Book Review – The Beach House – Mary Alice Monroe

I am a huge fan of Hallmark movies. Yes, they tend to be totally predictable, but I love them. With all the turmoil in the world, it is nice to watch these movies and just relax. I laugh every Christmas when the drinking game appears. You know, the one that says do this if you see this person in a movie or find someone with this name, etc. You’d definitely be drunk by the end of like 5 minutes. Okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. Ha!

Last year at Mother’s Day The Beach House premiered. In fact, I haven’t seen it since, but that doesn’t mean anything. I recorded it to watch at a later date. Here is where I tell you it was a really good movie. I did find out however that it was based on a book by Mary Alice Monroe, so I went on the hunt for the book. Turns out it was in the Kindle Unlimited app, so I took the opportunity to read it.

If you’ll notice, my last book ended in January. So doesn’t this look funny that it is now April? Well, this was an extremely good book but it was hard for me to get into. It was interesting to see the similarities and the differences, book to film. They always say the books are better and I think this was the case. Although I pictured the movie characters as I was reading the book.

The Beach House – Mary Alice Monroe 

Known for her moving characters and emotional honesty, Mary Alice Monroe brings readers a beautifully rendered story that explores the fragile yet enduring bond between mothers and daughters.

Caretta Rutledge thought she’d left her Southern roots and troubled family far behind. But an unusual request from her mother — coming just as her own life is spinning out of control — has Cara heading back to the scenic Lowcountry of her childhood summers. Before long, the rhythms of the island open her heart in wonderful ways as she repairs the family beach house, becomes a bona fide “turtle lady” and renews old acquaintances with her mother that she will earn life’s most precious lessons — true love involves sacrifice, family is forever and the mistakes of the past can be forgiven.

Thoughts

I really liked the book. It was easy to see why it was made into a Hallmark movie. It was rather slow-moving. I won’t lie about that, but I still really liked the book and the movie.