I liked it while reading, but when I put this down, I didn’t feel like continuing. Kinda just read to get to the end. And the end was too contrived, convoluted, and drawn out, so I lost interest. 

 

Energy: Ominous. Inquisitive. Gullible. 

Scene: 🇺🇸 Broken Point, a romantic nature resort near Big Sur, California.

Perspective: Our recently divorced MC decides to attend the resort they originally booked for their 20th wedding anniversary, but misses their kids and starts to regret their decision as loneliness settles in. A wedding party and new friends provide some distraction, as does a natural disaster and the groom suddenly calling off the wedding.

 

🐺 Growls: Frustratingly drawn out reveals with misplaced tangents. The whodunnit. The whydunnit. Constantly interrupting tense moments with minor details/long inner monologue. 

🐕 Howls: Weak dialogue sometimes, especially in the middle

🐩 Tail Wags: Resort map! The characters and their personalities. Immersive setting. Initial mystery building. The gradual way isolation happens.

 

🤔 Random Thoughts:

If you like slowish burn contemporary fiction + cozy mysteries, you might enjoy this. 

 

From my tangential experience of parents and friends: contact and scheduling boundaries can be lifesavers in a divorce agreement, especially if an ex abused their spouse (including emotional and narcissistic abuse). The writing hints those aren’t good and one is a healthy parent for not having them. Co-parenting after divorce often requires an official agreement with clear boundaries and expectations for stability and to minimize ongoing abuse and manipulation. Shouldn’t feel badly for that.

 

On the plus side, I think this accurately showed the stress of divorce with kids – suddenly you are solely responsible for your kid(s) when you have them! And your support system has changed or is lost entirely, so the grief about that felt well portrayed. 

 

On that note, if you want kids or have them, especially if you are worried about relationship breakdowns and not living with them sometimes, this could be a hard read (or a validating one). 

 

In high stakes scenes, it felt like everyone paused so characters could muse about who did what, overexplaining the situation and giving their commentary. 

 

It took page after page to make a single point later in the book and a character spoon-fed us the ending. And we sometimes get double explanations, like “ohhh I see, [summarizes what was just said]”. It made a contrived, convoluted ending feel even more drawn out. 

 

🤓 Reader Role: Ghost in the room. Getting the gossip from the narrator and eavesdropping, watching from the corners, privy to certain character thoughts.  

🗺️ World-Building: Immersive with sensory details. 

🔥 Fuel: Escalating stakes race against time. Were the deaths accidents or something else? How long will it take rescuers to reach the resort? Do they have enough resources? Does a killer walk among them? Why did the groom call off the wedding? 

📖 Cred: Technically Not Impossible to Suspended Disbelief

 

Moonlight. Tree scented breeze. Glass walls. Glimmering waves. Buffet. Rolling hills. Heavy rainfall. Mud. Bergamot. 

 

Content Heads-Up: Divorce. Grief. Panic attacks. Loneliness. Corpse (discovery of). Death. Murder. Blood. Vehicle accident (descriptive, memory; injuries, fatalities, stranded). Betrayal. Loss of spouse. Violence (gun).

 

Rep: Gay. Heterosexual. Cisgender. Special needs child. Brown and white skin colours. American. 

 

📚 Format: Library Digital