Loved this book from start to finish!

With words as lush as the scenery, passion for the lowcountry is written with heart and soul in this novel about multi-generational friends helping and guiding each other through hardships. Cara Rutledge inherited Primrose Cottage on the Isle of Palms from her mother, Lovie, who passed away ten years ago. David Wyatt rents the cottage for his daughter, Heather, to live in for the whole summer in order for her to complete her commissioned job of creating illustrations for postage stamps, using shorebirds as her focus. Living away from home for the first time is overwhelming for Heather, but with her three musical canaries and the beauty of the sea and sea life, there couldn't be a better setting for doing her work. She meets Cara, also a main focus of this story, Bo Stanton, who is finishing up the deck work at the cottage, and Flo, who lives next door with Cara's best friend, Emmi. Long walks along the beaches with camera in hand to capture the personalities of the shorebirds encourage her. Bo shows her laughter and love of life in the lowcountry. The loggerheads that continuously come back to lay their eggs in nests they build, and the creatures of the air and sea are all beautifully woven into this story of loss, anxiety, healing, the art of living, and love. I highly recommend this book to those of us that relish descriptive writings that have you slow down and devour every word in order to treasure the scenery wrapped around you. I loved everything about this novel. [I received an early copy for my honest review.]

Wow! What a deeply emotional book that will surely relate to so many who have suffered loss and need to redefine their lives! A newcomer to the Isle of Palms, Heather Wyatt finds herself outside the boundaries of her comfort zone. Life had not been kind to Heather, and the thought of being on her own for the first time in her life intensified the anxiety that had plagued her since enduring a horrific tragedy. Could she feel safe and at home while living in this beautiful seaside community? Her rental for the summer, Primrose Cottage, was overflowing with history, and that history along with its charm and spirits, would be the catalyst to bringing Heather to a place of comfort, emotional reconciliation and growth. Although a stand alone book, Beach House for Rent continues the journey of Cara Rutledge, of Mary Alice Monroe's Beach House trilogy, merging the lives and events of longtime Isle of Palms residents and its latest resident, in riding the waves of life's unexpected gifts and heartaches.