I was expecting a sweet and sappy romance. I was pleased when I got additional quirky characters, and then delighted when layers of struggle unfolded adding a trove of treasured depth to the central characters. The supposed romance into something much more. It was a little difficult for me to put aside my willing suspension of disbelieve to accept the big, main coincidence that connected the protagonists, but I enjoyed the developments and interactions thoroughly.

Mark is a born and raised Chicagoan, who's never heard of Manistique in the UP of Michigan. He heads up there to find out how and why his globe trotting aunt left him a house. He finds out it's a bed and breakfast inn, and guests begin showing up.
One is Emily, who is avoiding her lover over on Mackinaw Island. She's a recent med school grad who is on her way to her first residency. She reads one of Mark's aunt's books and discovers that she's connected to him and his family.
Reluctantly, Mark becomes an inn host and is assisted by Emily. Together, they interact with a sweet Alzheimer's patient, a couple trying to set records with an electric car, and a local Native American who was a close friend of Mark's aunt.
I enjoyed the storyline, but it got to be like a busy quilt with so many pieces that it got a little confusing. All in all, I'd recommend it for readers who want something very light.

This book is a 4.5 and I may come back and change my official rating. Mark is running away from himself and his most recent ex-girlfriend. Lucky for him (?), his aunt has passed away and he has the perfect excuse to escape to the upper peninsula of Michigan to take care of her estate. Meanwhile, Emily is debating a poor relationship choice with a manipulative married doctor. Okay that is a simplified view of the book. Add to them George, a senior with dementia that is left behind by his casino tour group, a native American with a penchant for visions, a young man who injures his hand in a stupid stunt, a deer, and a small quirky town and you get a very enjoyable, welcoming read. The characters are unique and endearing. The town is small and offers all the charms of a small town. I'm not so sure I wouldn't like to get stuck in Manistique after reading this story!

NetGalley provided a copy of the eBook in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the book, storyline, the characters, Mark and Emily.

First time reading from this author, very well written, great story line. Pick it up, you will enjoy! :)

thank you.

An interesting story of loss, being found and finding yourself. Dennis wove the characters stories together masterfully in a way that had me feeling like I was there.

I love the UP. I have spent at least a part of every summer there since I was born. As a result of my love for it, I was very excited to see a book, especially one that is not a mystery, set there. In fact, I've been to every last place mentioned in Dennis Cuesta's funny and generally readable new novel, Stuck in Manistique.

Mark is a financial planner in Chicago but his Aunt Vivian has died and he needs to head to Michigan to handle her estate. He didn't know his aunt well. When he was young, she wrote him letters from her far flung postings with Medecins sans Frontieres but her letters tapered off when he was 13 and aside from later trying to alert her when his mother died, that was that for their relationship. She's left all of her estate to him despite this distance. Knowing of her long time good works around the world, Mark is more than a little shocked to discover that she had opened a small bed and breakfast in tiny Manistique, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Emily Davis is a newly graduated O.D. who is on her way to her parents' house before moving to Chicago for the next phase of her education. She's taking a weekend visit to Mackinac Island with her very married boyfriend and mentor first though. As she drives north towards her new life, she debates with herself the right thing to do with regards to this relationship, especially in light of the death of a child under her mentor's care for which she feels responsible. When she decides to speed past the exits for the ferry docks to the Island, she heads into the UP and eventually into the path of a deer, shattering her windshield and landing her on the doorstep at Mark's Aunt Vivian's bed and breakfast.

Although Mark has no intention of being an innkeeper, he takes pity on Emily and without telling her that Vivian has died, he allows her to stay at the Manistique Victorian. Opening his door to her eventually leads to a full house of kooky eccentrics including George, who might be in the beginning stages of dementia or Alzheimer's, and a couple intent on being the first to drive around Lake Michigan in an electric car. Add to these guests two related, perhaps identical, police officers (one local and one state), a Native handyman who has visions, and the local doctor and you've got a recipe for total chaos at the bed and breakfast.

The third person narrative focus alternates by chapter between Mark and Emily as they are the two characters around whom everything revolves but also the two who have major life changing decisions in front of them. The novel is quite fast moving and very dialogue heavy, almost as if Cuesta envisions this more as a screenplay than as a novel. In fact, at times, things moved so quickly that I had to re-read pages to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I hadn't but there were gaps where a little exposition might have helped. The tone of the story changes from a sweet tale about family and relationship to a screwball comedy of sorts and then back again once the secrets the characters spend a long time hiding from each other come out. Take note that when I say relationship, I do not mean a romantic relationship; this is not a love story. As excited as I was for the setting of the novel, I don't think it totally captures the spirit of the area and the uniqueness that is the UP and its inhabitants. Of course, most of the characters are not actually Yoopers so perhaps that explains why the feel is mostly missing. Despite this (and really, most people probably won't notice this), the book was a quick, light read for a couple of hours and other readers familiar with the area will enjoy seeing their remote corner of the world name checked in a book.

Stuck in Manistique by Dennis Cuesta is an enjoyable beach read (yes, save it for next summer!). The characters are interesting, the town adorable and the story is easy to follow. I just wonder why in so many novels the female main characters make such bad decisions? That aside, the humor comes through when Mark heads to Manistique from Chicago to settle his Aunt Vivian's affairs and much to his surprise realizes her home is actually a Bed & Breakfast...with paying guests scheduled! As he deals with this turn of affairs, as well as the locals and guests, while determining what to do with this unwanted inheritance, his humor carries the day. If you are looking for a comfortable, easy read that will make you laugh, definitely pick this book up!

I love reading stories set in small towns for a number of reasons and this book delivers: slower pace of the locals vs the hurried pace of visitors, there's only one place to get pies, everybody knows everybody, quaint houses, quiet neighborhoods and the list goes on.

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this book in it's entirety but I gave it 4 stars for the simple fact that I felt as overwhelmed and disorganized as Mark was upon first arriving at the Manistique Victorian and all these people arriving at his doorstep looking for a room to stay the night. That was quite funny to read as the story unfolds, at least until he got his bearings. Mark, Emily and George are easy to connect to but as for Bear Foot, Yvonne, Peter, Dr. Bulcher, and Dr. Olsen were okay as their presence in the book is required to move the story forward.

I like seeing Emily's character grow some back bone as well as seeing Mark try and work through his phobia and seeing a glimpse of Dr. Olsen in one of the last few chapters of the book. Too bad, that conversation wasn't included.

With the way things ended with Laura (George's niece), Dr. Currant, Mark and Emily, I feel like there's going to be a sequel (maybe?). I sure hope so as I would love to come back to Manistique and catch up with Mark, Emily, Laura and Dr. Currant. Definitely worth reading if you enjoy small towns.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun, entertaining, light and humorous read. It made me laugh and smile in so many parts. It's a story that was a series of unpredictable predicaments and how the main characters, Mark and Emily had to deal with them. The interaction between the two has so much sarcastic humor that had me laughing out loud. I love things like that. The characters are quirky but very likable. I thought I had the connection between Mark and Emily figured out way early but that's what I get for thinking. It's fun being surprised and I was! We never know what or who fate has put in our destiny but these characters and the story that brought them together is heartwarming, comical and entertaining.

I loved the setting of the story in Manistique. I have never visited that part of the country and I feel like I have now with the history and descriptions the author wrote into the book. Manistique sounds like a friendly, small town that everyone wants to belong to.

I want to thank Netgalley and Celestial Eyes Press for the opportunity to read this book and how much it made me smile and laugh!

Once you get past the quirkiness, Stuck in Manistique is a sweet vacation read about total strangers who are passing through a small town at the same time and end up spending more time together unexpectedly. The story moves at a steady pace as each character explores the reasons that brought them there. I won’t be surprised if someone decides to turn it into a TV movie. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

It took me awhile to get into this book. I did enjoy the quirky characters and there were several. It was nice to see how they are somehow connected and the sense of family we get from people who aren’t blood-related. Sometimes the dialogue between characters was too much and felt it took away from the story. I just feel thrown off and missed having more details instead. It had its funny moments and I felt the more serious ones didn’t change the flow of the story much. I would have liked to have more character growth but not a bad debut.

This book was an ok read.

I had a hard time connecting to the characters and didn’t feel much emotion from the book as a whole.

This is a love story in a very untraditional way, and not in the romantic sense.

I’m a bit at a loss on what to say about this book. My home state (Wisconsin) was mentioned and talked about quite a bit which was pretty cool, but I felt a lack of excitement and intrigue while reading. With each page turn I kept hoping for something more to develop.

I usually don't give a book 5 stars unless it continues to haunt me long after I've read it, but this one was so much fun, was so enjoyable on every page, and managed to surprise me throughout, that I have to give it a 5.
There is a lovely sub-genre of fiction popular these days of a person - usually a woman - having a surprise inheritance of a bookshop/bakery/B&B from a sometimes completely unknown relative in a small town in the middle of somewhere nice. I've read many of them, some of them trite and some with character and depth.
Stuck in Manistique looks at this general scenario from a refreshing male point of view, and nails it on all counts. Mark leaves his job and home in Chicago to see and sell the home in Manistique, Michigan he has inherited from his international aid doctor Aunt Vivian. As he is looking over the place, his first customer arrives. It seems no-one told him his aunt ran a B&B and in addition to booked customers, the local hotel is still sending business her way when they are booked because no-one told them Vivian had died. And this is just the beginning of a jam-packed plot of engaging characters and relationships shifting and growing more chaotic by the minute. Lots of humor, growing friendships and real connections, a little heartbreak and unexpected turns here and there. Dennis Cuesta keeps the story believable, thoroughly original and unpredictable, and absolutely delightful. I highly recommend it.

Stuck in Manistique is a funny and heartwarming look at how seemingly simple decisions can lead to big consequences.
When Mark, an only child without any family, receives word that his only aunt has passed away heads to northern Michigan to handle the details of her estate. Mark's childhood was filled with stories of his adventurous and world traveling aunt who worked with Doctors Without Borders and lived in war zones. But what his life was not filled with was actual interactions and memories of his aunt. Without any contact for decades, Mark has no idea what he's getting himself in to.
Emily, a recent medical school graduate is getting ready to start her residency at a prestigious Chicago hospital and is planning on a romantic getaway with her boyfriend when a deer derails her plans. Stuck without a car and seriously considering her future, Emily ends up at the Manistique Victorian, a bed and breakfast formerly owned by Mark's Aunt Vivian. While Mark thinks he's only helping out a stranded woman for one night, he instead sets off a series of events that leads to friendships, break-ups, humor and sadness.
There was something about the beginning of this book that kept nagging at me and it took a while to figure out what it was-the dialogue is completely real and believable. There are no flowery speeches or quick come-backs. The characters have very real conversations with misunderstandings and jokes that fall completely flat.
Stuck in Manistique is full of quirkly characters. Mark meets Bear Foot, a local handyman who was both a friend to Aunt Vivian and her go-to guy to get things done. After learning of her death, he builds a fire to help guide her spirit and borrows a boat to take Mark out on the lake to spread Vivian's ashes. But of course, the fire doesn't go as planned and the boat doesn't start. There's George, an elderly man who has a fight with is wife and leaves his casino tour for a night of peace. But of course, George's wife died years ago and his struggles with dementia leave Mark and Emily constantly worrying about his safety. There's the couple who are trying to be the first to circle the lake in an electric car-but are they a couple?
Stuck in Manistique is a series of "what-else-can-go-wrong" that is equal parts humorous and heartbreaking.
I really enjoyed this book and I'd definitely recommend it for when you're in the need of some great, light reading.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.
Stuck in Manistique by Dennis Cuesta is available October 29, 2018 from Celestial Eyes Press.

First of all, my name is Laura, so it must be fate that I felt so attracted to the characters in this novel.
I am also from Wisconsin, so while not a Yooper, I am a close neighbor. I also have fond memories of Fawlty Towers. Once you read this delightful book you will understand.

Mark has fond memories of his Aunt Vivian, even though he only remembers spending time with her when he was very young. When he learns she has passed away and he must head north to attend to her final affairs, he discovers, rather abruptly, that she had spent her final years running a B&B.
Somehow, during the few days Mark is up north, coinciding with Memorial Day, he becomes an unexpected landlord or housekeeper to a variety of unusual guests.

This is the story of that long weekend (plus a few days) and the start of some new friendships, as well as the resolution of the consequences of past bad choices.

The characters are wonderful. Quite an assortment. The emotional turmoil is realistic.
There are plenty of humorous moments, some to break the tension and others quite spontaneous.
And YES- deer DO hit cars. I speak from personal experience.

I often read several books at one time. I began this book while attempting to finish another, but kept putting any other book aside because I really didn't want to set this book down. It demanded and deserved my full attention. Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book.
Dennis Cuesta please write something else for me to read soon!

5 stars
Mark goes to Manistique to settle his aunt’s estate, Emily has a car accident and ends up staying in Mark’s aunts B&B. A random cast of quirky characters show up and make their way to the B&B and hilarity ensues.

Stuck in Manistique is so funny! I was sucked into the story from the first page. I cannot believe I read this book in one day. It has been so long since I have gotten so engrossed in a book. I started reading and when I looked up, two hours had passed.
Dennis Cuesta wrote very compelling and heartwarming characters. Unbelievably, this is Cuesta’s first novel! I absolutely adored Mark, Emily, Bear Foot and George. The stories intertwine perfectly. This book is silly, sassy and thought-provoking all at the same time.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone as it is a true 5-star book. Stuck in Manistique is an easy read with no vulgarities or sex. I really hope there will be a sequel! I need to read more about Mark and Emily and the entire town.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. The views given are my own. #NetGalley #StuckinManistique#CelestialEyesPress

Thank you NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for this ARC.

I decided to read this book for two reasons...
#1. NetGalley sent me an email saying I was pre-approved.
#2. It took place in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Since a large part of my wanting to read this was for the location, I felt a little let down.
There wasn't a lot done with bringing the beauty of that area into the book. I wanted descriptions so vivid that I could practically see myself there with the characters.
The author did include a lot of real life pieces of the areas history into the book which I really enjoyed. I just feel like he missed some opportunities to incorporate the landscape and create more of a connection with the town.
The characters were interesting enough and a lot is packed into the story for only a few days timeline. It did remind me a lot of the TV show Are You Being Served...not as funny as the show...but that kind of flavour and banter.

A nice light, quirky book. And, by quirky, it had some moments that made me laugh out loud and other moments that I was baffled.
All in all, I have to say the book kept my interest and I enjoyed reading it.
I lived in Michigan so having the book revolving around Manistique in the Upper Peninsula was intriguing.
I enjoyed the friendship between Emily and Mark....hoping for a sequel?
Thank you to NetGallery, the publisher and author for the opportunity to review “Stuck in Manistique.”

Dennis Cuesta, you've won me over! I want to visit Michigan and the Upper Peninsula just to see if it's as delightful as the setting you've created in this quirky, entertaining novel. The small-town feel of imaginary Manistique is the perfect setting for this story of redemption, revival and resolution. Imagine a guy, Mark, dropped into unknown surroundings when he's left to attend to his dead aunt's estate. Aunt Vivian, a former member of Doctors Without Borders, was a mysterious figure to him when he was young, but now she's taken on a deeper, more personal persona. When a young doctor, Emily, shows up on his aunt's doorstep, unbeknownst to him as a B&B, life takes a quirky turn. Mark and Emily may be the main characters, but the supporting roles are just as fun - a handyman with mystic talents, an elderly visitor with failing memory, a couple driving an electric care, and a fading copy of humanitarian doctor stories. Cuesta has crafted a story that's tender, yet entertaining, quirky and just plain fun. The kind of story that makes you want to pack your bags and try a different turn on an unknown road.

What a great, quirky story! Mark inherits his aunt's B & B when she dies. He is shocked but travels to Manistique to get ready to sell it. Before he knows it he has a house full of guests. His first guest is Emily who was in a deer-car accident and needs a place to stay. Mark takes pity on her and the rest of the guests pore in and he reluctantly housed them. This is their stories.

The character development in this book is amazing. I felt I knew each and every one while laughing and crying with them. Dennis Cuesta is a new to me author and I will buy another book by him!