"Camino Beach" by Amanda Callendrier was a fun novel. Group of friends, pre-reunion days, engaging in discovery and reminiscing of high school days, and discovering hidden truths. Enjoyable! Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

A fun, thoughtful book about the way times changes us and also entrenches some of our core selves even deeper. A lovely book of the South that doesn't fall into stereotype or nostalgia.

In this poignant debut loaded with humor, heartbreak, and Southern charm, old friends road-trip their way to solving a mystery and righting a long-ago wrong.

An easy summer time read.
It's school reunion time and best friends decide to go looking for a friend of theirs who went missing just before graduation 20 years previously. It's not a thriller type mystery just more of a coming of age type.
Read in about 48 hours and was quite enjoyable if a little predictable.

What a great debut! Love the idea of the high school reunion and how the women and story go back and forth in time to those old days.

3 friends in high school that are inseparable are torn apart when one member of the team just disappears overnight, not to be heard from again. The other two maintain a great relationship (I have not had this kind of consistency with anyone from high school myself) and when it comes time to celebrate their 20th high school reunion they go off in search of their lost friend to see if she will come to the reunion so that they can re-live old times.

People change though, but deep down, there is a "you" that is inflexible and resistant to change and I think that this is what that author is trying to dig deeper into. Essentially, I am who I was in high school, no matter how I deny it LOL, my core self is unchanged.

3.5 stars, fun & easy book to read while traveling!

Thank you to Net Galley for a free e copy of this book in exchange for a fair & honest review.

El Camino by Elizabeth Cook played in my head while reading this fun book!

An unusual storyline, regarding a missing high school friend. However, this really dragged and I really had to push myself to finish it. It just lacked something to make it a bit interesting and although I chuckled a couple of times throughout, it was certainly not as funny as it was made out to be. The characters never really developed and the whole thing was a little bit lack lustre.

Sarah, Kristen & Roxanne were like the Three Muskateers in high school. Then some stuff went down, Roxanne disappears from school and Sarah & Kristen try, half-heartedly because they're high school kids, to find her with no success.

Fast forward twenty years. It's reunion time and Sarah & Kristen's lives have moved on. Sarah has been married and divorced and they share custody of their pug. She owns a bookstore. Kristen is married with kids and lives a pretty affluent life. But reunion time brings back memories, and they decide to search for Roxanne again.

They go on a road trip, with former classmate and Sarah's neighbor, Jack, who coincidentally is now the principal of their former high school, in search of Roxanne. Follow them down their literal (& figurative) road to search for Roxanne.

A great story of growing up, regrets, memories, and enduring friendship!

Thanks to Netgalley & Lake Union Publishing for this great read!

Camino Beach was a pleasant surprise for me! I wasn’t sure what to expect coming into this but I ended up really enjoying it. It has the right combination of adventure, mystery, and some 80s flashbacks for an awesome book. Loved this one!

This book was amazing! I loved that the characters were in school at around the time that I went to school also. The main's character struggle with letting go of guilt, and trying to still be that person that she was in high school was very well developed by the author.

This is Amanda Callendrier's first novel and I will be on the lookout for future work.

Light, fun read and a really good debut novel. Would be a nice beachy book.

CAMINO BEACH by Amanada Callendrier was a read that puts you back into your own senior year of high school, if you are my age at least. The 90s references were very applicable and made me a little nostalgic. I appreciated the way it was told from two points in time by the same author. I know some reviews were harsh about it taking place 20 years apart but it made me think of how different I was at 18 compared to 38 myself, much more so than 28. I think if you try to see the narrator through that lens, many of the plot points and the tone of the narrator make complete sense. I loved the friendship between Sarah and Kristen and evolution of Jack in the novel, as well as all the humorous situations they found themselves in. All in all, I really enjoyed it!

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a quick and easy read about high school friendships and how some carry over into adulthood.

Very nice debut novel. Callendrier has a nice touch with her characters who as adults are dealing with the consequences of their teenage actions. This moves back and forth in time to tell you the story of Sarah, Kristin, and Roxy. Adding Jack and the Camino to the mix is delightful. None of the teenage stuff is that shocking- this is ultimately about friendship. Good story telling and fine writing made this a quick read. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

Very funny and humorous. I think the gap in between was a bit long but I still loved the book anyways

A Southern chick lit book, involving a road trip in an El Camino, a long lost friend, and a high school reunion? Sign me up! It reminds me of some of my favorites like Joshilyn Jackson and Beth Harbison. But unfortunately, the book didn't live up to its premise and hold my attention throughout. It started strong enough but fizzled along the way. The "big secret" wasn't so big, the road trip wasn't either that fun or that revealing, and the romance was more than a little clunky. Even the book's namesake -- an El Camino filled with sand -- was underwhelming. I think the writer has potential, and I would give her another chance, but this book didn't knock my socks off.

I was given an advance copy by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A coming of age story that is revisited for a school reunion. Sarah feels utmost guilt for Roxanne's disappearance, it has plagued her for over 20 years. What follows is her attempt to recapture her teenage happiness, aided by her BF Kristen and former geek now school principal, Jack.

Whilst it's amusing in places, there's an undercurrent of unresolved issues -- which aren't fully addressed by the end of the book. An enjoyable read but some of the characters would have benefitted from more description. Squeaks a very generous 4* as it held my interest but probably a 3.5* overall.

Camino Beach is about Sarah and her long-time friend Kristen who are fast approaching their 20th high school reunion and their journey to find a long-lost high school friend, Roxanne. It's peppered with high school flashbacks that describe their high school experiences and drama with Roxanne. I enjoyed the friendship between Sarah and Kristen and how real their relationship feels, although I feel like a 10-year reunion would have been more believable. Honestly, considering how many people I have lost contact with through the years, I have a hard time believing that two adults 20 years out of high school, one of whom has a family and another who runs a small business, would make such a trip. What bothered me was their immature behavior during the actual reunion. I lost a some love for them in the end due to that, actually. I did like their fiesty friend Roxanne and their side-kick classmate Jack though. This was a fun read overall, and great for summer.

I struggled with this book. It started enjoyable. It seemed to lose me along the way.