Summer at Firefly Beach
By Jenny Hale
Pub date: June 17, 2019


Hallie Flynn tried to control her emotions as she helped pack the cars to head back to Firefly Beach in Florida. It had been six months since her Aunt Clara had passed and she still could not return to the peaceful place she had been her last times with Clara and Hank. This visit was a family affair to help her Uncle Hank. He wasn’t do well physically and the cottage needed work. Hallie’s mother, sister Sydney and her son, Robbie, as well as best friend, Ben were planning to sort through troubles that seemed to linger in the months since her funeral.
Clara was a master of design. She and her partner, Sasha Morgan were well known internationally for their multi-million dollar company. Hallie had hoped to one day become part of that company. She possessed many of the design talents that Clara had passed on to her. At this point, Hallie worked with a 9-5 business doing interior decorating. It wasn’t her intended career but currently it was all she could do, she needed to find a way to find a more challenging life.
This story weaves its way through the characters; their past, present and hopes for future happiness. It also spells mystery from within the family. Letters written to all of Clara’s loved ones give them hints of her wishes and bequests for their future. Hallie however was given a list of five tasks in her first letter from Aunt Clara. She needed to accomplish these and receive her Uncle Hank’s acknowledgment before she would receive her second letter along with her inheritance. She was confused by this. It was a task to figure out while she spent her vacation at the cottage.
This story was a pleasant one, however at times I felt myself getting lost in some of the details. Hallie’s relationship with Ben seemed an obvious one but never becoming clear until the last sections of their journey.
I do recommend it as a delightful, comfort read. I perused most of it on my wraparound front porch, much like the one in the story, although mine was not on the beachfront.
Jenny Hale’s book, Summer at Firefly Beach is due to be published on June 17, 2019. If you are a fan of Ms. Hales, I am certain you will check this one out. If you have not read her books before, characters are family oriented and many times take place on or near the ocean.
Enjoy!

****Summer at Firefly Beach. Hallie is consumed with grief when her great aunt Clara passes and is also very confused about her inheritance. While the rest of the family got their inheritances immediately, Hallie is tasked with completing the items on a bucket list composed when she was 12. Six months into her grief she and her family go to visit Uncle Hank, himself still struggling with his new widowhood. Childhood friend Ben, always Hallie’s rock and support also makes the trip. Hallie finds her uncle to be a shadow of his formerly strong self and the cottage he shared with Clara in disrepair. Can either of these two find the strength needed to survive and will Hallie ever get her inheritance? Jenny Hale is a new author to me and while I found her very adept at descriptive phrases, I felt she overplayed the grief angle...repetitively. Turns out Hallie’s pain also has another cause that may have her turning away from her true place. One of her bucket list items was to have a wish come true, but which wish might that be? As Hallie comments, she has made lots of wishes and none have ever come true. Overall this was a good story with interesting characters and some surprises along the way. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book that I received from NetGalley.

I received this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This book reads as a feel-good summer beach read, but it wasn't much different than other feel-good summer beachy reads. Nothing stuck out for me.

*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This book surprised me, in a good way. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did because it is not the type of book I usually reach for. After reading the synopsis, I was intrigued and thought I would give it a shot.

What’s special about this book is that Hallie’s grief after the loss of her beloved aunt Clara is very real. It was believable because her grief for all the loss she suffered impacts the way she lives her life and it makes her question choices and how to approach things like love and her career. But, it doesn’t stop her because she works to heal with the help of her family and Ben (heart-eye emoji).

Also, Robby? Cutest kid ever.

I wonder which is better or worse - a book leaving you with feelings of anger and disappointment. Or leaving you with no feelings at all, just plain old indifference.

I guess it depends on whether we pick up a book in hopes to escape our own feelings, or to fill up a void of feelings we have in our own life.

But why am I thinking about these things right now, you ask? Because I didn't feel anything from this book. This book was not good. It was not bad. It just was...

I don't even feel like dissecting what was it about this book that has me so apathetic. I just want to move on. But since I've been so kindly provided an ARC by the publisher in exchange of an honest review, I'll have to attempt at anyway.

So what was it about this book?

It might have been the odd place the book starts off. Hallie and her family are grieving their aunt Clara. But we don't see her dying. We don't see Hallie decide to stay back in the beach. It's all already happened. It was a very weird introduction.

If you want to build a whole story based on a a family's grief over one person's death, I don't know, but maybe try starting off by making us feel something for that person too? For example, I recently read A Lily in the Light. It was about a missing girl who only appeared initially in the beginning for only a couple of pages. But that was enough for me to feel an attachment towards the girl, and make me invested in the story. This book lacked that. There was no hook to capture my interest.

It might have been the central romance. I liked Ben well enough. But for lack of a better word, I found him boring. I did not feel any spark in the writing. There was no tension.

Yes. Tension! That's the right word. There's a clear lack of tension in the book. Hallie is left a bucket list to fulfill which she wrote back when she was 12. But I didn't feel any excitement or sense of adventure from the existence of this list. It was all a very dull affair. There was this sub-plot about a potential criminal. But even that failed to engage me.

It might just have been the writing. It lacked any real punch or emotions to draw me in.

Or maybe it's just me. Maybe, I've read too many intense books in the recent past that a simple story as this just didn't do it for me.

I'll give it 3 stars, because going back to my first point, I've decided that right now I'm better off not feeling any anger or disappointment over this book.

I always look forward to a new book by Jenny Hale. Her book covers are so inviting and make you want to start reading right away! Summer At Firefly Beach is another great read!

Spoiler alert ~ Tissues are needed.

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review. I gave this a 5/5 stars or 10/10 for making me cry.

Jenny Hale is quite a prolific author of romances set in America, her well written stories are character driven and draw the reader into the lives of the characters and their world.

This was a joy to read, I ran the whole gamut of emotions in equal measure whilst reading this story.

Hallie is a little lost after losing her great Aunt Clara. Hallie is given a letter from great Aunt Clara that includes a bucket list that she had written when she was younger. As Hallie tries to complete the list and realises that there are decisions that she needs to make about her future and what it is that she actually wants from life. Her childhood friend Ben is there helping her to fulfil some of the bucket list. As secrets that she had kept hidden are brought to light, will she get her happy ever after or not?

Grab a copy of this and settle back to be immersed into the lives of the characters residing near Firefly Beach.

Summer at Firefly Beach is a good book to begin he summer season. Hallie mourns the loss of her beloved aunt and also the demise of her relationship with her fiancé. Along with her family, she travels to Firefly Beach which has such meaning. She is tasked with fulfilling a list of aspirations she made as a kid. As she fulfills those requirements, Hallie learns a lot, about herself and her goals. Ultimately, she receives a huge surprise and all the heartache was worth it.

Hallie’s heat is broken when her beloved Aunt Clara passes away. Hallie’s fondest childhood memories are of the summers she spent at her aunt’s beach house on Firefly Beach. As her final wish Clara has requested that her niece fulfills the bucket list she began when she was 12. Hallie leaves her stressful and unfulfilling job to honor her aunt’s last wish, but she soon discovers that fulfilling that old list is not going to be easy. Spending the summer at Firefly Beach, Hallie encounters two men, one a childhood friend, the other a wealthy newcomer, and she’s left deciding if what she wants now is anything like what her 12 year old self dreamed of