That old adage, never judge a book by its cover, couldn’t have been more true for me with The Shore. But also, the cover is perfect. Based on my own bias, I assumed The Shore was going to be a light and fun beachy read, but it was so much deeper and heavier. As the family comes to terms with Brian’s failing health, his wife Margot and their teenage daughter’s Liz and Evy deal with it in very different ways. Margot wants to escape it all, but her daughters want everything to remain the same. I was not prepared for the love story that this truly is, and I was not prepared to silently yell at Margot so many times. Upon finishing the book, I realized that the cover is actually perfect. The shore is their life and livelihood and despite whatever trauma they are dealing with back home, the bright lights and action of the boardwalk go on.