ISBN: 9781416567172
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Rating: A
Eighteen year old Megan Greene is gawky, awkward and as her mother says not pretty enough. The only boy she’s ever dated, Travis, ended up in prison which only gives her mother more fuel to add to the fire. Megan’s relationship with her sister, Leanne, is strenuous to say the least. While her relationship with her parents is one of unmistakable confusion, her mother berates her and her father reveres her. Twenty eight year old Megan is a successful account on her way to making partner in her firm. She’s engaged to the blonde adonis cardiologist and life couldn’t be better. However, life in Megan’s world was about to be flipped upside down and there is nothing she can do to stop it. Who will be there for her when she is lost and falling apart? The answers will surprise you.
Susan Mallery writes absolutely believable characters even when they are characters you are meant to hate. Mallery is an author that I know I can depend on to find enriching characters, after all she did create one of my all time top 10 heroes in Walker Buchanan.
Sunset Bay was an emotional rollercoaster and I wasn’t sure how I would feel once I closed it because I really was mad at Megans sister Leanne, and to be honest I think that was like 20 pages in which should explain how intensely Mallery can write her characters. I’ve never had a sister, let alone a younger sister so I shouldn’t feel a need to band together and protect Megan from Leanne’s manipulations, but there was. Ultimately once Mallery moved on to current day Megan, 10 years later, I was comfortable with characters if not a bit disappointed in Megan’s strength. I need my heroines to be strong in any sense of the word, physically or emotionally and in Sunset Bay I was looking for a strong character with a sense of herself and that is not how it started. Mallery wrote a story of depth and growth and the mantra of what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Megan lived inside her own little bubble for most of her life until something came along and burst that bubble. How was Megan we met 10 years ago going to survive having her life ripped out from under her?
I would recommend this book for anyone who loves a good family novel with lots of personality. I really enjoyed this book and I could probably babble about it for a long while and give away lots of spoilers, but I just can’t do that.
