The Beach at Painter’s Cove by Shelley Noble- Review

Title: The Beach at Painter’s Cove
Author: Shelly Noble
Rating: 3/5

About The Beach at Painter’s Cove

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (June 13, 2017)

From the New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Beach comes another heartwarming story of four generations of women who reunite in their crumbling family mansion by the sea for a dramatic summer filled with love, family, secrets and sisterhood.

The Whitaker family’s Connecticut mansion, Muses by the Sea, has always been a haven for artists, a hotbed of creativity, extravagances, and the occasional scandal. Art patrons for generations, the Whitakers supported strangers but drained the life out of each other. Now, after being estranged for years, four generations of Whitaker women find themselves once again at The Muses.

Leo, the Whitaker matriarch, lives in the rambling mansion crammed with artwork and junk. She plans to stay there until she joins her husband Wes on the knoll overlooking the cove and meadow where they first met. Her sister-in-law Fae, the town eccentric, is desperate to keep a secret she has been hiding for years.

Jillian, is a jet setting actress, down on her luck, and has run out of men to support her. She thinks selling The Muses will make life easier for her mother, Leo, and Fae by moving them into assisted living. The sale will also bring her the funds to get herself back on top.

Issy, Jillian’s daughter, has a successful life as a museum exhibit designer that takes her around the world. But the Muses and her grandmother are the only family she’s known and when her sister leaves her own children with Leo, Issy knows she has to step in to help.

Steph, is only twelve-years-old and desperately needs someone to fire her imagination and bring her out of her shell. What she begins to discover at the Muses could change the course of her future.

As Issy martials the family together to restore the mansion and catalogue the massive art collection, a surprising thing happens. Despite storms and moonlight dancing, diva attacks and cat fights, trips to the beach and flights of fancy, these four generations of erratic, dramatic women may just find a way to save the Muses and reunite their family.

Review: It’s very difficult for me to review this book. Some parts I absolutely loved, but other parts, specifically the beginning, I completely hated. I couldn’t stand the beginning of this book and actually contemplated not finishing it. I didn’t really like any of the characters. Issy drove me insane; Leo was stuck in the past and was rather dull. She didn’t ever really do anything; her storyline was just her thinking about her late husband. I kind of felt like I was watching someone stare at a wall all day, and Aunt Fae was just weird. I know Fae was suppose to be weird but her whole Elf King and Faeries and being able to “feel the energies” was just a little too sci-fi for me. Steph was alright but even she was kind of boring.

Issy gets a call at work saying that her grandmother is in the hospital and that her sister’s children were going to go into foster care if she didn’t come and get them. Apparently her sister Vivienne had dropped her children off with her grandmother and left without saying where she was going or when she was coming back. These children were in a hospital, already having basically been abandoned by their mother, scared out of their mind because their great-grandmother who was taking care of them is sick and in the hospital. The oldest, Steph, is 12, Amanda is 8, and Griffin is 5. Issy took them home but then she kept calling the kids brats, and nicknamed them “Whiner, Moaner, and Slump”. This drove me insane! One of the worst parts for me was when she was thinking that there was no way she was going to take in those kids, she hadn’t ever really wanted to be a mother, and she was definitely not going to change that for those “spoiled brats.”

I completely put this book down after that and read another book instead. However, I agreed to do a review so after recovering my patience, I picked it back up and forced myself to finish it. Once Issy started to grow up and not be so self-absorbed, something she hated about her mother and sister, the story started to get better. There were parts of the story that were suspenseful and once we got to that part, the characters got more interesting. Issy finally stopped calling the kids spoiled brats and started to actually act like a good human being. I actually really enjoyed the story after that. When I think back on the second half of the book, I really want to give it at least 4 stars, but the beginning I would give 1, maybe 2. If the first half of this book was fixed, I think this book could have been excellent.

Overall, I would say that if you can get past the first 100-150 pages of the book, it’s really good.

 

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

About Shelley Noble

Shelley Noble is a former professional dancer and choreographer and has worked on a number of films. She lives at the Jersey shore where she loves to visit lighthouses and vintage carousels. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America.

Find out more about Shelley at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

 

*I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher. A positive review was not required. All opinions are my own.*