The second book in the Cape Sanctuary series is about sisters Jess and Rachel. Jess helps people declutter their homes/lives/businesses. She takes a job in town to hopefully repair her relationship with younger sister Rachel. Rachel struggles to be the "perfect" mom. She feels like she is failing her family and at first is not happy that her sister has come to town. Both of them not only need healing in their relationship, but from their horrible upbringing which contributes to each of their personalities. Jess's client recently lost her husband and needs help and motivation to get organized. Her single father son is an attraction/temptation that Jess tries to avoid. A wonderful story of sisters and second chances with great characters.

the setting is 😍 These characters are all beautifully flawed. I can always get behind a strained sister relation. I also appreciated that although it is the second book in the series, it reads as a standalone just fine. Definitely grab this one if you want a little family drama with a good dose of romance.

This is a Women's Fiction/Romance/Up-Lit at its best. Although this is the second book in the Cape Sanctuary series, you do not have to have read The Sea Glass Cottage to enjoy this story. The MC in this one is Jessica Clayton. Jessica has had a tough life. She grew up in foster care after her parents died in a tragedy. Her sister was adopted, while Jessica, being willful and challenging, was not. She went into the military and after her discharge, began a business with her best friend helping people organize, declutter and prepare for estate sales. She has taken a job in Cape Sanctuary, where her sister lives with her husband and three children. Can she reconcile with her sister and have a relationship with her family? Will she feel the pull to finally find a home?

I really liked the characters in this book. Jess is struggling with a lot of baggage. She once lived in Cape Sanctuary, but does not have any reason to stay there, at least not when she arrives to do the job she has been hired for. She does a great job, is a hard worker, and has feelings that are buried, but begin to surface as she gets to know Eleanor and her family. Eleanor was delightful. A widow who grieves for her husband, but knows it is time to declutter the home she will eventually have to leave. She shares stories with Jessica that are sweet and heartbreaking at times. They quickly develop a bond. Jessica's sister Rachel is hard to describe. She is a perfectionist that is struggling. Her son has recently been diagnosed with autism and she is trying to be everything he needs at the detriment to the rest of her family and her husband. As she struggles, Jessica realizes that nobody's life is perfect. There is a bit of a romance in this book, but it is in the background and not the important part. This is a story of family, friendship, finding your place, recognizing your limitations, taking chances, forgiveness and acceptance. This was not an action packed book, but a a slow reveal of the lives of the characters and how they helped each other to move on with their lives in happiness. I enjoyed this story and look forward to my next visit to Sanctuary Bay.

I enjoy RaeAnne's writing, and I believe this would be a great book to enjoy on spring break. The setting was perfect, the family drama was interesting, but I do believe readers should be aware of a few trigger warnings (suicide, death). I enjoyed hearing the perspective of parents with an autistic child.

The Path to Sunshine Cove is an emotional story about family, relationships, overcoming the past, and finding your place in life, and even a bit of romance. This is the second book in the Cape Sanctuary series, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it can stand alone since I haven't had the pleasure of reading the first book but had no problem following everything happening here. I like that RaeAnne Thayne shows the strained side of Jess and Rachel's relationship - anyone with siblings knows that things can get prickly sometimes. Granted, the strains between these two aren't the average run-of-the-mill issues between family members, but I still found myself getting caught up in their lives. Plus we have a child with autism, which is something that is always near and dear to me. The book is very well written, and the characters and their lives kept me turning the pages until late into the night.

Ready for a stunning new book for your spring list?

Look no further.

The Path to Sunshine Cove follows Jessica Clayton as she tries to find solace in not living life on the road all of the time. While she helps others downsize their lives, Jessica finds it much harder to part with some "things," but a new client takes Jessica back to Cape Sanctuary, a place she used to call home. And her sister, Rachel still does. Jessica carries guilt from their past and she must face those events while reconnecting with her sister. Rachel's marriage is on the rocks and she spends all of her time taking care of her child with disabilities. She needs her sister more than ever. When Jessica finds herself becoming attached to her sister and family...she must wager what is truly worth it.

Cape Sanctuary. Ah. Some settings just do your soul some good. This one certainly does. This is my first RaeAnne Thayne novel (and it will not be my last) and I enjoyed falling into this world with these comfy and lovable characters. There's a softness to this story, but it still packs a punch with just the right amount of drama, love, and soul-searching. This novel addressed the hardships families face when their child is diagnosed with a disability and the tenderness that goes along with that is touching and on-point. The Path to Sunshine Cove is the perfect book for reading on your porch or by the pool.

Thank you Suzy Approved Book Tours for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

The Path to Sunshine Cove is available on March 30, 2021.

For the reader, the actual path to Sunshine Cove is lovely, charming and very, very scenic, although for the characters proceeding along that path there are plenty of metaphorical pebbles stuck in the shoes they are walking it in, and a few outright boulders being smuggled in their baggage.

And yes, I meant baggage and not luggage, because this is a story about the baggage that sisters Jess Clayton and Rachel McBride have been carrying since their childhood.

Jess is about to turn 30, Rachel is not far behind her at 28, and that baggage lays between them like a deep rut on that path. It’s also weighing both of them down and keeping them from finding their true happy ever after – no matter how much each of them is pretending to have already found it.

There’s a famous quote about parents and their children, the one that goes, “There are two things we should give our children: one is roots, and the other is wings.” Jess and Rachel are struggling because their parents gave them neither, and as a consequence Rachel’s life has become rooted in their old baggage, while Jess has taken permanent wing in an ultimately vain attempt to fly away from it all.

But as another old saying goes, “No matter where you go, there you are.”

So, as The Path to Sunshine Cove begins, Jess is literally on the road to Sunshine Cove, on her way to help Eleanor Whitaker declutter the house that her late husband and his family have owned for generations. It’s Jess’ job and her calling, helping people go through decades of accumulated “stuff”, whether just as a grand spring cleaning, in preparation for downsizing, or as a way of moving on with life after a death in the family as Eleanor says she is.

That Eleanor’s house on the California coast is just down the road from Jess’ sister Rachel’s home with her husband and three children is both the reason that Jess took the job and a source of internal stress and conflict. Jess wants to see her sister and her family. She wishes they were close – like they used to be when they were girls and it was them against the world.

But they haven’t been close for years, and it seems like what little connection they have is brittle and ready to shatter at any moment. They talk, but they don’t say anything. They can’t manage to reach across the great divide between them, and aren’t sure whether to keep trying or to finally let go.

The thing is, all that Rachel lets Jess see is the picture-perfect life she presents to her Instagram followers. And all that Jess lets Rachel see is the footloose and fancy-free surface of her satisfying but sometimes emotionally-wrenching job.

But Rachel’s life is falling apart, and Jess’ life is emotionally empty, and it’s all a consequence of that heavy baggage they are both carrying from a childhood that caused more damage than anything else.

On their path to Sunshine Cove, it’s time to see if they can find each other again – or if they’re both too scared to let go of their baggage to reach for happiness – and sisterhood.

Escape Rating A-: was an absolutely lovely read for a lazy Sunday afternoon – which is when I started – and finished the book. The characters were absolutely charming, the setting sounded utterly gorgeous, and the story was heartwarming every step of the way.

This is one of those books that sits quite comfortably on the border between women’s fiction – or relationship fiction as my colleagues call it – and contemporary romance. The story here is really about the relationship – and the initial fumbling lack thereof – between sisters Jess and Rachel. It’s also about Rachel’s faltering relationship with her husband, and the way that those fumbles are rooted in Jess’ and Rachel’s childhood trauma.

And it’s about Jess’ growing relationship with the entire Whitaker family, and not just the romantic relationship she develops, pretty much in spite of herself, with her client’s son Nate. This is one of those stories where I like to say that “a romance occurs” rather than the story being centered on the romance. Because it’s not.

Instead, it’s centered on Jess and her developing relationships with everyone around her during her job at Sanctuary Cove, including the relationship with her sister. Because just as Jess and Rachel have taken the opposite ends of that “roots and wings” paradigm, they’ve also taken positions that are at opposite ends of the spectrum in how they deal with the damage left by their parents.

Rachel has turned into a people-pleasing perfectionist, making sure she’s part of every volunteer opportunity in town, and that her life at least appears perfect all the time. Not just for her Instagram followers, but because she needs that perfection – just as her mother did.

While Jess has arranged her life so that she never stays anywhere very long, never has a chance to develop connections with anyone, just dropping into people’s lives, doing her job, doing it very, very well, but keeping her distance and then moving on. She’s afraid to need anyone because her mother needed way too much.

They both have way more emotional baggage than could possibly fit in Jess’ beloved Vera, the classic Airstream trailer that she lives in while she criss-crosses the country from one cluttered place to another.

Stopping in Sunshine Cove, letting herself become involved in the lives around her, not just her sister but also Eleanor Whitaker, Nate and Nate’s 13-year-old daughter Sophie, allows Jess to finally put down just enough roots to have a great – but not perfect – life. While Rachel, with just a bit of tough love from her sister, gives up on perfection in order to find the happiness she almost lost.

This is the second book that the author has set in and around beautiful Sanctuary Cove, after last year’s charming The Sea Glass Cottage. Although the two stories share the setting, and have similar themes, nothing happens in Sunshine Cove that will make a new reader think they missed something by not having read the other book. (I completely lost sight of this being a second book in series while I was reading it.) So if this story sounds like your cup of tea, feel free to start here, you won’t be disappointed.

But that also means you’ll love the first book, The Sea Glass Cottage, every bit as much as this one!

The Path to Sunshine Cove by RaeAnne Thayne is such a heartbreaker of a book. Now don't think this is a book about doom and gloom, because why would the cover be so beautiful if it were? No, this novel is heartbreakingly beautiful in the best way. The romance was quick but adorable, the characters were relatable and real, and I had tears in my eyes both in happiness and in sadness multiple times. I loved how witty it was, but it also tackles some incredibly hard subjects, and they were done in a very caring and complete way. I loved the mystery surrounding Jess and her sister's past, and I never in a million years would have figured out how that would end. It was really interesting to see how the sister's relationship progresses throughout the novel, and even though there is romance at its core, this is definitely a book about family and sisters as well.

I mistakenly thought The Sea Glass Cottage was book 1 to the Cape Sanctuary series with this being book 2 (thanks Goodreads), but this is actually book 3 with The Sea Glass Cottage being book 2. However, I was not lost while reading this, and all books are perfect as standalones. That being said, I will definitely be reading the real book 1 now, The Cliff House. I fell even deeper in love with Thayne's writing while reading The Path to Sunshine Cove, and it was such a quick and emotional read. There was not a character to be found that I didn't like, and I found myself not wanting to put it down. Highly recommend it to romance and women's fiction fans alike.

Thank you to the publisher, Get Red PR, and Let’s Talk Books Promo for my free copy. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Another heartfelt story from RaeAnne Thayne. She takes such care with her characters and really, from my experiences in real life, got so many things right. It’s so appreciated when an author does their homework.

The friendship that develops between Jessica and Nate is really sweet, while also somehow holding onto a ton of heat. Because of their situations and the short amount of time Jess will be in town, neither of them feels they should act on their attraction. So, all those pent up emotions really have no outlet. As the reader, I could feel their frustration while understanding their decisions.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of romance. That is my go-to genre. I was surprised to find myself almost more drawn to Rachel’s parts in this story. The haggard mom who only wants to give her kids and husband everything while slowly deteriorating. Not wanting to ask for help but drowning. Rachel and her thoughts and feelings regarding things happening around her are so well written. I ached for her and wanted to force her to open up her eyes to all that she could have instead of looking at what wasn’t right.

There are some definite time/continuity issues in this story. They don’t impact the story in any way other than throwing off the flow when they happen. And, as I’ve said before, I’m a stickler for those things so tend to notice things like this when maybe they are barely a blip to other people.

This is really a beautiful story about so many different relationships, yet it never feels crowded.

Going into The Path to Sunshine Cove by RaeAnne Thayne I only found out it was the second book in the series towards the end of the novel and I didn’t even notice.

What I truly loved about this book was how raw and true the characters’ experiences were. Jess’ is complex and when she recalls her childhood and the painful decision she and her sister had to make completely choked me up.

Rachel’s struggles of being a mom to three kids under the age of seven including one on the spectrum was so real and effective. The complicated relationship with her sister and her marriage possibly on the brink of ending was authentic and really made this book stand out.

While the romance between Jess and the main love interest, Nate, was a big catalyst of the novel, I feel like the sisters’ relationship was really what made this book as good as it was.
Overall, this was a wonderful novel that was a joy to read.

This was my introductory book to this author and I must say that I loved the book and will most definitely look for more from her to add to my bookshelves. The heart of this book is the emotion that is written into every page...love, loss, insecurity, family, and health issues. Jessica Clayton is a happy wanderer, going from place to place helping others downsize and never looking to settle down herself. When she gets a job at Whitaker House in Cape Sanctuary, her former hometown and where her sister still lives, Jess is a little leery of spending time with Rachel or forming attachments with anyone actually. The story of how Jess manages to let go of her carefully controlled life and allow others in was charming and absolutely delightful. The characterization was just as expected, with people who seemed real enough to just walk off the page. I especially liked Eleanor Whitaker, the widow who hired Jess to come help her clean out her house. Eleanor is honest and kind and loving, just the kind of woman who makes people feel welcome. Her son Nate was prickly at first but warmed up to Jess as he saw how much she was helping his mom and how she bridged the gap between him and his teen-aged daughter. I enjoyed the sub-plot of Rachel and her marriage to Cody, with the romance going out the window as the two of them dealt with a toddler on the spectrum. With empathy and heartfelt compassion, the author presented the tale of broken relationships repaired with hard work and a desire to be someone’s all, no matter what the challenges. This book can certainly be read as a standalone and I highly recommend it to those who enjoy contemporary romance.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

In this emotive read by RaeAnne Thayne, readers are treated to the delightful story of Jessica Clayton where she finds that home can be a singular location. Jessica has spent years traveling in deluxe Airstream due to the success of her business of helping customers downsize. In her newest job, she is helping an older client, now a widow, to downsize her home.

While this could simply be another job to Jess, it proves to be much more. For one thing, she is headed to Cape Sanctuary, and that is where her sister Rachel lives. Jess and Rachel were quite close when they were younger, but tragedy pulled them apart. Will the time Jess spends in Cape Sanctuary be enough to mend the fences with her younger sister?

Then there is her client Eleanor. Jess cannot help to be drawn to the older lady. Also, Jess soon meets Eleanor's son Nate and his daughter Sophie. It doesn't take very long for Jess and Nate to realize that they are drawn to one another. What is more is that both Sophie and Eleanor are pulling at Jess's heartstrings.

All while Jess is working, she is slowly getting to know Rachel again, and realizes that a recent diagnosis that Rachel and her husband have learned about their toddler is proving that what Rachel has always wanted - a perfect family life - that life is anything but. Will Jess be able to reconcile with Rachel, and also will Rachel accept the changes in her family, and draw closer to her husband?

In this touching story, there is drama on several levels. Jess and her plans to pack up and go on to her next job, despite growing attachments to everyone there in Cape Sanctuary. Then there is what is going on with Eleanor, Nate and Sophie. Add to this what is happening in Rachel's family, and dealing with learning about her son's disability, thus her marriage just might be in trouble.

I love how all of these stories are interconnected and how things do pull together. Also, this story is equally women's fiction and romance. I couldn't help be drawn in to the romance aspect of the story, since Jess's entire life is one of not setting down roots. With Nate having a teen daughter, it was quite interesting to see how that could be resolved in the pages of this story.

I really loved this book. I felt a strong pull to all of the characters, and I also loved how the story was told in various points of view. We have the views of Jess, Nate, Rachel and Sophie. That was all done quite well, giving readers a well-rounded view of all of the characters, thus providing a compelling story that was difficult to put down.

Although this book is the second book in the Cape Sanctuary series, it works very well as a standalone. I did really enjoy the first book, The Sea Glass Cottage, and would recommend that book as it is a warm and touching story.

Many thanks to HQN Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

A wonderful story about strength and resiliency in the face of unspeakable tragedy. After their mother killed their father then took her own life, two sisters struggle to find normalcy. They're as different from each other as night and day. Can the years apart and their shared past help them face the future?

Traveling for work, Jess arrived in the small coastal town where her younger sister and family live. The sisters struggle to recapture the closeness they share as chikdten. Everything is defined by the tragedy of their parent's deaths, and they wonder if they'll ever move beyond the grief and painful memories to be happy. Be sure to read this one; it's a keeper!

I received a free ARC eBook from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinions.

I loved this book it was like a bandaid for your heart. There was so much love in this book it was hard not to fall in love with Sunshine Cove, and all the characters. This gave me all the feels and emotions of reading an Ashley Farley book. There was some drama and depth with an atmospheric feel of a coastal small town.

Jess and Rachel’s relationship is rocky but the way RaeAnne writes about it is exactly how a sisterly relationship is. I loved seeing the transformation between these two.

I loved the chemistry that Jess and Elenor had as if they are best of friends or even related. Maybe it’s in both their natures to be caring and endearing but their interactions proved to be emotional ones for me.


I would recommend this for fans of women’s fiction. If you enjoy Ashley Farley books or you enjoyed Friends Like Us by Sarah Mackenzie then I would suggest reading this one. It was the perfect escape to my messy crazy life right now 🤪.

Book about sisters who have taken different roads in life but still come together through their sisterly love. This is the second book by Thayne that I've read and I enjoy the very realistic and human imperfections and struggles of her characters because it really mirrors real life so accurately. The romance in this series seems secondary to the life drama that seems to be at the forefront. This is the first series that I've read where book 2 (this book) is such a standalone that I would never even know it was a book in a series except for the fact we are told it is in the same town as the first book. Not a single cameo from any characters that I could recall! I found that notable and interesting but that means you can absolutely read these books out of order or as standalone books. I love the Northern California setting of this fictional town and will continue to read on if there are additional books!

The Path to Sunshine Cove, the second book in the Cape Sanctuary series, is no less delightful than The Sea Glass Cottage. Once again, the story is multigenerational and explores the ties that bind family members. Even the ones that divide. Centered on sisters Jess Clayton and Rachel McBride, and upon the Whitakers, recently widowed Eleanor, her son Nate, and his daughter Sophie. The dynamics between family members, on the whole, are simply complicated. But they are driven by the love they have for each other.

The story kicks off with Jess' return to Cape Sanctuary to work with Eleanor Whitaker to help her declutter her house, the same one Nate and his daughter live next to and one they frequent daily. Things start out a bit rough, but Nate moves past his suspicious nature and comes to accept, and feel something more for Jess. Jess had accepted the job knowing it would give her a chance to spend time with her sister, who is the one person who seems so put together but is clearly feeling overwhelmed by her role as a mother, a wife, and her enviable position as an Instagram influencer.

I really enjoyed all of the characters and found myself very invested in the story, their decisions, and the effects on each other. The discord between the sisters is palpable as they both made assumptions about each other and their pasts. They need a reboot and to embrace a friendship they haven't had a chance to build, with Jess always on the move. Meanwhile Eleanor is working through her grief, failing health, and desperately wants for her son to find happiness and love again. It's a bit of a battle, but he works hard to win Jess over, which does much to improve the relationship he has with Sophie.

Thayne delivers a very heartwarming novel, with characters that made me so happy to get to know. I happily recommend this wonderfully tender family centric story. 5 Stars!

Charming love story wrapped in lives lived in pain and feelings of insecurity.

Jess and her sister lived a tragic childhood and having never faced their issues carried them into adulthood - both burying their pain and feelings and never facing the causes. Both are fortunate enough to find love and rediscover their love for each other - while working on their love for each other.

Good cozy read.

RATING: 2.5 STARS
2021; Mira/Harlequin

I'm sorry but my review will be short for this one...or shorter than usual. There was nothing wrong with this novel, but it lacked sparks. The main love story lacked the chemistry between the two, and also seemed a bit rushed. The two family stories also didn't really get exciting. There was great potential, but then it just dropped off. I liked the first book a lot more than this one, so had to rate this one right in the middle with 2.5, rounded up to 3, stars.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook/audiobook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

If you are a fan of #VirginRiver this book is for you!
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This book has emotion, heart, forgiveness, love and such vulnerability that it tore at my heart and all in a stunning setting.
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Sisters Rachel and Jess could not be more different. They both overcame the same Tragedy as teens but they both handled it very differently.
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Jess spends her life traveling the country helped people unload their houses, never staying in one place too long.
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Rachel is married with three kids trying to live the perfect Instagram life. However, life is not perfect ever and it’s not perfect with three kids under seven, a husband who works long hours and a son with an autism diagnosis.
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Jess came to Sunshine Cove to help her client Eleanor declutter her house after her beloved husband died. What she didn’t expect was to fall for Eleanor’s son Nate or to become attached to his daughter or to fall in love with the town either.
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As a special needs mom of a deaf son myself I found my heart breaking for Rachel at times and I thought her character was so well written. It is such a challenge to be a special needs parent at times and I really liked the honest portrayal of her coming to terms with her emotions. Also, my heart might have literally melted when father and son had their marching tool belts!
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This was a sorry with so many moving pieces done so incredibly well. It was a story of sisters, sisters overcoming a traumatic childhood, a husband and a wife finding their way back to each other, a father and teen daughter getting along, a grown son and his mother’s relationship and a second chance at love. So much was packed in to this book and I was invested in all of it!
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Thank you #NetGalley and #HQN for an arc in exchange for an honest review
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This book is available March 30th!

I will leave a review on Amazon or B&N on Mar 30, 2021

I absolutely loved this book! The Path to Sunshine Cove was such a beautiful storyline. I loved the Airstream and the descriptions of home she had made it into a home away from home. Such a heartbreaking situation having to clean out things after the death of a love one, but this book did it in such a lovely way. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and Harlequin, in exchange for a fair and honest review.