Friday, June 8, 2018

Review: Lighthouse Beach - Shelley Noble

Lighthouse Beach
by Shelley Noble
Published: May 29, 2018
Genre: Women's Fiction, Chick Lit

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shelley Noble comes a heartrending and uplifting novel about friendship, love, and what we’re willing to sacrifice for our dreams.

What was supposed to be an idyllic wedding leads to an unexpected journey of self-discovery…

When Lillo Gray pulls up to Kennebunkport’s most exclusive hotel wearing a borrowed dress and driving a borrowed VW van, she knows she’s made a big mistake. She’s not even sure why Jessica Parker invited her to her posh wedding. They haven’t seen each other since they were unhappy fourteen-year-old girls at fat camp. And now they’re from two completely different worlds. There’s no way Lillo fits in the rarefied circles Jessica travels in.

Jess isn’t sure she’s ready to go through with this wedding, but she’s been too busy making everyone else happy to think about what she wants. But when she and her two closest friends, Allie and Diana, along with Lillo, discover her fiancĂ© with his pants down in the hotel parking lot, she’s humiliated…and slightly relieved. In a rush to escape her crumbling life, Jess, Allie, and Diana pile into Lillo’s beat-up old van and head up the coast to Lighthouse Island. Once there, she hopes to figure out the next chapter in her life.

Nursing broken hearts and broken dreams, four lost women embark on a journey to find their way back into happiness with new love, friendship, and the healing power of Lighthouse Beach.

Review
4 Stars

We've all heard of the runaway bride, but this time she's accompanied by her three best friends and the loneliness they all find they have in common. Lillo, Jess, Diana and Allie take off on an impromptu road trip to Lighthouse Beach, where fond memories still live for Jess, but haunt Lillo as she tries to escape her own losses. What's meant to be a beach escape to help Jess turns into an escape that changes each of the women.

Lighthouse Beach, by Shelley Noble, features a large cast of main characters and a handful of secondary, each taking turns with the novel focusing on their personal battles. Lillo, Jess, Diana, and Allie weren't all friends in the start, but by the end they've trusted one another with matters of the heart and learned to rely on others to carry them through high tide times. Then there's Mac, the wise lighthouse keeper, and the biker doctors, as handsome, smart, and rugged as they sound. The women are unique, their friendship formed as youth and still strong in the present despite their living distances apart and in careers as opposite as they come. Lighthouse Beach, with a role as large as a character, makes the women find a way to embrace themselves and each other in a way that they weren't able to when apart. Together, with sand between their toes and the Maine rain drizzling down, they discover a way to embrace what they truly want and find ways to let go of the past they've each held onto. Of course, the small town charm and the docs help things along.

Lighthouse Beach is, exactly as described, a women's lit beach read. It's lengthy and complex with an overarching storyline of friendship. There's a bit of romance, humor, heartache, and self growth, everything a chick lit lover seeks out in their reads. As the four women find their way we are left with the power of Lighthouse Beach, aware that the imprint it left on Jess and Lillo as youth is the same left on them today. Shelley Noble delivers a heartfelt story that makes for a perfect beach read with Lighthouse Beach.

About the Author
Shelley Noble is a multi published fiction author whose books have been translated into seven languages. She writes women’s fiction as Shelley Noble and is also the author of several amateur sleuth mystery series, written as Shelley Freydont.

A former professional dancer and choreographer, she most recently worked on the films, Mona Lisa Smile and The Game Plan. She also consults on various dance and theatre projects, most recently the world premiere of a full length Tom Sawyer ballet commissioned by Kansas City Ballet.

Shelley is a member of Sisters-in-Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and Liberty States Fiction Writers.

She lives near the New Jersey shore. In her spare time she loves to discover new beaches and indulge her passion for lighthouses and boardwalks with vintage carousels.

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