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.

I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately it just fell flat for me. The main reason was due to the three main characters. I just didn't care for any of them. They all seemed quiet snippy with each other and quick to judge. It made me wonder why they even decided to start a book club in the first place.

The writing and plot were good, but as I am a very character driven reader, I just didn't love this one.

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.

Three women who at the beginning, start off as strangers and end up becoming friends and form a summer book club.   After her divorce, Kayana Johnson moves back to help her brother at their family's beachside resort.  While there, she meets Greame, who presents himself as a teacher, but doesn't give the full story.  The romance starts off slow, but could possibly taper off if the truth doesn't get revealed.  

The imagery presented in the story was so life like, I could imagine myself being in that environment.  Although I'm a fan of slow romance, this one was a little too slow, but due to the characters, I understand why.  I  enjoyed the story and can't wait to read the next book  in the series.

The Seaside Cafe by Rochelle Alers is a study on second chances and family obligations. A story about the grief of falling in love again. The grief that you give yourself as you list all the what-ifs in your head, all the time, every day. The grief that you just can't get him off your mind and how you are not going to even consider going there again until you come to the realization you're already there. A book of new friends, summer friends whom you come to cherish and old friends. Friends who aren't always the person you thought on first glance. A friendship grown from the love of the wonderfulness of a book or three. A club where you learn so much about the other members as you do about yourself. Family love, respect and obligation passed down with the generations along with life lessons that are taught to you by those who are older, wiser and love you more than you can ever imagine. Enjoy!

This book was just okay. I received an advance reader copy from net galley.  I chose this book because I thought it would be a quick summer read.  it took me awhile to get into the book.  I couldn't relate to the character at all. And at times the arguing was too much.  I found myself wanting to say BYE Felicia numerous times.  If you are fan of this type of book you will enjoy it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3380496542