Robin’s Rave Reviews 2024
Family reconciliation is a major part of the storyline in THE CAFE AT BEACH END by RaeAnne Thayne, but you also get two love stories for the price of one! Cousins Meredith and Tori both get second chances at love in this clean romance. The small beach town setting will draw you in and the characters will make you want to hang around.
Background
Tori and Meredith were best friends when they were younger, more like sisters than cousins. As adults, their relationship is non-existent.
At age 19, Tori got pregnant and married, keeping her in Cape Sanctuary and helping her grandmother at The Beach End Cafe. But when Tori’s husband died making her a single mom to their six-year-old daughter, Tori’s life wasn’t easy. When her grandmother became ill, Tori balanced being a caregiver, a single mother, and the manager of the cafe.
Meredith, on the other hand, graduated with an art degree, married a wealthy man, and opened her own art gallery in the city. She didn’t help emotionally support Tori when her husband died, and she wasn’t around to help care for Grandma or run the cafe. Tori felt ignored and left behind while Meredith enjoyed a perfect life.
Tori didn’t know what Meredith’s marriage looked like behind closed doors. Bad led to worse when Meredith’s husband was convicted of cheating investors out of millions of dollars. The FBI made her life even more miserable after her husband died in prison. They believe she knew about the scheme and knows where the money is hidden. The FBI finally drop the case against her since they couldn’t prove her involvement. Meredith has a hard time feeling sorry for herself and what she’s lost when so many people lost money to her husband.
Grandma never held a grudge against Meredith, believing she had good reasons for not coming around. When Grandma died , Tori was dismayed that she left Meredith a cottage and 49% ownership of the cafe. Tori has the other 51%. It didn’t matter much until Meredith returned to Cape Sanctuary to start over.
Summary
The book opens with Meredith — shamed, depressed, broke, and without a job. She returns to Cape Sanctuary to hide away, distancing herself from her ex-husband’s scandal. Tori isn’t happy to see her. She’s bitter. And she certainly doesn’t want Meredith to suddenly have a say in “her” cafe after she’s spent so much time and energy running it. Much of the story is the gradual rebuilding of their relationship.
Liam, who is renting out the house next door to Meredith, says he came to the quiet town to write a book, but he’s hiding his real identity and motives. Liam shows interest in Meredith, and she opens up to him. As they develop feelings for one another, his secret could ruin everything.
Tori’s divorced brother-in-law Sam moves back to Cape Sanctuary with his daughter, Cristina. When Tori’s daughter Emilia and her cousin get into trouble at school, Tori and Sam work together to guide the girls onto the right path, hopefully including passing the eighth grade. Tori and Sam are drawn to each other, but Tori holds back. Even though her husband passed years ago, being interested in her husband’s brother doesn’t feel right.
My Thoughts
THE CAFE AT BEACH END by RaeAnne Thayne is a wonderful feel-good book to pick up for your summer reading. It came out in 2023. When I started reading it, I didn’t realize this was book five in the Cape Sanctuary series. I didn’t matter one bit that I hadn’t read the others. Each book in the series is a standalone, following different characters and situations, all in the small fictional California beach town of Cape Sanctuary. I’ll be returning to the Cape Sanctuary series another time. RaeAnne Thayne just may become one of my go-to authors for contemporary romance. This book is well written, and RaeAnne respects her reader’s IQ by not repeating details like some romance authors do.
If you like…
If this book appeals to you, check out these books I’ve reviewed and recommend: Famous in a Small Town by Viola Shipman, The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith, The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews, and The Beach House and The Beach House series by Mary Alice Monroe. Happy reading!
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This book is just fabulous! I love it so much that I did a thing. I wrote to the author directly! Although I write a lot of reviews, I seldom write to the author personally. Even after decades of writing, Mary Kay Andrews just keeps getting better and better! She makes something so difficult (writing a book that hooks the reader) look so easy.
At first I was concerned about the large cast of characters and keeping them straight. Silly me.