Lighthouse Beach
By Shelley Noble
Release Date: May 29th, 2018
William Morrow
Source: ARC provided by the publisher
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 fiancé 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.
*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*
When 3 women attend the wedding of a friend, little did they know that within 24 hours, everything would have changed! But that is exactly what happened to Lillo, Jess, Allie, and Diana.
I have to say, that when I started out reading Lighthouse Beach, I thought it was going to be a funny, light-hearted book, but it is more than that! It's inspiring, funny, heartbreaking, confidence building story about new and old friendships, hidden pasts, secret, passion, and community, and that is truly what it feels like when you read it, like your apart of its community.
So let's get to the basics, the story is a new approach to adult sisterhood; the writing has that melodic rhythm, which draws you in, and you never want to let it go. I'm hoping that the author doesn't leave the story there, that this book is just the beginning for Lillo, Jess, Allie, and Diana, and whether or not the town slogan of "Once you visit Lighthouse Beach, Life will never be the same" is true for this quartet.
I give Lighthouse Beach 5 stars
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.
