April 15, 2021
Three old friends return to their seaside hometown amid upheaval in their personal lives. After 12 years together, Kate Campbell is convinced that her boyfriend, Thomas, is going to propose. Instead, he breaks up with her at the diner where they first met. Just six hours later she has moved out of the apartment they shared in the West Village and quit her job at the PR firm where she worked under Thomas' mother. All of this is bad enough, but it's leaving her life in the city to move back into her childhood home in Sea Point, New Jersey, that really throws Kate for a loop. She never imagined she'd be 34, single, and working two jobs to make ends meet--one at the local library, the other slinging drinks at the town's watering hole, the Jetty Bar. But Kate's not the only one whose summer isn't going as planned. Her neighbor Ziggy Miller is reeling from the sudden death of his father, Zeke, and Ziggy's not sure whether he can keep Zeke's plumbing business going--or if he even wants to. When Ziggy reaches out to his best friend, Miles Hoffman--the privileged "Prince of Sea Point"--for help going over his father's accounting, Miles agrees. But he's coming home for another reason: His mother has informed him that he'll have to prove himself if he wants to inherit the Wharf--the family's lucrative Sea Point resort. When Kate, Ziggy, and Miles collide over the summer, they all contend with their past and present selves as big secrets come to light, family dynamics shift, friendships morph, and Sea Point threatens to change right before their eyes. The author perfectly captures what it means to come home again and rediscover yourself in the process. Make room in your beach bag for this cozy summer read.
COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
May 1, 2021
Kate has spent the last decade perfecting her image: hustling as a New York City PR maven, dating the right guy, globetrotting at the drop of a hat. But when the "right guy" dumps her just when she thought he might propose, Kate heads home to the idyllic beach town of Sea Point, New Jersey. She swallows her pride, gets a job at the library and another tending bar, and refamiliarizes herself with the rhythm of her hometown. Inextricably woven into Sea Point life are Ziggy, Kate's next door neighbor and childhood companion, and Miles, Ziggy's millionaire best friend. Ziggy, a sensitive plumber/carpenter, has been lost since his father died suddenly a few months prior. Overgrown class clown Miles is on a quest to prove himself to his business mogul mother. Together, Kate, Ziggy, and Miles find themselves and renewed friendship over the course of one beautiful, humbling summer. This first novel from former White House stenographer Dorey-Stein (From the Corner of the Oval, 2018) is a witty and endearing escape, a summertime must-read.
COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
June 4, 2021
DEBUT Three distressed thirtysomethings who grew up in the quaint, popular resort town of Sea Point, NJ, spend a pivotal summer there trying to sort themselves out. Kate's seemingly perfect Manhattan life blows up when she gets the boot instead of a ring from her longtime boyfriend, and she returns to Sea Point to lick her wounds. Miles, who welcomed a return to his boyhood home to escape his unsatisfying, albeit successful, life in California, has just been fired by his mother as CEO of the lucrative family business and is determined to get her to change her mind. Ziggy, a childhood friend to both Miles and Kate, has never left Sea Point and is mourning the recent death of his beloved father, caring for his grief-stricken mother, and trying to hold on to the family business that is in financial trouble. As the trio tries to rebuild their lives in enticing creative ways that include an alluring dose of romantic entanglements, they find their way back to one another and forward to astonishing intertwined futures. VERDICT First-time novelist Dorey-Stein has written the perfect beach read, filled with delicious heart and meaty observations about knotty relationship issues and offering surprises and delights with every chapter. Expect renewed interest in her 2018 memoir of her career as a White House stenographer, From the Corner of the Oval.--Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 12, 2021
In this charming if predictable debut novel (after the memoir From the Corner of the Oval), three 30-somethings try to get their lives on track. Kate Campbell has “given all of her twenties” to her boyfriend in New York City. Then he leaves her, which also spells the end of her job at his family’s public relations agency. Kate returns home to Sea Point, N.J., and her old bartending job at a thriving hotel owned by Jo Hoffman. Miles, Jo’s son, who’s been floundering in San Francisco with an unused business degree, soon returns in order to prove to his mom he can take over the family business, and to help out his friend Ziggy Miller. Ziggy’s stayed in Jersey all along, working with his contractor dad, Zeke. But when Zeke dies of a heart attack while fulfilling a client’s request for “the world’s most savage man cave,” he leaves the books a mess and Ziggy unmoored. That is, until Ziggy catches up with Kate. While it’s no surprise that things turn out just fine for Kate, Miles—who develops an interest in cooking—and Ziggy, Dorey-Stein captures a strong sense of their feeling stymied now that their glory days have passed them by. It’s a modest story, but it delivers on its promise. Agent: Becky Sweren, Aevitas Creative Management.