Beach House for Rent is a book of self discovery for the female characters in the book. It takes place today. The characters are believable. There is nothing remarkable about the book. The book was not rushed by the author seemingly for a specific deadline and had a slow pace which made it easy to have a beginning, middle and an end.. A three star rating is a nice rating for a nice story. ( )

I do love Mary Alice Monroe. Her books set in the Low Country always makes me want to visit the Isle of Palms. This is book number four in the series. I have read everything so far, except for "Beach House Memories".

This fourth book comes with major changes for the character of Cara Rutledge. Now 10 years after coming home to the Isle of Palms, she is happily married to Brett, but wishing that she had something passionate to be involved with. Doing the books for Brett's eco-tourism boat is okay, but it's not enough for her. Readers know that Cara and Brett tried multiple times to have children, and after multiple miscarriages, came to the decision that they were not meant to have children. Cara and Brett rent out Cara's deceased mother's cottage every summer. Now this year, they need the money more than any other time due to Brett's business struggling.

This brings us a new character, Heather who is being ushered out of her family home after her father's new marriage. Heather is going to evoke a lot of sympathy with readers. Still dealing with anxiety and PTSD after a car accident that left her mother dead, Heather is not good around people. Her father rents Cara's cottage in order to get her away from his new bride (near her age) and to allow Heather time to complete her commission by the U.S. Postal Service to pain shorebirds for new stamps. I have to say that Heather's profession was definitely a new one on me.

Monroe goes back and forth between Cara and Heather. You get to see two strong women in different points in their lives. One of them is dealing with something so huge though that it had me tearing up in sympathy too. Make sure that you keep tissues nearby. What I did like is that both Cara and Heather are going through things that are making them wish for their mothers to be there to comfort them. Instead they eventually start up a friendship that I loved.

I will complain though that I wanted more Flo and Ellie (Cara's long time friends and cheerleaders). I also think that Cara's brother Palmer is annoying. I did love how he stepped up for her in this one though. I wanted to see more of the other characters that we have been reading about for ages though like Toy and Little Lovie (see "Swimming Lessons").

The writing was like coming home again though. Being laid up I needed a comfort read. I had some books that were not doing a blessed thing for me that I sent back to the library. This one definitely hit the spot. The flow was good too. I just think that after a while I was more invested in Cara's story and Heather's story felt a bit too unfinished to me.

I absolutely loved that my Kindle version showed pictures of the different birds. I just wish it had been in color.

The ending surprised me, in a good way. Due to the changes in Cara's life, she decides a change is needed, and we have her trying something new. Immediately after finishing this, I went and bought "Beach House Reunion".
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Review:

In this Low-country tale we learn about loss, friendship and love. Cara and Heather find a way to live together after Cara goes through a tragedy that will change her life. Heather is new to the Beach House crew this summer, she brings with her a few canaries and learning about canaries had me wanting to run out and buy one. What a delightful full of personality little bird! I had no idea what good company they are! The setting is beautiful and I could just picture the beach and all the marvelous scenery and of course the sea turtles. Heather suffers from anxiety and the author does a wonderful job writing about how debilitating anxiety can be to a person, I commend Mary Alice Monroe for bringing this to light in this book. Heather slowly learns how to overcome her near agoraphobia with the help of Bo and we get to witness how Bo is her rock and guiding force in overcoming this debilitating disease. The romance between Bo and Heather was slow and sweet with many tender scenes. It was so refreshing to see these two come to love and depend on each other in a healthy way. Cara and Heather form a strong bond. Cara works through some of her issues through her friendship with Heather. We get to see the character of Cara grow stronger with each page. I think that is one of the things I loved about this book, watching Cara grow as a character. The canaries pretty near stole every scene that they were in and I could almost hear them singing! Of course the beautiful scenery of the Low-Country stole a few scenes as well.

Final Thoughts:

This book is for you if you love watching love blossom and friendships develop. As a bonus you get to hear canaries sing, smell the salt water air and feel the warm ocean breeze.This review was originally posted on Cindy's Book Binge ( )

I was given the chance to read this book early from NetGalley. As a fan of Mary Alice Monroe's books, it was already one I looked forward to reading.
I didn't realize this book was a series at first, it is from The Beach House series. It includes the recurring character Cara and adds a few new characters, namely Heather.

Cara and Heather are both at big turning points in their lives. Heather is afraid to be around crowds, people she doesn't know well, suffers panic attacks and is nearly housebound. She is in her late twenties and still lives with her dad, after losing her mother as a teenager. When her dad remarries and Heather is offered a very exciting job possibility, she moves temporarily to a beach house on the Isle of Palm, South Carolina. She has been commissioned to paint the local birds for a postal stamp.

I don't want to spoil Cara's storyline, because it took me by surprise. Cara is in her 50's and she is at a turning point in her life as well. In her life, she lacks passion for her job. Financially she's barely staying afloat. She was painfully facing the idea of selling her beach house when the opportunity to rent to Heather came along.

The setting in the story was beautiful. I can always picture Mary Alice Monroe's characters sitting outside on their balconies, watching the sunset and drinking a cold glass of white wine.
I also enjoy how she incorporates characters from her other stories (I caught that fun little cameo!).
I also love how her books always feature animal life prominently. In previous books she has included loggerhead turtles, dolphins, service dogs and now birds.
Canaries are the beautiful birds that Heather keeps as pets, pelicans make many cameos along the beach.

This book, while part of a series, could work as a stand alone book. That being said, I'd definitely suggest reading The Beach house because you will love Lovie and her turtles.

In Beach House for Rent we see a more vulnerable side to Cara. I also really enjoyed the characters Heather and Bo who just seemed like truly good people.
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What a wonderful story and anytime I can learn more about shore birds the better. I can keep reading about the Low Country forever. ( )