I have to say, I’m a little undecided on this one. I think I liked it. I do wish I’d had more beach time with this book. Instead, a lot of my reading time was spent rushed and indoors during my daughter’s nap time.

I agree with Kathryn H. that it lacked a bit of the page-turning urgency that I usually enjoy for a good beach read. But even still, the individual characters’ end goals were just interesting enough to make you want to hang on and see if they were fulfilled. And I did like the use of multiple character perspectives… it allowed me to feel connected, at least in some way, to each of the characters. Although I do wish they’d all been a little more relatable. There were parts of each character that seemed not to fit, that seemed contradictory in a way (Franny seems to have few redeeming qualities, and yet Jim is still so in love with her despite his indiscretions… that feels a bit unrealistic, or like I’m missing something). I think this prevented me from identifying with any one character too strongly.

If I had to choose, I probably related most to Sylvia. I liked her attitude toward the family dynamics. She seemed to have the best grasp on reality. Although, even though she’s painted as this timid, somewhat naive, awkward Kristen Stewart type, she manages to loose her virginity to a god-like Spaniard who up until that point didn’t seem to show any interest. That seemed like a bit of a stretch, almost comically so (on an exotic, hidden beach for the first time? really?). But this is fiction, so if the fantasy can’t come true in the pages of a story like this, then I guess it never could.

Overall I think it was a decent beach read. Just long enough, with some catchy story lines and a dreamy setting. If you’re in the market, I’d put it on the list for your next beach vacation 🙂