A Week at the Shore by Barbara Delinsky introduces us to the coast of Rhode Island. The book looks at the life of three sisters, twenty years after their parent’s marriage imploded. The book's themes of family, love and the difficulty of loss made the story poignant. There were some interesting questions that added a level of mystery to the story as well.

Mallory went to New York and found a new life for herself and her daughter, Joy. All that changed when Mallory is brought back to the beach house and her father and (Anne) sister’s life. Her father’s behavior had become more concerning and her sister was in denial about it. Then Margo (the third sister) appears and the story with the family complexities winds up. To top it all off, Jack is still the boy next door and still has feelings for Mallory and questions her father’s innocence from an incident years ago.

Barbara Delinsky is one of my go to novelist. This book is an interesting read. I was not as invested in the beginning as I was toward the end as the book picked up speed. I really liked how the author portrayed the sisters with all their foibles. A Week at the Shore by Barbara Delinsky was a good beach read.

This book was not really for me. I found it hard to get into. This book is told from a first person point of view, I wish the author would have included to people telling the story at least even if she kept it FPP. They say anything could happen in an instant and I feel like that sums up this story lots of different scenarios and some twists and turns to me sometimes it was almost like the author didn’t know where to go so she through something out there and it stuck. Some of the story was good, I really liked Joy she was a pistol and was fun to read about. This is sex and adult language in this book and may not be suitable for all.

I have always loved a good substantial beach read. This book didn’t disappoint. In true Delinsky fashion, there is a major family/friend dilemma along with a beautiful beach town and great cast of characters. Ms. Delinsky delves into the history of 3 sisters, each dealing with issues on their own, who need to come to turns with a 20 year old family mystery and an ailing, formidable father. So many secrets are that are unraveled, but come together nicely. We don’t always get the answer we want, but sometimes that answer is what we need. The relationship between sisters is realistic, each sister taking on different roles in the group. A lot of issues are raised, but it adds to the mystery and a easy to follow. Growing up in a small beach town where there are so many opinions is spot on.

After receiving a concerning phone call from her childhood love, Mallory and her daughter, Joy, are headed back to Mallory’s hometown of Bay Bluff, RI to visit with her youngest sister and difficult Dad. Mallory faces so many questions in regards to her Dad, Mom and most of all, herself. Who says you can’t go home, it may just take awhile to face your fears and get your answers.

Thanks to ms. Delinsky, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

What really happened that night twenty years ago that destroyed two families? The Aldiss family, Tom, Eleanor and their three daughters, Margo, Mallory and Anne lived next door to the Sabathian family in Bay Bluff, Rhode Island, a small coastal town. Eleanor and Elizabeth MacKay Sabathian first met in college, and Elizabeth's son Jack, was Mallory's first love. The lives of the two families had been entwined for decades. All of that changed in one fateful night.

Mallory Aldiss (the main character), now 39, is photographer for a high-end realtor and lives in New York City with her 13-year-old daughter Ivy. Mallory hasn't been back to Bay Bluff in twenty years. A phone call from Jack who still lives in his family home soon changes that. Her father, a retired judge from Rhode Island's Superior Court is suffering from dementia/Alzheimer's. Though his youngest daughter Anne lives with and takes care of him, Mallory feels that Anne isn't realistic about her father's health, and if what Jack says is true, Tom is a danger to himself and others. She feels she has to go back and check things out herself. She is dreading the trip, while Ivy is very excited to finally meet her aunt Anne and her grandfather.

Anne, 38, runs a restaurant in town. She loves her father deeply, and resents that her sisters left town and have never been back. When Margo, who now lives in Chicago with her husband and two sons, hears that Mallory is in Bay Bluff, she too decides to go back.

The week that follows is an eventful one. The sisters find themselves struggling to address both long-buried and current feelings and issues, deal with their father, and regain the connection they once had. Can they make peace with the past and move forward as a family again?

Barbara Delinsky is known for her well-written prose, her true to life characters, and her emotive plot lines. A Week at the Shore supports that legacy. This is a very entertaining read and I highly recommend it.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions stated are my own.

“A Week at the Shore” Barbara Delinsky
It has been awhile since I last read a Barbara Delinsky novel, and this story is all that I have come to expect from her work. A story that tells just how complicated being a family can be, being true friends can be.. the expectations not met, the events that can change your path.. and with luck, resilience, and forgiveness… how broken relationships can be healed. A well written not to be missed read.
note: I requested an ARC via NetGalley from the publisher.. and was lucky enough to have that request granted. My review is my honest opinion and I hope you will agree with me. This is a story worth reading. Happy Reading ! !

I really like Barbara Delinsky's writing, but this book was kind of a disappointment to me. It's a romance/mystery story, and the plot was good, but it went on for too long. The beginning was slow but it picked up towards the end.

3 1/2 stars

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A Week at the Shore, at first, seems like a breezy summer read. But the cover and the title don’t reveal the true depth of the story.
Mallory hasn’t been home to see her dad in a long time. She escaped to New York and has a great life as a photographer and raising her teenage daughter. When she gets a strange call from her ex-boyfriend (her dad is threatening him with a gun), Mallory thinks her father is sicker than her sister ever let on. Her daughter convinces her they should visit him so Joy can bond with her family. Mallory gives in to her daughter. Their visit starts a cascade surrounding a decades-old mystery of a woman who died while on a boat with her father.
The characters are all very flat. The main character seems almost like she has no personality; she takes from other characters. Her teenage age daughter basically runs her life (and doesn't act like a teenager at all) and Mallory absorbs the emotions of those around her second-guessing her own.
Delinsky uses a hammer to tackle every topic. There is very little finesse which seems odd for the author. Usually, her stories are deep and subtle allowing the readers to absorb the ideas. Mallory suddenly thinks that she has another parent and acts like she has thought that for a long time but there is nothing before in the book to back that theory. There was no subtle lead up to the idea.
Even so, plot-wise, she manages to throw a few curbs balls. But in the end, it wasn’t enough to save the novel. I won’t recommend this one when I make a suggestion to my friends about this author.
Though the subject matter is thoughtful, it’s not written very well, living me with a bad taste in my mouth.

For the last 15+ months, I have been reading nothing but psychological thrillers and was in need of a bit of a change and then I saw that this book was available for review. So I requested a copy from St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for the following reasons. Did I make a good choice?
<li>It's been some time since I read a book by Ms. Delinsky, which I need to reevaluate and ask myself why I haven't and I need to rectify that.</li>
<li>The description/synopsis</li>
<li>The cover</li>
<li>Family relationships</li>
<li>Both mystery and romance</li>
<li>And that the setting is in my home state</li>
Did I make a good choice?

Mallory Aldiss has not been home in 20 years to see her father and younger sister, Anne, ever since the accident that tore 2 families apart and that became fodder for gossip to this day. Until Mallory receives a phone call from their neighbor, who was also the man that she loved and had left behind because of the incident, stating that her father had threatened him with a gun, was failing in health and the house needed repair. Her older sister, Margo, took the side of their mother and swore she would also never return, but decides it's time to go back.

Mallory's daughter, thirteen-year-old daughter Joy, pleads with her to make the trip from NY to RI to visit with her grandfather and aunt since she is craving to have a family. Mallory agrees to go for a week but what happens in that week reignites questions, disagreements with her sisters as each one has their own perspective of their childhood and what fractured their relationships, her feelings towards the guy she left behind and one mystery that she needs to know who she really is.

I was pulled into the story from page one, which was both poignant and captivating. The characters were believable to the point that I felt that I personally knew them. The family dynamics were both emotional and raw at times. The setting gorgeous, even though it was all familiar to me, I'm sure any reader will be able to picture it in their mind. The writing fluid. Just enough mystery and romance all rolled up in one.

I asked, did I make a good choice, my answer is ABSOLUTELY!! I loved this book!!!!

Posted to GR: 05/07/20
Will post to blog: 05/19/20

I’m relatively new to Barbara Delinsky’s novels (this is only my second book by her) but so far I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read. “A Week at the Shore” is a complex family drama/romance novel. This is not typically “my thing” since I prefer my romance novels to be a bit more light hearted, and this one definitely tackled some tough themes, but Delinksy does a good job of balancing out the heavy plot points with a hearty dose of romance to make reading the book worthwhile.

If you’re a fan I recommend this one but if you’re looking for a romance novel to help you escape the “real world” you might want to pass this one up.

Not much to say about this one. This was a slow (very slow) book and you don't even get what is going on and then the book focuses on a mystery of a missing woman. I didn't really care for the hero (Jack) in this one (he was verbally abusive I found and just a jerk) and I thought the heroine (Mallory) could do better. I honestly think this whole thing read like a very bad soap opera with a lot of misconceptions that could have been fixed if all characters had a honest talk. I didn't like the resolution to the mystery (it was lame) and I think that not all characters were very developed.

"A Week at the Shore" follows Mallory Aldiss who after an irate phone call from a long-time ex family friend Jack Sabathian, returns to her family's home in Rhode Island. Jack calls Mallory accusing her father of threatening him with a gun and telling her she needs to return home and stop leaving things to her younger sister. Mallory is a photographer living in New York with her daughter Joy and has not been home in 20 years. Mallory is partially estranged from both of her sisters, one that still lives in Rhode Island, and her father Tom who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Mallory's family fell apart after their neighbor Elizabeth Sabathian disappeared after taking a boat trip with her father 20 years earlier. Many people thought that Tom and Elizabeth were having an affair. Jack accused him of murdering his mother and Jack and Mallory fell apart. The story just follows Jack and Mallory and the sisters with them talking through memories and the truth of their family.

I can just say that I compared this to other Delinsky books I loved and this just didn't hit the sweet spot for me. Mallory was a pushover and I really didn't like her hemming and hawing over everything. She let her 13 year old daughter push her around. She let Jack push her around. I just thought the reveals she tried to get to about her family fell flat.

The other characters were underdeveloped. Jack was a jerk IMHO. The two sisters were barely in this it felt like. I didn't really like Joy. The other characters who were in this just felt like ghosts. Usually Delinsky novels have some really well grounded characters with issues that feel very true to life.

The writing at times though was really good (why I gave this a 2). When Delinsky focuses on how memory shapes thing, Mallory's childhood memories, the beach, the smells and locations around Mallory things really work. This book made me think about my childhood and playing in the woods near a creek on summer days and the smell of the creek and the green of the woods. How I could hear bees buzzing and hear the birds chirping with the occasional noise from an animal in the underbrush. If Delinsky had more of that I would have loved this book.

The flow of this book was just terrible. I think other reviewers noted how slow this is, and it is really slow. You don't start to see resolutions to anything until the last 20 percent of the book. Things just felt rushed at that point and I was just glad to be done with this one.

Mallory has always been the link between her sisters Anne and Margot, who haven't really spoken in years. Now, though, things are about to change because Mallory, along with her teen daughter Joy, have come back to Rhode Island because their father is dying. There are lots of old secrets in this family, most of then related to the dissolution of their parents' marriage. It's a big family saga that will keep you guessing (there are some unexpected twists). The characters are well done, the plot bios along, and the storytelling accomplished. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is the epitome of a beach book but it's also fine while stuck indoors!

Author Barbara Delinsky has written another entertaining family drama. This story is about love, family, lies, identity and forgiveness.

Mallory receives a phone call that her elderly father is ill. After a twenty year absence she returns to her family home on the shore of Rhode Island. Now a grown women with a 13 year old daughter she has to deal with past family history, secrets and her first love.

This will be a great summertime vacation book. I know you will enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin for the opportunity to read and give an honest review.

Mallory the middle daughter of a former judge gets a call from her father's neighbor Jack who is also her former boyfriend telling her that her father is screaming at him and waving a gun. her father has Alzheimer's and her younger sister is supposed t be keeping an eye on him.\

She reluctantly returns home for a week.. Rumors and bad memories are why he hasn't been back in 20 years
Rumor abut the night Jacks mother Elizabeth disappeared while on a boat with Mallory's father .after which her parents divorced.
Mallory wonders if her mother cheated as well and if her father isn't her biological father.

There were questions about Elizabeth's estate, She learns her father showed Elizabeth how to "cook" the books since she was using money from the estate for personal reasons and eventually drained the estate's 'reserves and perhaps disappeared in order to aid facing criminal charges.

Mallory older sister returns and childhood memories secrets and grievances are shared.

When her father dies from a sudden heart attack she learns who her biological father is and makes decisions about her life..

There hasn't been a book written by Barbara Delinksy that I haven't loved yet, and A Week at the Shore can now be added to the list! The summary enticed me with "three women willl test the bonds of sisterhood, friendship and family, and discover the role that love and memory plays in defining their lives". I am a lover of novels about family, relationships, and psychological sagas so these words were magic to my ears. I flew through the book easily and was eager to pick it back up again whenever life interrupted and pulled me away. Of course the descriptive scenes of the beach setting and cute town in Rhode Island helped keep me interested. I loved this book!

I've been a huge fan of Ms. Delinsky for a lot of years. Her book, Flirting With Pete, is one of my favorites of hers along with The Summer I Dared. All of these books are the perfect beach reads for me and I was excited to get an advanced copy of A Week at the Shore from Netgalley.

Mallory has crafted a whole life for herself in New York,away from the family home back in Rhode Island. Lots of family issues left back there has kept her away for 20 years, until a phone call from an old flame back home has her rethinking her reasons for staying away for so long.

Barbara always does a great job of crafting intricately woven stories. This one is no different, pulling me into the story and making me feel like I was standing on the shore alongside Mallory, experiencing the sand and waves and sounds. Sometimes all the descriptive paragraphs dragged a little too long for me, and I was tempted to skip past them but then didn't want to miss anything along the way.

There's lots of family drama, and a mystery that's been hanging over two families heads for the past 20 years. There's some revelations along the way, and a couple of plot twists that surprised me. Barbara has always been a master at delving deeply into the family dynamic and getting to the heart of what makes people tick, on their own and within the family arc.

I really, really liked Jack. My heart went out to him for what he's been going through all this time, trying to solve the mystery of his missing mother, trying to continue living in the house he grew up in that has so many memories, trying to live life without Mallory there to live it with him. And now that's she back, he has the opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and forge a future with her.

As I was reading, I was kicking myself that I've gone so long between reading Barbara's books. When I got to the end, I wanted so much more!!

Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

A Week at the Shore by Barbara Delinsky is a story of looking at the past in order to move on with one’s life. It’s been twenty years since New York photographer Mallory has been to her family’s Rhode Island home at the shore after a scandal and breakup with her first love pushed her to run. Her daughter, Joy, is anxious to go and spend time with the grandfather she barely knows. One week is all Mallory will finally agree to but it will change their lives forever. Her sisters will be there also and their memories don’t always match up. Their bonds will be challenged but will they become closer as sisters?
I enjoyed this book and give it 5 of 5 stars. It is well written and the characters and their motives are so easy to relate to. We learn the truth about some the memories that have caused hurt and anger to dwell within the characters and keep them separate for so long. Some questions that were never asked are now buried with the sisters’ mother. Will their father be able to answer some? There are very dynamic and sometimes stressful interactions within the family and with those who were closest to them at the time of the scandal as all come together to try to heal.
I received an advance copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book is about three sisters Margo, Mallory and Anne. Mallory and her daughter Joy go to visit Bay Bluff in Rhode Island. Mallory receives a phone call from Jack her father’s next door neighbor and Mallory’s first love. Her sister Anne takes care of the family house and their father Tom who used to be a judge. Their father has Alzheimer’s. Twenty years Jack’s mother Elizabeth went on a boat ride with Tom. A storm came and Elizabeth did not make it. There has been a mystery surrounding her death that Jack want to know. The ending was a surprise. I enjoyed this book very much and couldn’t put it down. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press.

This novel sets a new low in dysfunctional families combined with non-traditional families. I guess all this open marriage and who-is-whose-dad appeals to the millennials who grew up in day care watching the Jerry Springer show. This is not the way I remember any of my previous 20 or so novels by Barbara Delinsky.

I’m sure this will have great appeal to a great many young readers. Sadly, I’m not one of them. I’ll remember how much I enjoyed the first 25 years of Delinsky’s novels.

I appreciate this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, in exchange for an honest review.

I have reviewed this book for New York Journal of Books and it will be posted on their site the evening before the publication date.


"A Week at the Shore" by Barbara Delinsky
St. Martin's Press
May 19, 2020
10- 1250119510
Women's Contemporary Fiction
416 Pages



Not all families are like those as seen on the old TV shows such as Ozzie & Harriet or The Brady Bunch. Dysfunction usually abides between the husband and wife, the parents and the children, or with the siblings. This is the case with the Aldiss family.

Sisters Margo, Mallory, and Anne got along relatively well as youngsters, but their relationship disintegrated twenty years prior when they were teenagers. Their dad took their mother's best friend and neighbor, Elizabeth McKay out on his boar, per her request, and returned home without her.

Tom Aldiss, patriarch and, a well-respected superior-court judge in the small coastal town of Bay Bluff, Rhode Island asserted he doesn't know what happened to her. The supposition was she committed suicide, though several townsfolk believe Tom threw her overboard. Her body was never located, so there was no conclusive evidence, which adds to the mystery of this plot. The circumstances of this "accident, ended Tom's marriage to Eleanor, and when Eleanor moves to Chicago, the girls are at a loss.

An irascible husband and father, he garnered no warmth to or from his wife or children. Margo soon follows her mother, marries and has two sons. Mallory, hiving the most contentious connection with her father, relocates to New York City at age nineteen. She builds a life and later gives birth to Joy, through IVF and works at a fulfilling career as a photographer. It is Anne who remains in the family home to care for her father who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She owns and operates a favorite breakfast eatery known as Sunny Side Up and feels it is her duty to watch over their aging father.
Mallory's childhood best friend and a teen she once loved, Jack Sabathian, calls Mallory in New York to inform her Tom had come to his door and threatened him with a gun. Knowing Tom is losing his senses, he also informs her the Aldiss home is falling into disrepair.

Jack is the son of Elizabeth, the neighbor who allegedly perished in the boating accident twenty years prior. Since then his relationship with Tom and Mallory has been contentious, leading to Mallory's departure, caught between the father she loved--though she never believed he loved her--and the boy she also cared for. After all this time, Jack still needs to get to the bottom of what happened to his mother. Now he is more than worried:

"'Well, hello, Mallory . . . here's the thing. You need to step up to the plate. If he's [Tom] talking about that night to me, he's probably talking about it in town. Bay Bluff may be only a tiny corner of Westerly, but the police love the coffee your sister serves in her shop. If he's babbling, they'll hear--and hey, I'm all for it. He killed my mother. I want it coming out. Don't you? 'Course not. So, here's a wake-up call,' the slightest pause before an accusatory, 'Mallory. Either you do something about him, or they will.'"

Mallory phones Anne with concern. Could her father be going around brandishing a gun? Does he even have a gun? This could prove disastrous, seeing his current condition, however, Anne refuses to believe Tom is ill, admonishing he's just getting forgetful which is normal for his age.

Joy, listening in on the conversation insists they go to Rhode Island, wanting nothing more than to be part of a family. But Mallory does not want to return to the place where she lived with such heartache. Persuasive 13-year-old Joy knows how to get what she wants, and they head east without notifying Anne. As they are arriving, Anne calls Mallory informing her Tom had a fall and broke his wrist. Mallory states they'll be at the Urgent Care center soon for they're nearby. Anne chastises her for coming when he insecurity about not being the best daughter or sister gets to her.

Not expecting a warm welcome from her dad, Mallory is pleased when he takes a shine to Joy. Then upon encountering Jack, she doesn't know how to act. She looks at him, feeling that old spark, but is renewing a friendship with him unattainable?

Now, the sisters in their late-30s and early 40s are rejoined. Margo and her family arrive, and Joy is ecstatic to spend time with her cousins and aunts. She too, quickly bonds with Jack and his lovable pit-bull, Guy.

As Jack still searches for answers about his mother, Mallory questions her childhood. She is fearful Tom may have killed Elizabeth, though knowing Jack won't give up his quest, she and her sisters need closure too. Tensions escalate as the women acknowledge their worries and concerns regarding their parents and their history.

Relaxed and somewhat happy in her childhood home, Mallory is in a quandary. Can she put the past behind her? Things come to a head after an argument between the three as Mallory states:

"We aren't kids now, but there's something about family being reunited in the family home that unearths long-buried resentments.

"And then there's the issue of my guilt. Much of what Ann said to Margo applies to me. I haven't been back to help with Dad. I didn't help with Mom either. So here we are, my sisters and I, still worlds apart."

"A Week at the Shore" is a highly emotional novel of family dysfunction, hidden secrets, insecurities, and the desire to start fresh. The well-described and serene beach location and the unique personalities of the complex characters along with a bit of mystery, make this an involving read.

This book is packed with so much substance - emotional, family drama, secrets, memories, and a bit of mystery. It also has reconnections, moving forward, and forming bonds. So much can happen in one short week, and this book has it all. It’s a very good read!