The Bookshop at Water's End

May 1, 2017
Two best friends find unexpected healing when they return to the beloved beach town where tragedy occurred.Bonny and Lainey spent their childhood summers in Watersend, South Carolina, staying in a house between the river and the ocean. But after Lainey's alcoholic mother disappeared, they never returned. Now an adult, Bonny is looking for a change. She's planning to leave both her job and her husband--that is, until Owen, Lainey's brother, walks into the ER where she's a doctor. Bonny's been in love with him since they were kids, and his presence throws her off so much that a patient dies under her distracted watch. As the hospital investigates her role in the death, Bonny decides to go back to Watersend. She brings along her teenage daughter, Piper, and convinces Lainey to come with her children. Piper is having problems of her own, having failed her freshman year of college and gotten arrested for public intoxication. Although Piper and Lainey are there reluctantly, all three women quickly become entrenched in the town. As Bonny attempts to figure out what direction her life and career should take, Piper falls for a local boy, and Lainey tries to find out just what happened to her mother. It turns out that the local bookshop owner, Mimi, has a knack for helping people discover what they need--and she may know something about Lainey's mother, as well. Henry (The Idea of Love, 2015, etc.) creates a world that feels rich and real--readers can practically hear the rushing river, see the ocean waves, and smell the hydrangea bushes. Some of the plotlines, specifically Bonny's relationship with Owen, don't feel quite fleshed out enough. But that's forgivable, as this is primarily a story about Bonny, Lainey, and Piper, their relationships, and their journeys toward happiness. A quiet, atmospheric look at friendship, forgiveness, and second chances.

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June 1, 2017

When ER doctor Bonny Blankenship's life spirals out of control, she packs up her troubled teen daughter, invites her BFF and her two young children to join them, and heads to where her most memorable summers were spent, her family's Watersend, SC, vacation home. Piper Blankenship's bad choices have led to her mom dragging her to this small town. Will it be punishment or pleasure? Lainey McKay gets her bestie's urgent request and wants to say yes, but returning to the place where her mom disappeared without a trace years ago is a hard pill for her to swallow. With an eloquent and effective narrative, a realistic continuing theme of unbreakable relationship bonds, and a fantastic multilayered story line of secrets, regrets, and a good dose of teenage drama, this is a solid summer read. VERDICT Fans of Southern fried fiction will devour Henry's (The Idea of Love; The Stories We Tell; And Then I Found You) latest low-country treasure of new beginnings and an old mystery.--Debbie Haupt, St. Charles City-Cty. Lib. Dist., St Peters, MO

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017
Henry returns to Watersend, South Carolina, a sleepy town nestled between the ocean and the river, in this tale of mothers and daughters. Bonny Blankenship is a sought-after ER doctor who has the perfect escape from her loveless marriagea new job in Atlanta after a summer fixing up the old river house and putting it on the market. Her daughter, Piper, failed out of her first year of college for partying too hard, and she is less than thrilled at being exiled to the dinky town to babysit her mom's best friend's kids. Lainey McKay can't believe she let Bonny talk her into returning to Watersend, the place where her mother disappeared and her life fell apart. While Bonny's best-laid plans go awry, the women get a break from their punishing inner demons at the bookshop, on the beach, or in a makeshift art studio. Hints at the previous Watersend novel, The Idea of Love (2015), suggest a more fleshed-out backstory, and on the whole, this is a great beach read of the Dorothea Benton Frank and Anne River Siddons variety.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)