Waiting to Read Wednesday: The Beach House / The Invisible Husband of Frick Island / Sea Creatures

The New

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by the marvelous Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss upcoming release we are excited about that we have yet to read.

The Beach House (The Book Club #2) by Rochelle Alers

Release Date: May 25, 2021 by Dafina Books

Over the course of one summer spent on an idyllic island off the coast of North Carolina, a weekly book club offers three very different women the chance to rewrite their own stories. In bestselling author Rochelle Alers' second Book Club novel, a new chapter begins as one woman's seemingly perfect life unravels . . .

It's been almost a year since Leah Berkley Kent left her lavish Richmond home to spend two months on Coates Island, North Carolina. There she found friendship with two extraordinary women, Kayana and Cherie. Together they formed a summer book club, meeting weekly at the Seaside Cafe. Leah also found the courage to finally stand up to Alan, her domineering husband of twenty-eight years.

With her twin sons now grown, Leah decides to return to Coates Island again this summer. Alan's explosive reaction only convinces her that her marriage, and her old life, may be ending. But what comes next? Helping out at the Seaside Cafe, Leah grows closer to Kayana's widowed brother, Derrick. He knows what it's like to start over--he traded a Wall Street career for a beachfront house and a slower pace. Derrick is drawn to Leah, but wonders if she's truly ready to move on.

It'll take a summer filled with lazy beach walks, bold new horizons, and book club meetings rich with shared laughter and support, for Leah to find the answers she's been looking for . . . [Goodreads Summary]

Why I want to read this: I have the first book in this series on my TBR stack, but even having yet read that one, I have set my eyes on this one too. The fact that this series features book club members is a definite draw, but I also really want to get to know these women and see them get their happy ending.

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley

Release Date: May 25, 2021 by Berkley

Sometimes all you need is one person to really see you.

Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island—a tiny, remote town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—is nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her darling husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom's crab boat capsized and his body wasn't recovered, Piper, rocked to the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her husband was not only still alive, but right there beside her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the townspeople to do but go along with their beloved widowed Piper?

Anders Caldwell’s career is not going well. A young ambitious journalist, he’d rather hoped he’d be a national award-winning podcaster by now, rather than writing fluff pieces for a small town newspaper. But when he gets an assignment to travel to the remote Frick Island and cover their boring annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he stumbles upon a much more fascinating tale: an entire town pretending to see and interact with a man who does not actually exist. Determined it’s the career-making story he’s been needing for his podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin covert research and spend more time with the enigmatic Piper—but he has no idea out of all the lives he’s about to upend, it’s his that will change the most.[Goodreads Summary]

Why I want to read this: An entire town goes along with it . . . I am fascinated and I want to get to know the people of Frick Island, including Piper. I imagine this will be an inspiring story. 

Does either of these books interest you? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to reading?

The Old(er) 

I have an embarrassing number of unread books sitting on the shelves in my personal library. Carole of Carole's Random Life in Books has given me the perfect excuse to spotlight and discuss those neglected books in her Books from the Backlog feature. After all, even those older books need a bit of love! Not to mention it is reminding me what great books I have waiting for me under my own roof still to read!

Sea Creatures by Susanna Daniel (Harper, 2013)

When Georgia returns to her hometown of Miami, her toddler son and husband in tow, she is hoping for a fresh start. They have left Illinois trailing scandal and disappointment in their wake: Graham's sleep disorder has cost him his tenure at Northwestern; Georgia's college advising business has gone belly up; and three-year old Frankie is no longer speaking. Miami feels emptier without Georgia's mother, who died five years earlier, but her father and stepmother offer a warm welcome-as well as a slip for the dilapidated houseboat Georgia and Graham have chosen to call home. And a position studying extreme weather patterns at a prestigious marine research facility offers Graham a professional second chance.

When Georgia takes a job as an errand runner for an artist who lives alone in the middle of Biscayne Bay, she's surprised to find her life changes dramatically. Time spent with the intense hermit at his isolated home might help Frankie gain the courage to speak, it seems. And it might help Georgia reconcile the woman she was with the woman she has become.

But when Graham leaves to work on a ship in Hurricane Alley and the truth behind Frankie's mutism is uncovered, the family's challenges return, more complicated than before. Late that summer, as a hurricane bears down on South Florida, Georgia must face the fact that her choices have put her only child in grave danger.

Sea Creatures is a mesmerizing exploration of the high stakes of marriage and parenthood, the story of a woman coming into her own as a mother, forced to choose between her marriage, her child, and the possibility of new love. [Goodreads Summary]

Why I want to read this: I imagine the family drama and self-exploration is what drew me to this novel initially. Many of the reviews about it talked about how realistic it is. So, I imagine this will be an emotional read when I get to it.  

Have you read Sea Creatures? Does this book sound like something you would like to read? 

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