Boardwalk
Summer was a great summer vacation read.
I took it with me for the long drive to visit my sister in Iowa. Boardwalk summer had everything I love in a
novel – I love two points of view modern day and historical. I love a good mystery and I especially love
great characters. I found this book very
engaging.
In
1940, Violet Harcourt is unhappily married to Charles in beautiful Santa Cruz
California. Their marriage started off
wonderful, but Charles temper soon has Violet fearing for her life. She dreams
of becoming a star and enters the Miss California pageant with her friend Evie
without admitting she is married (being married would disqualify her). When she wins, she thinks her dreams have
come true, but she hasn’t bargained for the temper of her husband.
In
2007, Marisol (Mari) Cruz is a single mother raising her daughter. She is a history major, but her daughter’s
birth right after she graduated from college has her stuck living with her
parents, working in a restaurant and raising her daughter Lily. She revers her late Grandfather Ricky Cruz
who was a performer on the Santa Cruz boardwalk in the 1940’s. After she gets a
weekend job as a historian on the boardwalk for the City, she starts to dig
into her grandfather’s past more and discovers he was friends with the
mysterious Violet Harcourt. She also
discovers that Violet committed suicide in 1940. What drove Violet to this
desperate act? While solving this
historical mystery, Mari also meets newcomer Jason and finds herself willing to
feel love again.
I
really enjoyed this story. I loved the
historical fiction back drop. I really
loved Violet’s trip to Hollywood and seeing the dark side of fame. It was also interesting to delve into
domestic violence in a time when there wasn’t much help for abused ladies. I really enjoyed the mystery as well, I
wasn’t sure what direction it was going to take.
The
novel alternated between Violet’s viewpoint in 1940 and Mari’s viewpoint in
2007 which I enjoyed. I loved Mari’s
story as well and really wanted to see her pull herself up by her book straps
and follow her dreams.
Overall,
Boardwalk Summer was a very engaging novel that is a perfect take along for any
summer vacation. I want to read more by
this author as I had a hard time putting this book down!
I don't always love alternate timeline POVs in a novel; I'm glad this one worked so well. And that's a really great cover! :)
ReplyDeleteLaura, I'm glad you enjoyed reading this book so much. I'd hoped to read some beach-themed books this summer--there's still some time left, luckily! Lovely review of the book you read on your vacation!
ReplyDeleteSuko - I know what you mean - I suddenly realized a couple of weeks ago that I better start reading my beach themed books before summer has left!
ReplyDeleteLark - I like alternate timeline POVs, although you are right, they can go wrong, especially if one story is great and the other story is not. For this book, I loved both point of views!