A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
The characters were all realistic and very well developed.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.
A great debut title.

Can a return to her past home lead to a better future?

Gwen Gilmore is a woman in her late thirties whose past year has been a series of losses. Her mother, her only immediate family, has died, her relationship with her longtime boyfriend is over (and not by her choice), and she was terminated from her university teaching job for giving a bad grade to a student whose family are generous donors to the college. Not knowing where else she could go, Gwen threw her belongings into her car and drove to the small coastal Maine town of Port Anna, to the family summer cottage where she and her family had once spent many happy months. It has been years since anyone has lived in the cottage called Periwinkle; Gwen's sister Molly had died there, drowned in the ocean in a tragedy that fractured the once happy family. Its not a perfect solution...the cottage isn't made to be lived in year round, though that is what Gwen intends to do, and it also has a couple of ghosts in residence known as The Misses, the two women (Gwen is the descendant of one of them) who built the cottage and lived in it together for decades. In addition to facing literal and figurative ghosts, Gwen must deal with the many changes to the small town of her youth, The three boys who were her circle of friends back in the day are still there but have changed, not always for the better, and like many areas Port Anna has seen an influx of outsiders with money looking to buy property. Locals are being priced out of the market and family homes are giving way to condo complexes; in fact, an aggressive realtor in town immediately starts angling for Gwen to put Periwinkle on the market so that the land on which it sits can be developed. Add in a possible romantic interest and a missing teenaged girl, and Gwen finds that she has a lot of decisions to make as she charts a new course.
Port Anna is a tale of loss and love, grief and healing, with a dash of romance tucked in for good measure. Gwen is a flawed protagonist who is at a low point in life with no one to help her through it. She finds herself slowly creating a new family composed of both friends from the past and new connections who are eager to help her navigate her challenges. The descriptions of her corner of Maine are quite vivid, bringing to life the quaint town There is a lot going on, at times almost too much so, with the guilt and grief over the loss of Molly, starting life over, rekindled friendships, aggressive real estate developers, a runaway teen, and then there's the ghosts of the Misses, And the seal. All interesting elements, but with so many threads not all were as developed as they might have been. Still I found it to be an enjoyable read, one likely to appeal to readers of Hannah Orenstein, J. Courteney Sullivan and Catherine Newman, a solid 3.5⭐️ rounded up to a 4, My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me access to this quintessential summer read in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you @bookdparks and @simonbooks for my free copy💖.

🗓️Out tomorrow! 7/1/25

Booksparks’ summer reading challenge #src2025 is in full swing, and the books in the challenge are so diverse, you’re bound to find something you like. Have you seen all the titles being highlighted? I’ve reviewed several already and have more to come, but this one takes place in the foggy, coastal Maine town of Port Anna. Gwen Gilmore retreats to her late family’s seaside cottage there, after a year of personal losses, including her mother, her job, and boyfriend. Haunted by memories and watched over by a trio of playful but restless spirits known as The Misses, Gwen tries to rebuild her life amid both supernatural disturbances and real world challenges, like gentrification and a town rattled by an unsolved disappearance.

As Gwen reconnects with her past and sparks fly with Leandro, a charming Argentinian artist, she finds new hope and fresh possibilities. But as summer ends, she must confront old secrets and make life changing decisions about her future.
Super atmospheric, this debut has a lot going on. I found myself getting a little disengaged at times; however, I stuck with it, and the final part of the book held my attention until the end, and I enjoyed seeing all of Gwen’s personal growth and healing throughout her journey.

3⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you like:
🌿 Contemporary women’s fiction
👻 Magical realism/ supernatural elements
🌊 Small town & coastal settings/ atmospheric New England settings with tight knit communities and secrets
💔 Emotional depth/ grief, unresolved trauma
💞 Slow burn romance
🕵️‍♀️ Light mystery subplots/ town secrets and a person’s disappearance

⚠️CW: Loss of a sibling, loss of a parent, grief, unresolved trauma.

Port Anna is an atmospheric, and charming character driven story about second chances and finding yourself again. Gwen left her family's coastal cottage, Periwinkle, in Port Anna Maine 24 years ago after a tragedy. Now she has lost her job, lost her boyfriend, her mom passed away and finances are a struggle. She decides to return to Periwinkle when she inherits it from her family.

Taking place in Maine, it really was like a character in itself. The descriptions and the way the author just has you feeling like you're there was just lovely. As for Gwen, her story makes for an enjoyable read. There's some magical realism, as Periwinkle has friendly ghosts that live there. That was really fun. There's romance with a torch of mystery too. I found this to be a hopeful story and I love reading it. This was a great beach read.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

I always love a New England setting and I enjoyed the evocative descriptions of the Maine coastline in Port Anna. This has a bit of magical realism sprinkled in, in the form of ghosts who live at the summer cottage the main character, Gwen, has retreated to after losing her mother and being fired. While I didn't connect with the story or the writing as much as I hoped, it there are some nice moments and you really felt the beauty of the Maine coastline. 3.5 stars.

📜Quick Summary: After Gwen loses her mother, her teaching job, and a crappy boyfriend, she feels she has no choice but to trek to her family cottage, one she recently inherited. This crumbling cottage in Periwinkle, Maine, is her childhood home and harbors many memories and ghosts. The town doesn’t seem to have changed much, but she sees the new buildings, the new construction team who wants to take over her cottage and land. Although this may not be the idealistic place to be, Gwen feels it's the right choice. The Misses, the friendly spirits who watch over the cottage, have strong feelings about Gwen and her choices. Will this town bring up ghosts of the past, or allow Gwen to start over?

❣️Initial Feels: I am in a weird funk right now, so this has been slow for me to get into… I’m not sure if it’s me or the book yet…we will see.

👀Trigger Warnings: loss of parent, grief, betrayal

🌶️Spice Level: nada

📖Read if you want: a debut, story about second chances, semi ghost/magical realism, character driven story

🙋🏼‍♀️Moving Character: Usually I connect with a few characters but this time around, everyone was not my cup of tea. I really wanted to like Gwen and root for her, but I think because of too many moving plot points, it was hard to connect on a deep level with her.

🗨️Thoughtful Words: “Being alone doesn’t mean you are lonely.”

💡Final Sentiments: I really wanted to love this one, especially based off it’s cover. It’s just perfectly put together. But this novel felt lost, kind of like Gwen. There were way too many storylines;This would have made a much stronger debut for me, if it stuck with 1-2, even 3, plot lines and focused on that. The missing girl angle, the ghosts of the house, grief, finding a new love, little sister’s drowning, etc. It kept going on and on…and then the finances and the betrayal. Many readers will still resonate with Gwen and her story, and I hope it’s a homerun for you!

🌟Overall Rating: 3.25 stars

🔉Special thanks to Libby Buck, Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for this arc of Port Anna.

📘Grab yourself a copy on July 1, 2025!

Port Anna by Libby Buck is one of those books that I wanted to read the minute I laid eyes on the cover. The plot sounded unique and interesting, and I couldn’t wait to dive in.

Highlights:
• Coastal Maine
• Small town
• Journey of self-discovery
• Found family
• Haunting
• Magical realism

Gwen is desperate for a fresh start. After losing her job, she leaves her life in North Carolina behind and heads to her hometown of Port Anna, Maine.

There, she’s greeted by old friends, a new love interest, long-buried memories, and her family cottage’s friendly ghosts. Faced with past traumas and a manipulative individual, Gwen must lean on her found family and her own strength to save her seaside home.
_____

I wanted so badly to love this book. The minute I saw it with its breezy, coastal Maine vibes, I was hooked. But the feeling was fleeting.

This book certainly isn’t boring; it’s actually the opposite. It’s overwhelming. There’s so much happening… ghosts in the family home, a duplicitous childhood friend, a potential love interest, a lost girl in the woods, past grief surrounding her sister’s death, a broken career, financial issues, and the need to save her childhood home. All the different threads distract from potential character and relationship development that’s missing.

While the plot is super muddy, the setting is what really works in this book. The author painted a picture of this quaint seaside town that made me want to hop on a plane to Maine ASAP.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Port Anna hits shelves on July 1!

Gwen Gilmore has had a terrible year - she lost her mother, her teaching job, and was dumped by her boyfriend. Adrift and out of options, she packs everything she owns & heads to the only place she can think of going: her family’s aging cottage on the Maine coast, Periwinkle, which she’s recently inherited. Periwinkle is not only home to ghosts of her past—boyfriends, forgotten creative dreams, and painful memories of a sister lost too young, but also some more literal ghosts: The Misses are friendly spirits who have long watched over the cottage, but who now seem strangely unsettled, slamming doors and moving furniture in the night. With the cottage needing serious repairs before winter sets in, a developer intent on purchasing it to make space for garish condos, a missing teen hiding out in the woods outside Periwinkle, sparks flying with a local Argentinian artist named Leandro, and a job offer falling through, this is definitely going to be transformative for Gwen.

This book started as a bit of a slow burn, but once I got into the story, I really enoyed it. This book was about chosen family versus biological family, as well as a bit of a ghost story. There wasn't a lot of character development, so I had a hard time picturing some of the characters.. I loved the way everything wrapped up. This is perfect for fans of Catherine Newman's novel Sandwich and The God Of the Woods by Liz Moore.

Port Anna is a beautifully atmospheric debut with charming supernatural elements and coastal charm. However, its emotional impact is muted by an ensemble-driven plot and underexplored character transformations. A good pick for mood-driven reads—but those seeking deeper connection might feel it skimmed the surface.

Gwen Gilmore has lost her boyfriend, mother, and job, when she comes home to stay at her family’s cottage on the Maine coast. The cottage and town haven’t changed much, but it brings many memories back from Gwen.

This is a quiet novel that brings the Maine and small town atmosphere to life. I loved the different characters from the town that we get to know. There are a lot of sub plots going on but it does not get confusing. The writing style is well done and it’s hard to believe it’s a debut.

Port Anna comes out 7/1.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster for my copy of Port Anna which comes out on Tuesday - July 1st. This debut novel is set in a wonderful coastal Maine town and is a book about second chances and hope and revisiting our past.

I enjoyed reading this novel and seeing Gwen try to put her life back together as she went back to the Maine coast to her family's cottage she hasn't been to since her younger sister died. She's at crossroads and wants to start again. While things have remained the same she's seeing the changes to the town with new condos and development.

While this was a little more on the character-driven side I liked seeing Gwen reconnect with her past as she thinks about her future. I loved the descriptions of the town and I think a lot of people can relate to the changing of the small town.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC.

Port Anna was an easy read, but was not one I'd typically gravitate to. I was certainly rooting for our girl Gwen and hoping she got her happy ending, but to be honest the story just wasn't all that compelling and took me awhile to get through.

“Welcome to Maine, the Way Life Should Be.”

My New England heart fell hard for the fictional town of Port Anna, Maine. It’s hard to believe this is Libby Buck’s debut novel. Her writing was so easy to get lost in; vivid descriptions and beautiful story telling that left me unable to put the book down.

🤍Found Family
🤍Grief + Healing
🤍Second Chance Romance
🤍Small Town

Gwen Gilmore returns to her childhood home in Maine, Periwinkle Cottage, after fleeing a life in North Carolina. After initially seeking distance from the cottage and the small town that harbors much grief and loss, Gwen returns home and finds herself rediscovering life after loss; the loss of life, love, friendship, and possibly her home.

“Granite crumbled. Foundations failed. Grief morphed and changed shape. And sometimes, the most broken of hearts could be repaired.”

I wasn’t sure what to expect beyond the book synopsis. I was certainly surprised to find the supernatural aspects, but ended up falling in love with “The Misses”. I really enjoyed the LGBTQ+ representation throughout the novel. All of the characters, except one, were so lovable, they truly felt like Gwen’s found family.
I enjoyed Buck’s historical references and appreciated her citing the work that inspired the cottage, Anna, and the non-fiction pieces Gwen was working on.

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of Port Anna

I was hoping this would have been a bit cheerier but it was pretty depressing. Perhaps it was realistic but I found it to be pretty miserable. There were so many bad decisions and issues that it made me really sad. The writing was good and the setting was almost there but it was just so sad that it was hard to enjoy. I was unhappy reading this but I hope you have better luck!

Port Anna comes out next week on July 1, 2025, and you can purchase HERE.
GWEN DID NOT WAKE WHEN THE LOBSTER BOATS ENTERED the cove at dawn, engines thrumming and radios blaring classic rock. Above the din, the helmsmen yelled at their crew, and still she remained dreamless in the creaky old house, cocooned in yellowed linen. She didn't note the rising sun, either, a sliver of light that, just after six, edged past the partially closed blind toward her exposed foot. The warmth crept up her calf, with designs on her thigh, its progress arrested only by a faded curtain. She snored softly on, her hands clasped between her knees, forehead puckered in concentration.
At seven, the kitchen door opened. "Hallooo?" a voice said.
Gwen shivered, and her eyes fluttered open at last. A veined ceiling came into focus, the knots in the wood darkened with age. A beat passed before she remembered crossing the state line just after midnight. Welcome to Maine, the Way Life Should Be.

I am firmly in my women’s fiction era, and Port Anna perfectly lands as a summer-must read for those who enjoy heartfelt and atmospheric novels about second chances, uncovering hidden truths, and the possibility of healing in the most unexpected places.

Gwen has lost her mother, her career, and her relationship. She loads her car and journeys north to her childhood home in the sleepy town of Port Anna Maine. The cottage, Periwinkle, has been abandoned for decades, and is filled with more than just memories of Gwen’s childhood—it’s home to unsettling spirits, creeping changes in the town, and an unresolved mystery that threatens to disrupt everything. As Gwen reconnects with the town’s residents, she works through her grief while entertaining new beginnings for her career and love life. She also finds herself intertwined in a local teen’s disappearance and local realtor’s encroachment onto her cottage’s property.

This was the perfect beach read! The fog-filled coastal town, quirky secondary characters, and Gwen’s character growth had me flipping pages late into the evening. Readers who enjoy books with a delicate balance of romance, mystery, and personal transformation need to add Port Anna to their radars!

This book took me on a journey I wasn’t expecting—emotionally, structurally, and tonally. I don’t often feel this much fluctuation while reading: there were stretches I couldn’t put it down and thought it might be a five-star favorite, and others where I seriously considered DNFing.

At its heart, Port Anna is about reclaiming your narrative after grief, guilt, and other people’s expectations have shaped your life for too long. It’s about how you stop being a ghost in your own story—and instead say, This is mine now. I get to tell it, live it, shape it.

I really loved Gwen’s arc of rediscovery, and the quiet moments between her and Leandro—especially the way he saw her, not just as broken or sad, but whole and worth loving.

That said, the pacing and tonal shifts were uneven and it felt like this book was trying to do too many things. Some scenes felt deeply grounded and emotional, while others went off the rails. I wish we’d gotten more of Gwen and Leandro together rather than just orbiting each other for most of the novel. And I’m still not sure how I feel about how the grief plot was resolved—there’s a part of me that wishes some things had remained off-page.

Still, Port Anna had a lot to say about healing, creative expression, and found family. It reminded me that even in the middle of a messy, painful, uncertain life, there are still small gifts: banana bread from a friend, a hand at your spine, the sound of waves, a story you get to tell.

Thank you Simon & Schuster for the gifted book.

Gwen Gilmore is moving from North Carolina to the small town of Periwinkle, Maine. This is the family home, and she is the last survivor. She lost her job at the university, her mother has died and her boyfriend has dumped her.
She has been back to Maine in years and find the small cottage in need of lots of repairs. She reconnects with friends from her youth during the summer and finds that all of them have undergone lots of changes.
She is hoping to work for the school system come fall and maybe find some peace in her life. The cottage has been in the family for years and has two ghost that inhabit the upstairs. As Gwen is trying to find her way again, she has to deal with her little sister that died way to young and the girl she keeps seeing outside. It seems that this teenage girl that has gone missing is living in the woods next to the cottage and Gwen is trying to help her.
As her money is running out, she is trying to figure out to survive herself.
This is a first-time author and I really enjoyed reading this book.

This felt so raw and real While I usually prefer a fluffy romance in the summer, this honest and raw and real story had me hooked from the very beginning!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I fell in love with this book. The setting is beautifully described and I felt if I was actually there myself. Gwen was a very likeable character and I really got to know her. She was very relatable as was a lot of themes in the book. I was caught up in this book and could barely take a break. I felt the feelings she felt and that was because of how well developed her character was by the author. I felt eager to see if she’d make decisions I was hoping she would. A really great summer read.

4+

“The living wade through the vast remains of those long gone, the dregs of things worn or eaten or used or held, and so it stood to reason that vestiges remained.”

I’m drawn to Maine stories, but not just ones highlighting gin martinis, cotton sweaters and afternoon sailing. This eloquent, lyrical debut by a local author has the heart and authenticity reserved for those who seek a fictional account of the unvarnished version of life here.

Gwen Gilmore flees her Carolina life which has unraveled in just about every way and returns to Port Anna and her ancestral cottage Periwinkle. Much has changed on the peninsula but the constant remains of how her adult life continues to be informed by the place and people she loves. As the summer residents head south, she grapples with a depleted bank account, a frigid and dilapidated property and locals whose motivation is in question. When a runaway teen crosses her path Gwen’s convictions become clear yet the roadblocks are still mounting.

Two original cottage owners, “The Misses”, make their ethereal presence known, but these ghosts are not the only memories haunting Gwen. In addition to these spirits, a lighthouse legend and multiple creatures along the shoreline add a dash of magical realism to the narrative. Themes of grief and nostalgia and hope grace every page; readers will be treated to the mysteries of the environment, and the complexities of the people who live there. I loved the focus on the challenges and changes of the seasons and the Maine coastline itself, and feel the novel truly honors a place I call home.

Especially for those who enjoyed Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Publishing and Net Galley for the early copy in exchange for my honest review.