Sophie spent many happy summers as a child at Rockaway Beach. Visiting her beloved grandmother and taking in all the ambiance of a summer seaside resort. Then, suddenly one summer, the holidays stopped and all Sophie knew was that her mother and her grandmother had really fallen out.
A couple of decades later and Sophie is back at Rockaway Beach with her sister Celia. When her grandmother died she left them both her house on the beach. It is a complex relationship between the two sisters and thrown together in such an emotional maelstrom it isn’t long before the sparks start to fly.
The House on Rockaway Beach was pitched as a tale of family secrets, sibling rivalry and summer romance. And indeed it does cover all of these bases but I wanted it to do a little more. For me it feels like the characters don’t quite have the depth to them that I was expecting and everything that happens is very quick and full on. There are some very complex back stories in the generations before them that feel a bit too glossed over. The newer and current relationships similarly never take on any real gravitas.
If you are looking for a fairly lighthearted beach read then this is the book for you. I didn’t know much about the Rockaway Beach area before I picked up this book and enjoyed having a good look round the real thing on Google!
Supplied by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Categories: 3.5 Stars Book Review
angelnet69
Prolific reader, enthusiastic theatre and movie-goer and ex-Olivier Awards judge who spent twenty years working in the music industry in London. Sharing my house with a gorgeous cockapoo called Harry who has taken over completely.
I love sharing my favourite books with friends - nearly always spoiler-free as I hate reading a synopsis of the whole book in other reviews.
#BookAdvocatesUnite
angelnetreviews.com 
Leave a Reply