The Seaside Cafe by Rochelle Alers

Kayana returns to the Seaside Cafe to run the restaurant alongside her brother Derrick after the end of her marriage. At the cafe she meets some diners who she learns have a love of reading as she does and they form a summer book club. During those book club meetings, the ladies have discussions about race, love and more, topics that come up from reading the book of that week, or not. The discussions are mostly spirited but they sometimes leave the members dealing with issues that arise that in some cases leave the reader wondering how that happened. For me some of the discussions were uncomfortable, as they can in “real” life.

At the same time Kayana meets these ladies she also finds herself drawn to another repeat guest of the Cafe, Graeme Ogden. Kayana and Graeme develop a relationship that needed something more to make it believable. The romance didn't have depth for me.

I usually really enjoy Ms Alers work but for me this one left me wanting more details about the main characters, Kayana and Graeme. For one thing, how did she fall for him in such a short time? I needed more.

The best part of the book for me was the restaurant work and recipes. I can not wait to try the Sheet Pan Shrimp Fajitas !!! Perhaps the next book in the series will hit the mark. I will be reading other books by this author in the future !

Rating 3
Linda C.

I recently read the second book in The Book Club series by Rochelle Alers, and enjoyed it, so wanted to go back and read the first. The series is set on Coates Island, off the coast of North Carolina. Kayana Johnson has returned to the island to help her brother run The Seaside Cafe. She is looking to heal her broken heart after a betrayal and divorce. She loves to cook and read, so when she meets two women who also love books, she suggests they start a bookclub. Leah and Cherie have their own issues they are dealing with, but this is Kayana's story. She meets a reclusive visitor and they also strike up a friendship. Can Kayana be open to a new relationship?

This book is categorized as a romance and had strong romantic elements with two mature characters, but it is also what I would categorize as women's fiction. Rochelle Alers wrote a highly descriptive story discussing books and food, two things I really enjoy. We also read about developing friendships and support for each other that blossoms over those book discussions. Finally we have the romance between Kayana and Graeme. I liked that the characters were older (40s and 50s) and their mature relationship and love. This was not a book that gripped me, but one that was quiet, slow moving and pulled me in to the lives of the characters and the community. I have already read Leah's story, so am now looking forward to reading Cherie's.

I love this author. This book did not disappoint. Graeme and Kayana were a match from the beginning but carried scars from their previous marriages. But true love prevailed.

This story was okay. It’s perfect for a quick summer quick. I really liked the touch of the recipes that were included. I felt that although the character were brought together through the book club and such, their stories didn’t feel as mixed as I was reading through the book. I did still enjoy it though. It has family, friends, love, personal growth. So again, perfect easy beach read.

Off the North Carolina coast these bookish women bond over a summer of second chances and romances. Who doesn't love a good story with well flushed out characters and plot.

For three decades, the Seaside Cafe has served delicious meals to locals and island tourists alike. Kayana Johnson has moved home to help her brother run the cafe--and to nurse her wounds following a deep betrayal. Between cooking favorite recipes--creole chicken with buttermilk waffles, her grandmother's famous mac and cheese--and spending time reading, Kayana is trying to embrace a life free of entanglements, while staying open to new connections . . .

Thank you netgalley for allowing me to read this early. I have never read anything by this author so i was excited when I was granted access. I fell in love with this story in the first chapter. If you havent read it yet, I recommend you do!

I'm a sucker for any book with anything bookish, so the idea of a book series about ladies in a book club was a must read for me! Add in a seaside cafe & it's like my dream life!

What I really enjoyed about this title was how these ladies not only got together for reading, but also for personal growth and friendships. Unfortunately didn't connect with the characters as much as I would have liked, it just didn't work well for me.

It’s a quick, light read. Not my typical genre but I enjoyed it. I would read more by this author and recommend it

What a charming read! Delightful beach reading. I loved this sweet and fun read about three women rebuilding their lives.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is the first book in a new series that started out well. I loved the beach town setting and the restaurant. The history of Kayana's family on the island and starting the restaurant was interesting. I also liked the secondary characters and all of the book discussions and how the women felt comfortable enough with each other to discuss their personal lives and problems. Graeme also added a different perspective to the story and brought out a lot of issues to be explored. I am looking forward to learning more about Kayana's family and seeing what will happen next on Coates Island.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I have never read this author before but I must say she has a new fan now. A great debut novel of a new series. I look forward to reading many more of her books.

Kayana Johnson returned to Coates Island to help her brother with the family restaurant two years ago. She had a bad divorce and felt it was the perfect time to return to the island of her childhood. Having always loved to cook, Kay has taken over the morning shift where she meets two ladies, very different, but whom she discovers , also have a love of reading. They decide to start a weekly Book Club which also turns into bonding friendships. Each of the ladies appear to have a special story and in this series debut, Kayana finds that there are friends and that they don't necessarily have to be female.

A really enjoy Ms. Alers writing. She brings her characters such life, their flaws, which are revealed as we read, only make them more likable because they appear as normal every day people, but ones that you would like to meet. I'm looking forward to Leah's and Cherie's stories.

One downside - the books that they were "reading" for this book club, are real and have increased my TBRs!

Found this book to be a bit 'confused', for lack of a better word. While I loved the descriptions of the setting and also of the food, it felt like this book was half travelogue-plus-food-catalog and only half about the characters and their story. As such, it made for a bit of a muddle that I found hard to get through and which I didn't really want to pick up again once I'd put it down

This is a good beach read. It's a romance set on an ocean side island in North Carolina. It is book 1 in the Book Club series and it's a good introduction to the small town and the major characters. Kayana returns to Coates Island after her marriage ends to help run the family cafe. It's been on the island for 3 generations and a popular place for the residents and tourists. Kayana meets 2 women that are as interested in reading as she is so they meet every Sunday to discuss their favorite books and authors. Mixed in with their reading is lots of background for each character, all very different. I'm looking forward to book 2. Rochelle Alers is a new author for me and I enjoyed her style and story telling. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This the first book I have read by Rochelle Alers but it certainly won’t be the last, I really enjoyed The Seaside Cafe (The Book Club #1). Ms Alers did a amazing job describing Coates Island, she made me feel like it was somewhere I knew somewhere I had visited and I loved the concept of this story, 3 women who form a book club whilst spending the summer on the island.
Over the summer friendships are formed as they share their love of books ( something most of us here can relate too), secrets are shared and new romances are in the air so what more do you want in a great read, all in all this ticked my boxes. For me this is a perfect beach holiday read and I’m looking forward to picking up other works by this talented author.

***Was given this Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest opinion by NetGalley***

The Seaside Cafe revolves around a 46 year old woman called Kayana Johnson who has moved back home to Coates Island after divorcing her husband due to him cheating on her with one of their colleagues. She meets 2 women whom have very different personalities to her, which results in their endless bickering when they create a book club and meet every Sunday to discuss the literature. During this particular summer, Kayana meets Graeme Ogden, a bestselling writer who writes under the name Brendan Andersen.

Kayana and Graeme start to spend time together and as predicted they fall in love and at the end of the book, it’s eluded that they are going to get married. It is mentioned just before the end but you don’t get to read about it.. In my opinion, there wasn’t really a storyline here. I struggled to get into it and a lot of the paragraphs are repeated further on in the story, which can be quite frustrating at times.

All of the above is written in my opinion.

I’m already a fan of Rochelle Alers work and I really liked this one even though it felt a lot slower moving and different from her previous books I’ve read. This slow burner of a romance feels like a romance for grown folks and it totally is with the heroine, Kayana, being in her late forties and hero, Graeme, being in his early 50s. I love mature love and so obviously, I loved this book.

The premise is that after her divorce, Kayana has resettled in her quaint small town seaside holiday hometown where she helps her brother run their family restaurant. However, her predictable, quiet book-loving world is about to change forever with the arrival of some new best bookish best friends in the form of summer visitors with complicated pasts and a mysterious visiting math teacher, who can’t seem to take his eyes off of her.

Even though this had a strong romantic elements, I’m hard pressed to actually call this a romance. It’s more what publishers categorize as “women’s fiction” or “domestic fiction.” It is a definite slow burn and the author can almost be said to be tedious with the amount of detail she gives about each book Kayana’s book club reads or about architecture or design of food, but I enjoyed this style. I found the level of description soothing and it’s something I’ve come to recognize in this author’s writing. Her in depth analysis of the book club reads in the pages definitely made me want to pick up those classics i haven’t read yet. Also, I really cared about the friendship Kayana developed with Leah and Chérie and am really interested in them having books and in exploring more of their own stories. The romance in this is interracial and that is discussed but the racial difference isn’t really a theme of Graeme and Kayana’s love story and that felt natural. They’re both such grown ups that it was normal that they knew what they wanted. And I think that theme of mature love of knowing what you want, of not NEEDING the other person, but rather WANTING them in your life because they enhance it, that was really nice to read.

This is admittedly not the most excitingly, page-turning book. It’s not one you necessarily breeze through and “can’t put down.” It is however the sort of gentle, soothing book that feels like a warm blanket and a comfort and that you can’t help but enjoy reading. The food in this fed my soul and I really appreciated the recipes at the end. I liked this and am looking forward to reading more in this series!

I received a copy of this book from Dafina Books (Kensington Books) through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a quick summer read that you definitely shouldn’t read while hungry. I really loved the added touch of the recipes at the end of the book

This was a delightful book which transported me away from the hate and insanity surrounding us. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next installment.