Today for First Line Friday, I’m featuring a book that is perfect for spring & summer: Bookshop by the Sea by Denise Hunter. The cover definitely makes me want to take a trip to the beach!

“Eleven months had not been long enough to prepare Sophie Lawson for the sight of him.”

Bookshop by the Sea by Denise Hunter

The Basics

Title: Bookshop by the Sea

Author: Denise Hunter

Publication Date: April 13, 2021

Genre: Contemporary Romance

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

From the Back Cover: Sophie Lawson should be enjoying her sister’s wedding day. But nothing could have prepared her to see the best man again.

After her mother became bedridden and her father bailed on the family, Sophie found herself serving as a second mother to her twin brother, Seth, and younger sister, Jenna. Sophie supported her siblings through their college years, putting aside her own dream of opening a bookshop in Piper’s Cove—the quaint North Carolina beach town they frequented as children.

Now it’s finally time for Sophie to follow her own pursuits. Seth has a new job, and Jenna is set to marry her college beau in Piper’s Cove. But the destination wedding reunites Sophie with best man Aiden Maddox, her high school sweetheart who left her without a backward glance.

When an advancing hurricane strands Aiden in Piper’s Cove after the wedding, he finds the hotels booked to capacity and has to ask Sophie to put him up until the storm passes. As the two ride out the weather, old feelings rise to the surface. The delay also leaves Sophie with mere days to get her bookshop up and running. Can she trust Aiden to stick around? And will he find the courage to risk his heart?

My Thoughts

Bookshop by the Sea is sweet second chance romance that Denise Hunter fans will love. Set in a charming coastal North Carolina town, this story reunites Aiden and Sophie after seven years apart. A hurricane coming through town forces them to confront their past, and other circumstances lead to them unexpectedly working together to get Sophie’s bookshop ready to open. They each bring their own quirks and flaws to the story, making them both likable, relatable characters. If you read Denise Hunter’s Bluebell Inn series, you will enjoy Molly and Adam’s brief appearances in this book!

While Denise Hunter is known as a Christian fiction author, the faith element in this book wasn’t very overt. It’s a sweet, clean romance that would make a great beach read, and I just might want to start my own bookshop by the sea after reading it!

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.