I'm sorry to say that this book was just not for me. This is marketed as a witty, summer beach read about a middle aged woman starting over in a small beach town and taking on the local government and the neighbors renovating the McMansion next door to her small beach shack. For me it was one long complaint list that went on well past the the comic relief and just became sad. There were a few humorous parts but mostly it dragged. I thought the ending was a surprising and the most delightful part of the whole book. Too bad it was only a few pages. As other reviewers before me have said, it would be better if it was toned down. The complaint department should have closed well before this book ended!

An interesting take on getting obsessed with small town politics and how it can consume your thoughts. The character dynamic was not what I expected and was kind of difficult to follow sometimes.

Well....I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I requested it thinking it was going to be super funny and charming, but honestly, it is so negative in some parts. Yes, I did laugh some. At first, the character of Rosemary reminded me of one of the Golden Girls, but then she became mean. I wanted to like Kathleen, the main character, so much more than I did. At first I was rooting for her, then near the end after hearing about her obsession with town business and zoning boards....I just wanted to be done.

It seems like Kathleen went looking for this huge change, but it never really materialized for her. The issues she had personally and in her marriage just kind of traveled with her to a different setting. At the end, she seemed happier. Maybe?

This book takes a little bit to get into, but then once you find the rhythm of the story you'll either find yourself cheering for Kathleen or total exasperated with her, or a little bit of both.. It's an interesting look at what happens when you try to change your life, but your life follows you instead and nothing really changes. that will make a whole lot more sense when you read this book, lol. The book is an interesting look at how a community doesn't change but sticks with tradition and complacency until it gets shaken up, and then once it does what happens can sometimes perplex outsideers. Kathleen gets caught up in all the chaos and she soon realizes it doesn't matter where you live. sometimes things just go with you. I ended up reading this one in spurts because Kathleen would frustrate me. I didn't understand why she was changing her life but not making changes, and reverting back to her norm. But I think that's the colonel of the book is you are who you are and sometimes making big changes isn't going to happen. It's an interesting summer read though either way..

I won’t be finishing this. I don’t think I’m the right audience. It reads like a middle aged mom novel, which isn’t inherently a bad thing, but as a 20 something bookstagrammer im not the right audience. Thanks anyway for the ARC.

Thank you for the advanced electronic copy of this book, I enjoy the opportunity to preview and review it.

This is a book about nothing. It was supposed to be about a character moving to her dream home and starting over in a new community, but it was a glass half empty and getting emptier book. It was frustrating to read of a character who was always crabby and complaining. The book is promoted as humorous, but really it was just full of city codes, disgruntled neighbors, and grumpy interactions between characters. The first half went quickly, but after repetitive story lines and more of the same, I felt the book wasn't going anywhere and just wanted to be done. I wanted to find one likeable character, and even the "fun friend" was not supportive, and was hoping for the daughter to come in and make things brighter, but that scene was just a huge fight. When the character complains about not being happy and being lonely, I didn't have sympathy, I wouldn't have wanted to be her either.

I was expecting an upbeat or at least entertaining summer read. This book is one negative thing after another without the story going anywhere. Sorry but I can't finish this one.

This is an easy "beach" read. There's no mystery, no suspense, no love interest. It's about one woman who seems to be a follower and gets dragged into other peoples issues. I was given this book to read for free from Net Galley. I read about half of and and unfortunately and it expired before I could finish it. :(

Rating - 3.4

I found this story on NetGalley and found the premise interesting (we love a beach read and this is the antithesis of one so I wanted to read it!) was excited when I was able to get my hands on a Advanced Readers Copy [ARC]. While I may not have been the target audience for this story (as the main characters are retirement age and I am not....unfortunately), I truly enjoyed my escape to Whitbey and the uniqueness that this beach town drama brought with it. I was able to picture the entire town and the folks inside of it perfectly and while I may not have fully understood all of the emotions involved, I could feel them!

After 30 years of marriage, Kathleen finds her world turned upside down when her husband, Tom, informs her that he is interested in a divorce and is no longer happy with their life. In desperation, Kathleen looks to reinvent her self and escape to Whitbey, what has been painted as a dreamy beach lifestyle by her long time best friend, Josie. But Whitbey isn't all it's been described as. After purchasing a small cottage at sight unseen, Kathleen learns that her new neighbors and their building of a monstrous home are at the focus of the town's concerns.

After be-friending Rosemary (another neighbor), the two set out to stop and fight all of the changes that are being perceived to ruin their quaint beach town. Engaging in the town politics, and being blatantly ignored by the Town's Supervisor, these two do what they can to save their town. But saving the town isn't the only thing that Kathleen does - she has to save herself and discover her own happiness despite feeling like everything is going wrong - she's also got to save herself from the .

This story was a good vacation read (despite it getting a little long at times) and I absolutely loved that the chapters started with Kathleen emailing the Supervisor (so you read her email first!) and then would dive into more of the story telling in a traditional sense. Castellano did a wonderful job of also allowing resolution and not making this all just continue on forever like it seemed at times it might. Although I don't know if the ending was fully believable, it did provide a nice bow to wrap everything up including references to things from the beginning of the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Elizabeth Castellano who, in collaboration with Vintage Anchor, provided me a copy so that I could provide an honest review prior to publish date!

On the one hand, I enjoyed Castellano's writing. On the other hand, I don't know that I actually enjoyed this story, which follows the descent of Kathleen. Kathleen retired, was dumped by her husband, and moved to a small beach town on Long Island. She finds the house she bought sight-unseen wasn't what she imagined, and has to deal with a monstrosity of a house being built next to her. With the encouragement of a neighbor, she takes on the town government to try to get people to actually, you know, follow the law. Or, at least, the local regulations.

Kathleen is immediately thrown into a horrible situation and I alternated between being incredibly frustrated by her and sympathetic as she tilted at the windmill of her local bureaucracy. Castellano may have had Kathleen become too involved too quickly, and the not-infrequent asides about how Kathleen complaining about the housing issues was boring wasn't exactly endearing from the reader's viewpoint. Fundamentally, I think my problem is that I just didn't understand Kathleen's motivations. It didn't help that a lot of action happened off-screen.

Even so, I was consistently amused. It helped that Kathleen acknowledged the depths to which she was falling, and I was curious about what new disasters would strike. I wanted to throttle pretty much every character in the book, but I flew through it. I'm interested to see what Castellano does next; I think the foundation here was solid, but just needed some redirection.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-copy of the book in return for an honest review.

While I wanted to love this book, I just didn't. It fell flat for me, but I do think that patrons at my library would enjoy this book, so I would recommend it for purchase at the library.

I think I would call this an anti-beach read. Kathleen packed up and relocateed her life to a beachfront home following her husband's departure. As soon as she arrived, Kathleen realized this was NOT going to be the idyllic life she was expecting.

I have to admit, this book was a lot of fun. It was quite a tale filled with lots of over the top antics, and I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit. Kathleen's war with the construction crew and owners next door provided endless fodder which made me glad I never had to live through something like that.

Under all the humor was the story of a woman who found her life turned upside down. Her husband of thirty years suddenly decided he no longer wanted to be married. Here was Kathleen thinking she was with her mate for life. A bit adrift, she tried to find her place in this seaside town. There were some times that I really questioned Kathleen's sanity, but I was happy with where she ended up. She found a "home", she embraced a second chance, and she found herself.

Overall, this was quite a fun and farcical story peppered with some rather sweet moments, tons of hijinks, and some twists I did NOT anticipate.

Didn't love the mid life self discovery. Didn't love the neighbor interactions. This just wasn't a good fit for me or my humor.

I would not cal this “outrageously funny” — in fact, i’d call it outrageously infuriating. Might be my personal experience bias here, but being that I’ve lived through the nightmare of a construction site next to your house causing problems and not being up to board standards, this was extremely frustrating to read!

There were some great lines here, but I wasn’t too happy with how things wrapped up, particularly with Kathleen and Tom. All of my issues with the book are about the plot, and not the writing. It was a really well written debut, but the story line wasn’t for me.

It takes place in a beach town, but definitely not a as much of a lighthearted beach read as I expected!! Didn’t leave that satisfied feeling at the end, either. Just more frustration.

From the description, I expected to really enjoy this book. Unfortunately it was a bit too meandering, and though I somewhat enjoyed the voice of main character Kathleen (who wouldn't have felt out of place in a Fannie Flagg novel) by about 35 percent of the way through I was wondering when something would happen that would make me feel like continuing to read was worth my time.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A novel about starting over later in life and, in the process, finding your way back to certain people.

I tend to enjoy stories about starting over unexpectedly, as I like the concept of figuring yourself out all over again. Unfortunately, "Save What's Left" didn't really do it for me. I really struggled with all of Kathleen's decisions - most of which were never fully fleshed out. It felt too much like she made a bunch of bad choices and then tried to get someone to do something about them. Just not my cup of tea.

I really, really wanted to like this book. I didn't care for it. I didn't like the characters much. I don't think any of them had any redeeming qualities. And, frankly, Kathleen was the worst. Tom, Josie and Rosemay weren't far behind. I got so tired of the long drawn out emails to Supervisor White that I stopped reading them. I finally started just skimming the book, then jumped ahead to see if I felt it was worth continuing to read, then just gave up.

I couldn't understand Kathleen's decision to purchase a house she had never seen. Even if the pictures on the web looked great, when she saw the house, she should have sued the realtor for false advertising, lying, etc. And who orders a white couch for a house on the beach, has it delivered before they arrive without making arrangements to have it taken inside. Her friend Jose lived there, surely she could have asked her for help. The premise was good, it just didn't live up to it - in my opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. Kathleen is shocked when her husband decides to leave her and go on a world cruise, so she sells everything and moves to a small beach town to start over. Well, living the beach life is not what she expected at all.

A quick, funny read for the summertime! While I enjoyed the reading experience, I don't know that the characters will stick with me long-term though.