ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ ᴘᴀɢᴇ & ᴠɪɴᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴇᴛɢᴀʟʟᴇʏ ꜰᴏʀ ᴘʀᴏᴠɪᴅɪɴɢ ᴍᴇ ᴀɴ ᴇᴀʀʟʏ ᴄᴏᴘʏ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜɪꜱ ʙᴏᴏk

Sophie Bennet's life is turned upside down after she discovers her husband is cheating on her...on her birthday. She decides to head to Cape May to find solace and to figure out what she will do with her life. Liam Harper, haunted by a tragedy as a teenager, doesn't believe he deserves happiness or even love. When Sophie moves in next door, he never thought he'd feel the need to lower his guard. Can these two broken souls be each other's soul mates...? 🌊

Oh...my goodness. I absolutely ADORED this book! Cape May is my favorite vacation spot (and also where my husband and I got engaged 🥰) so it's an extremely sentimental place. This was such a cute and heartwarming story!

What I liked:
• The setting! I loved how the author reference real places, like Sunset Beach and the Rusty Nail! (highly recommend going to both!)
• Everyone needs a friend like Clare in their corner. I loved her!
• Liam... *swoon*
• Ellie is the grandmotherly character that we all wish we had 🥹
• The author described panic attacks PERFECTLY. She does an amazing job depicting mental health and how it affects those on a daily basis.
• The small amount of spice! 🌶
• The ending!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹

What I didn't like:
• I did notice some grammatical errors ie. a period would be missing and I would get confused reading the certain scenes.
• It can be slow at certain points.
• I just didn't like how Liam was so wishy washy. I get it, he is suffering from PTSD, but his feelings kept giving me whiplash 🥴
• I did like the dual POV but sometimes it was hard to decipher who's chapter it was; both Sophie and Liam almost sounded the same throughout the book.

I highly recommend this book! I may need to grab a physical copy of my own! This comes out May 6th, 2025! 😁🌊

Wow. I am absolutely blown away by this book. I would've never guess this was a debut book! I devoured it in less than 24 hours. Linny's writing literally just pulled me in and didn't let go. I wish I could describe just how much I absolutely LOVED this book.

Sophie is getting a divorce from someone she thought she would spend her entire life with. Liam is haunted by a tragedy and hasn't ever been able to get past it. And now, he unexpectedly has custody of his 1 year old niece. Put these two broken souls together and it's a heartbreaking journey to love. There was so much heartache, trauma, and pain both of them had to work through. The TENSION, man! It was definitely a slow burn but absolutely worth the wait.

Oh my gosh, I adored Ellie. I loved how nurturing and welcoming she was to Sophie when she was just trying to find her way again. I think we all need an Ellie in our lives.

I had butterflies all throughout it and the ending really had me all up in my feels. Also, I'd like to move to Cape May now. The way it's described seriously just makes it feel like home. I could absolutely picture it in my mind.

What to expect:
🌊Neighbors to Lovers
💙Later In Life (38/40)
🌊Single Dad
💙Newly Divorced FMC
🌊Mental Health Reps

"Sometimes, good things fall apart, so better things can fall together."

This one does deal with divorce, infidelity and infertility so check your triggers.

Changing Tides releases May 6. Huge thanks to Page & Vine for this ARC!

“Take all your worries to the beach and wave them goodbye…”

All the feels for this emotional, heartfelt, found family story. I loved the small town charm and beach vibes in this book. There is something so magical and healing being at the ocean.

Sophie is leaving her past life behind after her husband cheated on her. She decided to go to Cape May where she always went as a kid. The memories of summer by the shore and the ocean are calling to her. Sophie and Liam are both overcoming a traumatic past. Together they complete one another and helped each other heal and find love again.

Perfect read if you love small charming beach towns and two people finding love.

This was a sweet second chance romance. Both characters were stubborn in their own ways, but it was heartwarming to see their bond grow and how they helped heal each other. It was charming seeing how protective everyone was over Sophie, and how much Liam cared for her. This was cosy and uplifting.

4.25⭐️
(ARC review) — Thank you to author Linny Mack and her publisher Page & Vine. I received an Advanced Reader Copy for the May 2025 release of CHANGING TIDES in exchange for my honest review.

This is a debut novel, with a small town feel in a cozy beach setting. The characters were easy to fall in love with and I found myself lol’ing at their witty banter. You quickly will be rooting for them and a happily ever after.

This is a wonderful slow burn romance novel that you’ll just fall into the pages and fully escape. It’s just so picturesque and charming. I really enjoyed it.

And Grandma Ellie… oh I just loved her. We all need one in our circle.

Wonderful debut release!

Changing Tides was a cozy, emotional read with a beautifully drawn setting—I requested this one because I grew up in Cape May County and was excited to read something set in my hometown. The scenery was beautiful and familiar, but I found the romance a bit too fast-tracked to fully believe in. Sophie and Liam each had compelling backstories, and I appreciated the themes of grief and reinvention, but their chemistry didn’t quite land for me. Still, it’s a solid debut, and I’m curious to see how Linny Mack grows as a storyteller in her next novel.

I love books with older MCs. I’ve been trying to read more books with characters over 30. This book left me with so many emotions. MCs, Sophie and Liam, felt very real like with their emotions,talents, and insecurities. They are both so strong and vulnerable.

After experiencing heartbreak, Sophie goes back to her favorite Summer Vacation place, Cape May. She wants to start over and heal in a place that she loves. She stays at the cottage of a local middle-age woman, called Ellie. She is kind and does everything in her power to make Sophie feel at home.

We also meet Liam and his baby niece Lucy. He recently got custody of his baby niece after his sister, Leah, dies in a tragic accident. Ellie takes care of Lucy while Liam is working. She’s also his caring neighbor and mother figure.

At first Liam and Sophie have a rocky start. We get both of their POVs, their feelings, what happened in their pasts, their thoughts, and their struggles. Both POVs were amazing. The author does a great job making you feel what both characters are feeling.

Sophie is suffering from the aftermath of her divorce because her husband was cheating on her after years of dealing with infertility and IVF treatments. While Liam is struggling because of the tragedies in his past and present, and his new role as a father of Lucy. They both think they are broken and that they need healing. They often try to rationalize why it is a bad idea to start a new relationship. They have such good chemistry and the tension is undeniable. Even though they are drawn to each other, they have doubts on what they want and they often make mistakes because of it. Fate seems to want them together. It was building and building, giving us moments of tension, but not yet getting there until it does.

I like the way mental health was handled. Sophie is a marriage and family therapist that understands the importance of seeking help. And Liam had benefitted from his therapy sessions in his youth and throughout the years. They both know when to ask professional help. The sessions with Dr. Stevens play a big part in their path at healing.

I was so emotionally invested in this book from start to finish. I constantly had my ups and downs. My family would ask me if I was ok because I was screaming, laughing, and crying. I loved the ending. The message it leaves for me is that it’s never too late to find the right person. We never know what a person is going through or the reasons that made them who they are, sometimes we need guidance to heal, that we can start over at any point of life, and that everyone deserves love.

Thank you to NetGalley and Page & Vine for the ARC. This is my honest opinion.

This book was honestly so incredible, and for a debut novel, it really hits hard and sets the foundation for the rest of the series. Linny Mack did such an amazing job writing a book that not only shows the journey of overcoming grief but also how good things can still come from terrible situations.
This book is about overcoming loss (not just the loss of a person but of romantic relationships as well), re-learning how to love not only others but yourself, it’s about self-forgiveness, and that family comes in more than one form. It shows readers that even the people who are technically supposed to have the answers (in Sophie’s case, being a family and marriage counselor) have a difficult time coping and working through difficult life-altering situations. Through Liam, it shows readers that grief's timeline is not always linear, and it can take time for individuals to truly accept and move forward after an earth-shattering event. Sophie and Liam are a couple that has altered part of my brain chemistry because they truly are made for each other. Both went through life events that easily could have made them hard, cold people, and they remained mostly open. Did they change absolutely, no one could go through what they did and be untouched, but they didn’t turn hateful. I loved watching their walls slowly begin to come down to one another. They may not have been dealt the best of cards, but they made the best of what they had, and it just so happened to lead them to each other *well, sort of, but you’ll need to read the book to figure out what I mean, tee hee*
I loved how Linny Mack created this entire book’s atmosphere. I have always found comfort in the ocean, the water, the crashing of the waves, and the feeling of the open air on my face. There has always been something about the ocean that has felt so calm and centering, even when my personal life was a chaotic mess of crazy. As a reader who loves the ocean, it helped me relate more to the characters because when they talked about how walking on the beach just made everything feel better, I was able to completely understand where they were coming from
The friendships in this book hold a special place in my heart. In my opinion, the love of a best friend is one of the most amazing gifts anyone can have in their lifetime. They see the best and worst of a person and then choose to stay even when they don’t have to, which is genuinely the purest version of unconditional love. The relationships between all the characters were just as important as the relationship between Sophie and Liam, which I just loved. I love when authors don’t solely focus on the relationship between the two love interests because it makes the story feel more real, relatable and in my opinion friend group banter is THE BEST kind of banter (let me say the boys group chat was too funny) Found family is such an amazing concept in books because it reinforces that blood family is not the only family you can have in your life, there is also the family you choose for yourself.
Honestly, this book was amazing. I’m so incredibly grateful and honored that I was chosen to read this book early. It’s honestly mind-blowing that this book is a debut because it is so beautifully written. I know so many readers are going to love this book, its meaning, the characters, and the entire vibe of the book. It truly was fabulous, so I give my biggest thanks to Linny Mack for writing this book and Page & Vine and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book prior to its release.

This was a book that I picked because I love reading books that are set in Cape towns! There is just something about the vibe that is created in these books that is just hard for me not to LOVE! This book was bo different.This was a great book that pulls two broken hearts together in such a way that still has me thinking about Sophie and Liam even after I finished the last page! I thought I knew where this books was going and the last 50 pages took me completely by SURPRISE! I love a book that has some unpredictability to it! 100% a Linny Mack fan after this book!

one thing about me is i LOVE a good story of redemption and new beginnings, and this book delivered that and so much more! as soon as i saw the gorgeous cover on this one, i knew i wanted to read it— and i am glad i did!

this story takes place in cape may, NJ. as someone who took many vacations and day trips to the shore growing up, i adored the beachy vibes and setting, and was really able to picture everything. i also loved the characters and all of their growth and healing after going through some incredibly tough times. liam is a KING, and we love a man who goes to therapy! 😂😍 the heavy topics in this book are handled with grace, and sensitive subjects are brought to light in a powerful way. i was rooting for these characters the entire time, and was engaged throughout thanks to the super slow burn between sophie and liam!! the little plot twist at the end also really got me. 🥹 ‘changing tides’ debuts in just a few days, and will make the perfect summer read for beach and/or romance lovers! 🌊🏖️🐚

thank you to NetGalley, Page & Vine books, and the author for providing this ARC for me to read and review!

Thank you to the author and Pages & Vine for the ARC of Changing Tides.

This was a really beautiful story about life after loss. My biggest complaint was the dialogue felt very unnatural at times, and choppy. I am also really over the switching narratives every other chapter. It feels a bit overdone at this point. But I just adored our main character. I was rooting for her the whole time.

This was an emotional rollercoaster, a sweet and heartwarming story with heartache, grief and loss and hope/love . It has everything!
The love story between Sophie and Liam was all I’m asking and need for a novel with this background.


Thanks to NetGalley and Page & Vine for this ARC

A heartfelt and emotional novel that tells the story of Sophie and Liam as they navigate their path to love while confronting their own traumatic circumstances/pasts. Both characters struggle with their personal grief as they develop a romantic connection. They show us there is hope even amidst so much sadness.
The beautiful coastal Cape May setting adds to the story, while Lucy, Ellie and Claire play important roles in the overall plot as well.
The character development and narrative style contribute significantly to the overall impact of the story. I was flooded with emotions throughout this powerful debut novel.
Thank you to the publisher/author for the opportunity to read this complimentary advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Changing Tides will have you feeling everything all at once and at different points through out the book.

Characters had so much depth to them and i felt like i could relate to them each on different aspects which is something im always looking for as a reader.

The plot overall was incredibly well done and had me wanting to read more even after i finished the story.

I think anyone would love this book and i highly suggest to give it a try!

First I want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading a book about adults that I connect with. I love books about couples in their 30-40 age range and how they navigate life.

This story was so good. Two people falling in love and their journey through grief and how to overcome.

So many side characters that I am interested in knowing more about.

My only issue was that I felt like everything moved so slow and then everything moved very fast. So the pacing of the story was a bit off for me. But I really enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me.
I found it a very easy read, the author's writing is fluid. However, I wasn't emotionally involved in my reading. I felt nothing for the characters and found the themes tackled not deep enough.

Infertility? Being a mother is supposed to be Sophie's dream, and I didn't feel it at all. On the contrary, she feels lost in many aspects of her life and tries to rebuild herself, but this theme quickly falls by the background. I'd have liked to see more of a link between her and Lucy.

Guilt? Liam feels responsible for his high-school sweetheart's accident, but there are no flashbacks showing his love for her. I didn't feel much empathy for him.

⚠️ SPOILERS ⚠️

And then... the epilogue... that's what brought my grade down. There's nothing I HATE more than deciding to write about the subject of infertility. By pointing out that the FMC can't get pregnant naturally and keep the baby, so that once with the new MMC they manage to have a miracle baby naturally. This undermines the whole story of Liam and Sophie, who had found their family balance with Lucy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️

This was one of those gut wrenching, heartfelt romance books that everyone needs in their life.
I felt so deeply for Sophie, seeing as I've been in a slightly similar situation, and my god her healing journey was absolutely powerful and it just made me love her so much.
The MCs in this book as a whole just had so many fine layers to them it made me emotional a handful of times with how beautiful they both communicated with one another (and not just because she's a therapist guys lol)

Liam though??? Yall im in love that 40 year old teddy bear like Sophie wasn't kidding when she gave him the nickname 'Hunkle Liam' for a reason 🤣

Overall, I truly enjoyed how this book went. It didn't feel rushed nor did it ever feel like it dragged, if anything I wish I had a few more chapters because it's hard not to love these characters.

This book was fine. I didn’t find it particularly interesting and it was slow paced. It was tedious to read at times because of this. Half way through, there was still minimal build up to the relationship, in my opinion. It was a fine story, a good story, but not one that I would rave about or recommend as a must-read. I would recommend this book if I knew the person wanted to read a story like this one. It was enjoyable, but not the most exciting.

I also didn’t care for the ending. I thought that was out of nowhere. I also didn’t like the epilogue. I feel like the two main things that happened within the last chapter and the epilogue could have happened in a more cohesive way in the epilogue instead.

Overall, it was a fine book, nothing large to complain about and what I think is a matter of personal preference in regard to the glow of the storyline. I am thankful for the opportunity to review the advance reader copy (arc) of this book!

What a lovely debut! This cover caught my eye, and the blurb had me hooked. Liam and Sophie’s story is one of loss, redemption, growth, and finding oneself.

Set in the coastal town of Cape May, NJ, we meet Sophie. She’s spiraling after divorcing her husband of 13 years and returns to the cape, where she spent the summers of her youth. She rents a cottage with a grouchy next-door neighbor named Liam. Liam has never truly gotten over a tragic event in his past, and has now found himself as a single parent to his niece, Lucy, after his sister’s sudden passing.

I enjoy a well-written slow burn, and these two dance around each other for what seems like *ages*, but the payoff is worth it. There is great representation of mental health and how it can affect everyday relationships, especially with loved ones; I loved that both Liam and Sophie attend therapy throughout the story. Their past experiences greatly play into their reluctance to enter into a new relationship, as well as the fact that Liam is now a father. The coastal setting is beautifully laid out with Linny’s descriptive language, and it made me feel nostalgic for a place that I’ve never been.

My only minor complaint is that the ending seemed a little rushed. Overall, I loved the story and look forward to more!

Well written romance has always been a favorite to read, especially written with a realistic understanding of all emotions and people who experience them. "Changing Tides" has it all.

Sophie is a marriage and family therapist and Liam is a small town carpenter. Their romance is fast-paced with mutual sparks from the beginning. Their healing reflects their relationship, with mutual understanding and maturing in dealing with real life situations and growth. Their story sucks you in and you don't put it down until the end.

I give this book 5 stars.

Content warning: struggling with infertility, divorce and PTSD.