keep the reader engaged as the beach friends continue to deal with ongoing and new issues.
Maris and Jason find their way back to each other, only to have Maris experience a near miss accident with a deer, which brings the beach friends and family to their cottage to checkup on them; while Elsa's still feeling angst over deciding between Cliff and Mitch, and how she will deal with the tension between her and Celia; and how Shane and Celia strenghten their blossoming love in a long-distance romance.
I loved how this installment's main focus is on Jason and Maris' reunion, and how a scary incident provides a life lesson and strengthens their love, and shows them and the beach friends how to embrace and live in the moment. As the beach friends embrace Maris and Jason 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 also love the ongoing love triangle between Elsa, Cliff, and Mitch, the men sure man-up their efforts in this segment! Finally, Shane and Celia express their love for each other, but a long distance romance is tough on the heart.
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, oh but there's more, she leaves the reader with a suspenseful cliffhanger ending that will leave the reader with a feeling of dread when something has happened to Shane back in Maine. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what is revealed in The Visitor, the eighteenth 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 Barlows.
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
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