Book Review: 'By the Sea' Novels by Kay Bratt

 

 

 

 

 

I read/listened to the first of these two novels by Kay Bratt a couple of years ago, but never wrote a proper review of it. Recently I came across No 2 also at a Kindle+Audible bargain price. When I started listening to it I soon realized that I had forgotten too much of the first book (had no real recollection of who was who and how they related to each other). So took a step back, and re-listened to No 1, before I started over with No 2. 

1. True to Me

When Quinn Maguire's mother is dying, she asks Quinn to take her ashes back to the island of Maui, Hawaii, where she was born. On her deathbed, she also reveals that Quinn's father is not the man she previously told her that it was. Quinn decides to fulfill her mother's wishes (taking her ashes to Maui), and also hopes to explore her real family history while she is there. Before she leaves, she uses her inheritance to buy a house on the island, without having seen it in real life first. When she gets there, a surprise awaits her: The previous owners are still there, with nowhere to go... It was not they who put the house up for sale, but the bank (as they were in debt). The temporary solution is that Quinn moves into her own small guesthouse, while the previous family stays on in the main house, helping her get some renovations on that building started. For that purpose, they also take help from a friend, Liam - who also soon becomes a good friend to Quinn. It's all a whole new world to Quinn as a lot of things turn out to be done very differently on Maui than what she's used to. Family bonds are strong, and her own search for her family roots take several surprising twists and turns along the way, as the true story turns out more complicated than she ever suspected. 

2. No Place Too Far

Quinn has stayed on in Maui and is running a hotel there; still bonding with and "getting to know" her Hawaiian family that she found in the first book. Some complications arise, which makes her unsure about whether it's really the right thing for her to continue staying on there, though. Perhaps it would be better for everyone if she returned to her old life on the mainland - or even to start over again somewhere else entirely... 

A parallel story in this book is about Quinn's best friend Maggie - who appeared in the first book too, but then only to visit Quinn in Maui. Now she too has moved to the island, with her young son, in an attempt to escape a stalker. She gets a job, and is beginning to settle down - but escaping a stalker just by moving far away proves not as easy as she had hoped for, in this digital age of ours...

Both women end up facing similar dilemmas (besides themselves, also involving their families and close friends): To "run away" (again), or to stay and find a way to fight things out, and resolve the problems.

I found myself liking (and "getting") the first book better on the second reading (probably more to do with "me" than with the book itself), and am glad I took the extra time to reread that one before I finished No 2. Therefore, my advice to others would also be to read them in order - and perhaps not too far apart. ;-) While both books come across as "easy reads" in some aspects, at the same time there are more layers to the stories than is obvious at first. 

There is a third book in the series, but I think I'll wait a while. (Maybe one day that one too turns up at double-deal bargain price...?)

...

I have read and reviewed another series of books by Kay Bratt before: The Scavenger's Daughters, set in China. (The link goes to my review of those, from two years ago.)