This is a sweet story of two grown women who are now mothers. Bonny is an ER doc trying to find her way out of a loveless marriage. After an accident in the ER, she needs some time to regroup, so she returns to Watersend, a small sea side town where she and Lainey became friends when they were thirteen years old. Back then, they had been inseparable. They were known as the Summer Sisters. They had the Girls’ Detective Club, inspired by Nancy Drew mysteries, and their safe haven was a bookstore run by a woman named Mimi. Bonny brings her teenage daughter, Piper, with her to Watersend, and, even though Lainey has terrible memories of Watersend, Bonny convinces her to leave her husband in California for a few weeks and bring her two small children out to the beach house.

Initially, Piper feels like she’s being punished because she flunked out of her freshman year of college. In addition to that blow, she’s also from her boyfriend not just breaking up with her but immediately falling for another girl and taking off to Europe with her. By making friends with a local boy and Mimi and babysitting Lainey’s six- and four-year-old children, Piper slowly begins to heal. Bonny has to decide what to do with her career and her life. Lainey wants to solve the thirty-five year old mystery of what happened to her mother.

Told from multiple first-person points of view, the complexity of the characters are good. I also like the mystery of Lainey trying to figure out what happened to her mother, a search that has played a large role in her life. The novel is not a completely fluffy summer read, although it does have a sweet mostly-happily-ever-after ending.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing Group for the opportunity to review this book.

Libraries and bookshops are a sanctuary.
Book store logo is - "Books may well be the only true magic" - Alice Hoffman

Summer 1978 - South Carolina
2 girls 13 years old making wishes and promises.
Then Lainey's mother disappeared and altering all of their lives from that point.
Now 30 years later friends go back to share time over the summer reuniting once again.
Bonny has made a mistake in the ER, and is dealing with the consequences of that
Piper is trying to get over her first true love
Lainey is still searching the past when a new hurdle comes and will send her in a whole new direction.

Good family book with a low country background. Well developed characters and Patty Callahan Henry writes so well that you just fall in love with her stories.

Bonny’s carefully planned life is falling apart- a moment of chaos in the ER led to her making a mistake and now she might lose the life she has worked hard for. Add to that the demise of her marriage and her daughter failing out of college and she needs to get away and figure things out. She begs her best friend and together they return to the town they haven't been back to since tragedy struck. Will they put the past behind them or is the town cursed? Friendship, love, and finding truth and security in life make this book a 4 star read.

Well written, filled with heartfelt emotion and renewal, this is a story of friends, family, mistakes and loss. Lainey and Bonny are "Summer sisters" having spent three summers in a small beach town with their families. Lainey's mother disappears that last summer, impacting her ability to grow and move on. Bonny's daughter, Piper, has been making many mistakes, which have led her to have low self esteem. As said in the novel, this book is an alchemy of stories and wisdom and experience. Recommended.

Spotlight will be given on it's release date. http://dewonthekudzu.com

A lovely and heartwarming beach read--and one with depth! At first I had a little difficulty keeping the characters straight, but before long I was absolutely drawn into their lives. There's a little mystery involving what happened to Lainey's mom and there are career worries for Bonny and college concerns for Piper. All 3 women are sympathetic and complex characters. Henry's writing, as always, is beautifully moving. This is the type of well-written story that makes you curl up and forget the outside world for a few hours.

Patti Callahan Henry is the perfect Southern beach read author. Her descriptions of the area are so accurate you can feel the salt and sand on your face and in your toes. Exploring the dynamics of past relationships between friends and current mother/daughter relationships, the author ties together the past and present in a compelling story to solve a long ago mystery that has effected the lives of the major characters.

I completely enjoyed this book - once I got over the fact that the ghost that was being talked about was a real person who strongly resembled her mother who had lived in the town earlier, but hadn't returned for many years,
Bonnie has made a grave mistake and retreats to Watersend to lick her wounds. She convinces her childhood friend to come with her, although she is hesitant as her mother disappeared from the rea when Lainey will still a child. I enjoyed the book a lot - IIt seems that the Low Country is the place to be - it sure is full of great stories.

If you are looking for a light, good beachy read, you can always turn to Patti Callahan Henry. Her new book The Bookshop at Water's End coming July 2017 is perfect for your beach vacation.

There are some heavy parts in it, but nothing crushing. Bonny and Lainey have been friends all their lives, spending summers together at the beach and on the river in a magical South Carolina town. Flashing back to the times when they were young and Lainey's mom disappears and then coming back to present day, where Bonny is having several problems of her own, you get a thorough feel of their long standing friendship.

Bonny and Lainey return to the place where the best and worst things have happened to them to try and make peace and clear their heads. Can they? Can they fix past and present issues? Along for the ride is Bonny's daughter, Piper and Lainey's children, George and Daisy. Piper is fighting her own demons, but just like Bonny and Lainey back in the day, Piper also finds solace in the bookshop at Water's End.

My two cents: I got pulled into this book very quickly and it really kept my interest. The only thing I didn't feel was that the bookshop didn't have such a big role in the story to be the focus of the title, in my opinion. Yes, the bookshop owner, Mimi is a major player in the story, but the title is all about the bookshop. I might be nitpicking.

In any event, some parts were a little too dramatic, but sometimes that's good in a story. It's DEFINITELY a read to be enjoyed with the summer wind in your hair while you're sitting near the water. Thank you very much to NetGalley for an advance reader's copy. No review was required.

This book was a wonderful story that involved several generations. Family, friends, and what love means were the central themes that flowed throughout this story. The characters were all richly drawn, and their relationships (past and present) are what really drives this story.

Patti Callahan Henry's books are always a good go-to if you want to curl up and forget the world. Her latest, The Bookshop at Water's Edge is the perfect choice. Taking place on a slow river in the south, mom, daughter and mom's best friend all come in to their own where wishes were once made. Full of heart and mystery, this book is sure to grab you and hold on tight. Definitely add this to your summertime TBR.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher Berkley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great summer read, not to heavy but still there is depth to the story of two friends who reunite at the river house where one of the friends lost her mother. Bonny's parents bought the house when she was a child and each year they would return for the summer. It was here that she met Lainey and her brother Owen who would also along with their parents come to the house each year. Bonny and Lainey would become great friends. However, there was an unfortunate incident, Lainey's mother just disappeared one night.

Bonny inherited the house in Watersend SC, which is just outside of Charleston. She is a physician and there has been a serious incident at the emergency room and she may no longer be able to practice medicine, and her marriage is all but done. She needs to get away for awhile so she invites Lainey and her two small children to join her. Piper, Bonny's daughter will be coming along as well, partly as punishment for failing at school and partly to help watch the two children. It is a time for all three of them to deal with issues in their lives and to think about their lives and what direction they might want to move towards. It is a time for reflection and a time for realizing what they already have right in front of them. Sometimes all you need is a little beach time.

Lainey is a renowned artist who lives in California with her husband and two small children. Lainey's mother disappeared from the river house the last time she was there and is concerned about ghost from her past reeking havoc with her soul. On one side of the house is the river and on the other side is the ocean. It is the small beach town. Patti Callahan Henry does an incredible job of transporting the reader to this quaint little town, with the local bookstore, grocery store and other characters that call this place home year round.

Piper has been struggling with college and her self esteem is low. She will be helping to get the place ready for the arrival of her mother and Lainey and she will be helping to take care of Lainey's kids, which she is not looking forward to, at least not at first. She meets a young man her age who helps her to see that she is fine just the way she is.

One other important character is Owen, Lainey's brother, who was also at the river house when their mother disappeared. He has always had a thing for Bonny and might want to revisit that. He travels all over the world and rarely contacts his sister which causes her a great deal of pain. He is the only family she has other than her husband and her two children.

Everyone in this story, except the bookstore owner has a self esteem problem, but I guess that is true of so many women and men.

I really want to recommend this book to readers that like what I call beach reads, sometimes the message is deep but the story is comforting, almost always about women and their friendships which can be complicated and intertwined. There is a bit of a mystery here about what happened all those years ago to Lainey's mom.

Patti Callahan Henry took me to the beach and for that I will read her books again and again. Who doesn't want to travel when they read!

After her marriage and her career as a doctor come disastrously apart, Bonny returns to the house in South Carolina where she spent the happiest years of her life. She and her best friend Lainey spent their summers, swimming and reading at a magical little local bookstore until the night Lainey’s mother disappeared. Now in their fifties, Bonny, her teenage daughter and Lainey and her children reacquaint themselves with the town, the bookstore and it’s rather mysterious owner, Mimi. This book had all the elements I love, a sleepy Southern town, best friends, an unsolved mystery and a book shop where anything seems possible