I am going to start out by saying I was disappointed with this book. I wanted the story of the characters in the Beach House to continue. I wanted to know what happened to Peter and Katherine and Chris. But, that wasn't the way this book worked. You do find out about Julia - she still owns the house. But she isn't really a character in this story.

The format is the same with different tenants each month of summer. The continuing characters are the girls who live next door and help care for the house instead of Julia.

Again, I cared about the characters. But, not as much.
I felt a little cheated.
I am a series gal - I like stories that continue through volumes like Harry Potter and Gabladon's Outlander series.
I am not so interested in vignettes.

So - although the book was fun to read. It was also ok to end.

My 4th vacation book!! Yippee!! ( )

Three novellas wrapped up together in a beach house on the coast of California. The book is a follow up to The Beach House, but it wasn't necessary to have read the first. The tales are of a grandmother and her college age grandson, four women holding a reunion, and two photographers who have always put their jobs before their relationship. The stories follow each other over the course of one year in the life of the house. I enjoyed the descriptions of the coastline and the warmth of the stories. The ages of the characters were varied and the stories differed as a result. While I'm not a big fan of novellas, I spend a couple of pleasant evening reading this book. ( )

This novel made me smile, a continuation from THE BEACH HOUSE and ANOTHER SUMMER, I believe. It involved new people and old coming together once again to share in different phases of their life. This one dealt with younger adults starting their life so it will be a great addition to my 21 year old daughters christmas stocking. ( )

I am not usually one to read a book that is part of a series without first reading the rest of the series but this book is a great stand alone book. It is a book that includes a few takes revolving around one beach house. The characters in the book were well developed and I felt I really had time to get to know each one even though the book was really three short stories in one. I would definatly recommend this book to others. ( )

I hate starting in the middle of a series so I was happy to find that Return to the Beach House stands alone very nicely. The author does throw a lot of names at you at the beginning of each of the three short stories, but it’s manageable. With all the different characters in each story, I thought the author did a great job sharing everyone’s perspectives and transitioning smoothly between characters.

My one complaint with this book is that it was simply too short. I loved that each story involved characters dealing with relatable life challenges. They were all very emotional and really pulled me in. However, the short length made it inevitable that conflicts would often be tied up too neatly or inadequately. That meant this book fell squarely in the light, feel-good, beach read category for me. I was still impressed by some of the tough topics that were tackled though and overall I found the book a fun, enjoyable read.

This review first published at Doing Dewey. ( )