4.5 stars Welcome back to the Isle of Palms and the Beach House. Cara Rutledge returns home to raise her daughter. Loved reconnecting with the whole Rutledge family, as well as the Turtle Ladies, Emmi, Toy, Flo, and meeting some new characters.All families have issues of some kind. But this large extended family of blood and friends helps each other work through issues and try to break destructive habits.
It is a heartwarming feel-good book.

I received this arc from NetGalley for an honest review. The Beach House reunion is the reunion of characters from all of the previous Beach House books. Cara Rutledge is returning to the beach house left to her by her mother after being gone for a few years. The beach has many memories both wonderful and difficult. Cara is returning with her newly adopted child and looking for a fresh start for them. Another great book in this series, though it wasn't my favorite of them all. The last few chapters felt rushed, and as usual, I am left wanting more.

Cara Rutledge I returning to her beach house on Isle of Palms with her adopted daughter Hope. It has been 3 years since she was widowed. Cara needs to make a living but is having a hard time working around her daughter. She needs help. Her niece Linnea has just graduated college and is using the summer to decide exactly what she wants to do. She comes to help take care of Hope.

This is part of a series but could be read as a stand alone. Every chapter starts with a fact about sea turtles. Cara is part of the turtle patrol on the island. This is a story about family, friendship, love, and learning to move forward after a loss. You will grow to love the characters in this book. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy of this book.

Once again, Cara Rutledge comes home to the Lowcountry. After living in Tennessee for a few years after her husband, Brett suddenly passed, Cara finds herself returning to Isle of Palms with a new purpose and a new role, mother to her new daughter, Hope. At the same time, we have Cara's niece, Linnea return home to Charleston upon her graduation from college. Both women, while residing at the beloved beach cottage that once belonged to Cara's mother, Lovie Rutledge, find their strength to begin anew. Over the course of that summer, friendships form, family disputes erupt, old memories buried, and new romance blossoms.

Mary Alice Monroe has once again written a beautifully woven novel that continues the story of Cara Rutledge and her cherished Lowcountry. The reunion of Cara, her family, her friends, and her treasured Loggerhead turtles, create an unfolding drama that makes this book hard to put down. Those new to this series will be inspired to catch up with the Rutledge family in Mary Alice Monroe's previous Beach House novels.

I was expecting an enjoyable beach read and this is so much more. It is a story of family and tradition and expectations and finding a way to break a cycle of expectations that eliminate authenticity and happiness. It is a story of love and loss and finding a way to be happy again. But ultimately it is a celebration of strong women finding a way to be happy and create the best life for themselves, their family and friends.

In this next installment of the Beach House series Mary Alice Monroe pens a story that will have you riveted till the last page is turned.
Cara has grown so much as she faces new challenges, new life, and new love. I found myself rooting for her while also feeling her emotions. She appears to step right into Lovie's shoes as this multigenerational saga continues.
Family, friends, love, challenges and best of all turtles will have you longing to visit the South Carolina shore.
A great read for a lazy day.

Read my 5-star review of Beach House Reunion by Mary Alice Monroe
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2333445861

I thought this was part of the Low Country series - that's why I requested it. When I realized it was a different series and this was the 5th book in, my total confusion over characters made sense. So sorry - Thank you!

LOVE Cara Rutledge. And now I have fallen in love with Linnea. Mary Alice Monroe's love of the coast comes through brilliantly, and her depth of understanding the ties some have with the ocean and all her gifts shines. Her keen observations of family ties, good and bad, is eloquently presented in her most recent novel.

Cara Rutledge returns to her cherished family beach home in Isle of Palms, South Carolina after living in Tennessee for three years. She has missed her support system of friends and family and desperately needs their help because of a sudden life altering decision that she has made. In Beach House Reunion, the reader is reconnected with characters from the previous Beach House books including a very comforting ghost. Mary Alice Monroe is a gifted storyteller who seamlessly weaves themes of marine wildlife and ocean conservation, grief, substance abuse, alcoholism, destructive family patterns, motherhood, love, romance, friendship and resilience into this compelling story.
Once again, Mary Alice Monroe triumphs with the fifth book in her beloved beach house series. When I began Beach House Reunion I could not put it down and finished in one day, savoring every word. Monroe's readers will be enthralled with this beautifully crafted and poignant novel.

Loved everything about this book! As soon as I finished reading Beach House Reunion I went back to The Beach House, the very first book in the series, because I just can’t say goodbye to Cara Rutledge and all the characters in this great series of books.

Have you ever read a book that pulls you in from the very first sentence? That’s how I felt reading Mary Alice Monroe’s new novel, Beach House Reunion. Cara, widowed for three years, is coming home to the Isle of Palms, bringing Hope, the baby she recently adopted. When she finds she needs child care help to successfully work from home, she asks her niece Linnea, a recent college graduate who has not yet found a full time job to stay with her for the summer. They are both members of the Turtle Team, a group that helps sea turtles. Cara, who for the first time since her husband’s passing, considers the possibility of love, and Linnea, who falls for a handsome neighbor teaching her to surf, are but two of the characters who are drawn with depth and understanding by this exceptional author. The beauty of the natural world and the importance of friends and family are essential to this novel, and help to make it something more than a simple beach read. Once I started reading Beach House Reunion, I couldn’t put it down--highly recommended

It was a chilly grey Saturday in my part of NC but I spent the weekend at the beach and never left home! Reading a Mary Alice Monroe book is like taking a vacation at the beach - her love of the lowcounty shines through in her books and her descriptions of the area make you feel like you're there.

This is book 5 in the Beach House series. It can be read as a stand-alone but all of the books in the series are so good that you need to read them all! In this book, Cara Rutledge returns to Primrose Cottage on Isle of Palms. She left three years earlier after her husband died but felt like it was time to go home to raise the new baby that she's adopted. When she tries to work from home, she finds out that it's difficult so asks her niece Linnea to move to the cottage to take care of the baby while she's job hunting. They both lead a more relaxed life style at the beach with lots of friends and a bit of romance for both of them. Through their time together and the beauty of the island, the Rutledge family is about to become even closer despite issues that have been passed down from previous generations.

This is a beautiful story of love and family, new beginnings and learning to live in the future instead of the past. As with all of Mary Alice's books, her love of the environment shines through her novel. In this book, its the loggerhead turtle and every chapter starts with a fact about sea turtles. There is also a lot of information about how pollution in the ocean hurts the turtles and other sea animals. So along with my mental trip to the beach, I was able to learn more about sea turtles! I highly recommend this book!

Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.