Cover Image: Camp Lost and Found

Camp Lost and Found

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Member Reviews

This was a very hard book for me to read.
In general, whenever I see the name "Georgia Beers", I already know the book is going to be good, the writing is going to be beautiful and I won't be able to put the book down once the first page is read, however, this one was a bit difficult for me to read, as the beginning was not as exciting as I would have hope it would be.
Do not get me wrong, the writing is beautiful and Georgia is an amazing writer, but for me the pace was a bit slow and the romance took longer than I would have liked.
Maybe I just wasn't feeling the chemistry, had a hard time relating to the main characters and found the story a bit dull.
This is not to say I will give up on the author, far from it.
It just means that maybe not every hit is a home run, which is understandable and expected.
Would not recommend this one, but she has a large catalogue to chose from.
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I love Ms. Beers' writing and she can spin a story that draws you in and keeps you there till the end.  This book is no different, I read it in one sitting.  The Mcs, Frankie and Cassidy, are the type that you just want to learn more about right from the start.  They both are coming from different places but the loving care Ms. Beers gives to both characters, the reader is able to really feel their emotions and struggles, as well as the growing love.

I loved that the character's story was around this camp they both find themselves at (for different reasons), I personally feel like the camp was almost like a character itself-Ms. Beers truly brings the surroundings into the spotlight as well, not many authors can do that and make the reader feel like they are there (Ms. Vali is one when it comes to loving New Orleans). 

I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a warm, loving story to enjoy on a winters night.  I would be remissed if I didn't mention there are some phrases some might be uneasy with-I am not all that religious, a very lapsed Catholic to be honest, but the use of Mother Mary in some of the phrases didn't make much sense to me and could have been passed on....but that is just a personal thing for me and didn't stop me from enjoying the story telling of Ms. Beers.

ARC through Netgally/Bold Stroke Books-thank you for giving me the opportunity to read.
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This was an emotional rollercoaster of a romance. Frankie and Cassidy are two lost souls trying to find themselves in the midst of a brutal winter storm. While snowed in they find themselves drawn to each other. I felt the character of Francesca to be very outgoing on the outside, but so insecure about her place in life. She's very.successful and driven to succeed especially because she grew up in foster care. Cassidy is the more broken of the two and at times she seemed so fragile even though she's the stronger of the two, but I felt she'd was more mentally fragile because of what she went through in her past.this was a really good story and I wound definitely recommend this book to my friends and family and I look forward to what's coming next from this author.
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Camp Lost and Found is the newest release from Georgia Beers, and it may be one of my favourites so far. Maybe it’s because both MCs are searching for something, and neither is in a settled place in their lives, which to me makes them seem like they are starting out on an even keel, and all that more relevant.

Frankie is hiding away at an old, dilapidated camp after taking on a caretaker role for the property. Her days are spent doing minor repairs and ensuring trespassers stay away while segregating herself from society, which she feels she has no right to be a part of. She isn't happy when her boss informs her that she will be having a visitor; playing host was not something she signed up for. 

Cassidy finds herself back at the place where she spent a few summers as a teenager in foster care. After the death of a friend, she met when she was there when they were both kids, she is searching for the perfect place to lay his ashes, believing that their time together at the camp meant something to both of them. 

Frankie does her best to make Cassidy comfortable while steering clear of any unnecessary contact. Unfortunately for her, she can’t help but be drawn to the women, and sparks fly as they begin to open up to each other. It isn’t long before Cassidy and Frankie are confiding their secrets and regrets, opening up wounds and trying to come to terms with how to heal. 

Like most of Georgia Beers’ stories, Camp Lost and Found is very character-driven. Both MCs are loving, kind, and generous to others, but hard on themselves. Having the ability to see themselves through the eyes of the other is a small start to healing their personal wounds.

The story is an emotional ride, but not overly angsty. The characters share great chemistry, resulting in some really hot scenes and an end product that has that little something extra, on top of being a beautiful romance.
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4.5 ⭐️
Two momentarily lost souls meet in a rundown camp and in an unexpected way they help each other to find their way back to life.

Frankie wants to lose herself after a tragic incident and holes up in a former campground, whereas she keeps the facility from rotting as the janitor until the owner finds a buyer. She just wants peace and to be alone, her own punishment for blaming herself for the misfortune.

Cassidy struggles with her feelings of guilt for abandoning her friend. She tries to find the right place for Mason and to scatter his ashes at the only place, Camp Lost and Found as they had called it, where Mason and she had felt safe, where they had met and their deep friendship had run its course. And she hopes to find not only herself again, but also a way to live with the guilt.  

This book is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Frankie and Cassidy are two women who have strayed from their path due to various circumstances and are struggling to find a new direction in their lives. They are not perfect, they make mistakes, and they are even sometimes unfair to others, especially Cassidy to her best friend and business partner, but that is what makes them human and also lovable. As you can guess, there aren’t many secondary characters involved, but who I really want to mention are Reiko and Jack, who play important roles.  

What impressed me is the way the author made me feel and understand the emotional worlds of Frankie and Cassidy. Both want to be alone and only slowly do they accept each other's company. And yet there is something that draws them to each other, that makes them interested in the other person. They feel each other's pain and guilt and slowly the caring personalities, as they are, emerge, and they can't help but try to help. They begin to open up to each other and talk about the events that led them to this place. Maybe it was the universe that brought them together, maybe it was magic, and maybe it was just coincidence - but it was the best thing that could have happened to them. And the author takes us on the journey of the two women to get out of their misery and eventually find a way together to a fulfilled life with love and happiness.

An emotional story, which also made me laugh, despite the tragic events it’s based on.

Thanks to Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for receiving an ARC for an honest review
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I think this one is the best of the last Beer's books. Both characters carry baggage and are trying to heal. I don't think I read it in the reviews, but one of the characters was a foster kid, a not white one. 
The book is also a good demonstration of how we can change the pace of our lives.
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I haven’t read a snowed in romance for a while. This one is a nice addition to the genre. Cassidy’s back story in particular is well thought out and written. Often the reasons for being ‘at the cabin’ feel somewhat contrived, but Cassidy’s sense of place and loss work well. Frankie’s reasons for isolating were equally convincing, but I found her character less engaging and somewhat contradictory. I liked Reiko, she needs her own youth fiction book.
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4.25 stars. This book was a wonderful journey. I haven’t read all of Beer’s books, but from the ones I’ve read this is one of the best so far. As other reviews have also noted, this is not a light fun read, it’s about guilt and grief, and how to find yourself after traumatic events, so the book has a very apt title.

Frankie and Cassidy both needed to get away from their busy lives and decided to isolate themselves in the mountains in an abandoned summer camp to deal with recent events. Only, what they don’t know is that they end up in the same house and especially Frankie has a hard time accepting an “intruder” in her personal space.

Both characters are very likeable which surprised me a bit because I expected Franky to be very gruff, but while she’s distant and does not want any social contact she actually has a very warm and caring personality. 

The romance in this book almost feels like a secondary purpose. How Frankie and Cassidy slowly accept each other and unknowingly help each other through a tough period is the real storyline and it’s wonderful. The writing is contemplative and fulfilling at the same time.

While I loved the characters and the story there was something that bothered me in the writing, namely the constant exclamations, of Holy Mary, Jesus and God. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t bother me because of the religious aspect, but it didn’t fit with the subdued nature of the characters and the storytelling. Even worse were the “funny” exclamations like, Jesus Christmas, and Christ on a Cracker. I’m probably nitpicking, but they peeved me. 

There are obviously not many secondary characters in this book about people living in isolation, but especially Reiko and Jack were well written and important to the story in their own way. I easily recommend reading this book.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Ah, another book by one of my favorite authors who just happens to write books filled with love, fun and often a little lesson on wine. 
    Frankie Sisto, went up the mountain to get away from everything and everyone. She’s a chef who enjoys working but not so much in a kitchen where it was ‘rush, rush’. One night after a trying day Frankie finds herself in a car crash, leaving two people dead. Not her fault but for the life of her she couldn’t seem to function from day to day. So she figures the best way for her to deal with all the guilt was to just get away. The camp she was staying in wasn’t opened for years but the owners wanted someone on sight to keep the place from falling down.  
    Cassidy Clarke owned a company that she and her best friend built up from nothing. She grew up in foster care which meant lots of moving from one place to another. But each summer, Cassidy, along with others in the foster system were sent to a summer camp up in the mountains to get away from their ‘normal’ life. While there she met her friend Mason. They connected with each other but in their last year Mason kissed Cassidy and was hurt when she informed him she likes girls. From then on it was cards and texts but now ten years later she’s informed by Mason’s wife that she wants Cassidy to take his ashes to the one place he’d been happy. 
    Imagine her shock when she sees the camp after all this time it’s run down and the lady staying there. At first Frankie wasn’t all that friendly but as time goes on….well you will have to read how friendly they were after a few weeks.
    As usual Ms Beers has written a very nice, enjoyable read.
ARC via NetGalley/ Bold Stroke Books
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I love Georgia Beers books, and this one was a solid romance - long enough to pull the reader in, with interesting and likable characters. 

Here's my beef with this book though - I feel like Georgia Beers is becoming Melissa Brayden.  Beers has been writing books for many, many years. The kind of books that make you laugh and tug at your heartstrings and sometimes even shed a tear. But this book didn't have that same vibe and there were traces of Melissa's Brayden throughout. One was the overuse of "hell" - "freaked the hell out", "turned the hell on"  "I can back right the hell off". We get it but it felt overused and forced. 

The second thing was the constant use of things used in place of "oh my God" such as "Mother Mary and a chocolate chip cookie" or "Mother Mary in gym shorts" which felt very Brayden-esque. I think there was even a character in Brayden's last book named Mason as well as in Camp Lost and Found. 

I know I'm being picky, and don't get me wrong - I love both authors but I like my Melissa Brayden books to have the cute, quirky charm that they do, but I also love my Georgia Beers books to be a bit less flaky and more like a serious romance novel. It was in this book, it just had a lot of annoying bells and whistles that screamed - "reader, please laugh here".
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And I loved the first chapter! Both mains have stories I want to know more about. A perfect first chapter. 
Chapter 2 and the mains meet. I like them both. They don’t like each other and I am here for the eventual slow defrost and then heat getting increased so naturally they don’t notice the dial has moved. At this point I haven’t read more than 1.5 chapters but this is a Beers book, and I already love it!
This book makes me feel. I feel happy and amused as Beers is a witty writer. I also feel emotional as Beers is a talented writer... It's not sad paragraphs or chapters, often it is a throw away sentence (except Beers words should not be thrown away, they should be treasured!)
The dance of the mains getting together is well choreographed.  Slight pace drop in the time from together before break up to make up
The ending is satisfying and I found quite emotional, mainly happy emotions.
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There's no way I wouldn't enjoy a Georgia Beers book.
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It's very easy to connect with its characters and their stories behind it. In this book both main characters deal with themes of guilt and mourning, while they are sharing the main house of an old camp and find someone to lean on in the other.
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Frankie wants to be alone with the guilt and pain after an accident that snapped her life in half. That's why taking care of the maintenance of the main building of the old camp Lustenfeld is ideal. Until her employer tells her that she are going to have an unexpected guest for an indefinite period of time
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Cassidy arrives at the camp with her luggage and a small box of her best friend's ashes. The camp is the place where she has the most memories of him and while she tries to find the ideal place she also finds other questions that she cannot answer on her own
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Cassidy and Frankie open up and accompany each other on this difficult path and end up finding something that neither was looking for
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With beautiful images of a warm cabin in the middle of the woods, animals passing through a white landscape in the midst of the holidays, and a cast of adorable small town characters, it's the perfect setting for a story of a heartwarming romance only as georgia beers can write
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Thanks to Georgia Beers and Bold Strokes books for give me a copy of this beautiful book in exchange for my honest and voluntary opinion
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I love anything Georgia Beers writes, and this book did not disappoint. I loved the setting and the characters. I do wish we had a bit more information about the side characters like Jack and Mason, but the main characters were well developed and this was an enjoyable read.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.
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Already an avid fan of Georgia Beers, I was not disappointed with this latest release. What a beautifully written book!

Set at Camp Lustenfeld (Camp “Lost and Found”) in the Adirondack mountains, the story centres on Francesca “Frankie” Sisto, the current caretaker of the camp, and its sole visitor, Cassidy Clarke. Both are running away, but for very different reasons. For one, it's to lose themselves. For the other, to find themselves.

The slow build between Frankie and Cassidy was fun and cute. It was quite a different plot from a lot of tropes you find in sapphic these days, so well done Beers keeping things so fresh!

I'm not usually one for heavier themes (guilt and loss), however, Beers addressed everything so thoughtfully. Conversations and thoughts guided the story along and interwove each character's history and inner turmoil so naturally.

What I particularly enjoyed was the setting and slow pace of the book. While not everyone's cup of tea, I could really relate to just slowing down with life, appreciating nature and the quiet. It sounded like such a cute country town nearby, and the side characters were just as good as Frankie and Cassidy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC.
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Cassidy Clarke and Francesca Sisto, two women running away from their problems are stuck with each other for a few weeks at a rundown campground, that’s the premise of this book, and of course we know what happens next because it is a romance novel :)

Although somewhat predictable this is a very sweet romance. I loved how this book didn’t have any of the usual drama that we sometimes get in romance novels. The story flowed naturally and without any unnecessary conflict.  Everything felt like part of a real story between two people.

This book reminded me of some of her previous works like 96 Hours and Mine which also deal with the subject of grief. I think Georgia Beers handles the subject very well.
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Love just about anything from Georgia Beers and really enjoyed this one. Perfect holiday read. Enjoyed both main charters, and the setting. I'm a sucker for anything set in nature and the secluded camp in the Adirondacks was exceptional. Highly recommend and this one would be one I reread.
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This is an incredibly well written story by Georgia Beers about two women working their way through their own guilt and trying to find some level of acceptance and peace.  Francesca (Frankie) Sisto is from outside New York City and has escaped to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York to be the caretaker for Camp Lustenfeld.  She is hired to keep the camp in some state of repair so the owner can eventually sell the property.  She is running from something that is further described as the story progresses.

Cassidy Clarke is the co-owner of a popular scent-based company in San Diego.  Cassidy contacts the owner of Camp Lustenfeld to see if she can stay there for an undetermined period of time.  Cassidy grew up as a foster child and stayed at Camp Lustenfeld during one of her summers as a teenager.  She has a mission for coming to Camp Lustenfeld that is revealed as the story develops.

When Frankie is notified by the owner that someone will be staying at the main house of the camp she is upset.  She simply wants to be alone.  When Cassidy arrives at the camp she is expecting to be greeted by the male caretaker, Frankie, and is surprised to find that Frankie is a woman.  For the first several days of Cassidy's stay, Frankie remains closed off and doesn't speak to her very much.  Eventually both of the woman, who are in their mid-thirties, begin to communicate and get to know each other.  

There are many positives about this book including well written palpable grief from Beers.  In addition, the chemistry between Frankie and Cassidy becomes heated once they begin to know each other and the understand the situations that caused their sorrow,  Other positives include Reiko, a twelve-yer-old going on thirty who is the daughter of the small town's store owner.  Reiko has recently lost her father and is experiencing her own issues in addition to the challenges faced being a pre-teen.  Finally, the majority of the story takes place in a beautiful natural setting between the time period of about a week before Thanksgiving until around Christmas.  5 stars

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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I am usually drawn to lighter romances but I can’t recommend this enough.  Frankie Sisto is a few months into a caretaking job of an abandoned and rundown teen camp.  She is enjoying the solitude as she works through overwhelming guilt.

Cassidy Clarke shows up with the owners permission as a guest.  She came to the camp as a foster children for three weeks a few summers in her teen years.  The camp holds deep memories for her.  She is bringing her own grief and guilt to work through.

Frankie and Cassidy don’t have the usual romantic tropes bringing them together.  They are both very likable, in their mid 30s and and share quiet   time together.  Their unexpected commonality, although from different circumstances, is a bond of its own.  The friendship grows as they watch the snow, birds and deer.  The story takes place in November and December and the winter weather is almost a character itself.  I wanted to start a fire just so I could feel as cozy as I envisioned the MCs.  

The few side characters add to the story.  Jack the old caretaker, Duke the loving dog and Reiko the preteen who likes to drop by.

I can name several Beer's novels that I love.  But I agree with others that this may be one of her best books yet.  It is one I will remember and revisit.  Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books, Inc. for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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Grief and guilt; are two emotions that are so difficult to overcome. Camp Lost and Found is deep and emotional because our two mains, Cassidy and Frankie are trying to navigate losses and are each embedded so deep in grief and guilt that they can hardly find their way out. They’ve each come to the run-down camp for different reasons but while there, together they find their answers. 

Georgia Beers does a masterful job navigating difficult topics. Yes, the book is heavy and I teared up quite a few times, but there is an underlying lightness that holds the story up. Interspersed in the heavy, there are bits of humor, sarcasm, and lots of delicious food. Tips like using mayo instead of butter to make the perfect grilled cheese, using Hershey’s syrup and lots of cream and marshmallows to make the most delicious hot cocoa, are just a few tips from our author that add such delight to this book. Donuts, cookies, and perfect popcorn help Frankie and Cassidy make it through, as they should. 

The scenery of the mountain is described so perfectly that it’s almost like you’re right there with Frankie and Cassidy. The supporting cast of characters Reiko, Eden, Luthor, Jack, and Duke really add to the growth of our main.  

I believe Beers summarizes this book best when Cassidy says, I came here to deal with grief. Frankie was here to handle the guilt. And somehow, the Universe saw fit to push us together, no matter how much we resisted.” Bravo Georgia Beers, you’re amazing and I thank you for sharing this story!
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Two women who have been through a trauma find themselves sharing a house. Cassidy wants to find herself and returns to the only place she has ever felt like she belonged, while Frankie wants to lose herself and the guilt that plagues her, whether she's awake or asleep. The more the women open up to each other, the more they start to feel like the darkness is fading.

Georgia Beers books will always have a special place in my heart since she was one of the first authors I started reading when I discovered sapphic romance. I have several of her books that I revisit when I need a comfort read. This one will join that short list. This is easily one of Beers most emotional books and she portrays Cassidy and Frankie's pain in a way that was both heartbreaking and hopeful.

This one hit close to home and I found myself in tears several times. I wanted to give both of the characters a big hug and hang out with the good hearted supporting characters.  Camp Lost and Found will stay with me for a long time as will Beers dedication at the beginning of the book, "To all of us who have struggled to find ourselves. Don't stop looking."

An ARC was received from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley for an honest review
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