I liked Mariah Stewart’s second Wyndham Beach novel, Goodbye Again, so much that I suggested it to all the women in my immediate family, but I did recommend that they start with the first book, An Invincible Summer. If you like women’s fiction featuring mature women who have life experiences already, not twenty-somethings who are just finding their way, you might want to try these books. They are connected by the three women who were friends in high school in Wyndham Beach, Massachusetts, but they can actually be read as standalones. Why would you want to, though, if you like these women?
Liddy Bryant returned home to Wyndham Beach where she married Jim Bryant. After their daughter, Jessie, committed suicide at the age of thirty-two, Liddy sank into grief. A year later, Jim asked for a divorce. Now, at fifty-nine, Liddy is starting over. She buys the town’s only bookstore, a shabby leftover whose owner has dementia. With the help of her friends, Maggie and Emma, along with Maggie’s daughter, Grace, she’s determined to make a success of the store, with book clubs, author appearances, and storytimes. Tuck Shelby, owner of Shelby & Son, renovated her house. Now, she relies on him to renovate her new bookstore, Wyndham Beach Reads.
If you read a summary of Goodbye Again, it mentions that Liddy’s ex-husband, Jim, wants back in her life, and Tuck Shelby wants to be more than a friend. There’s nothing wrong with a good romance, but this book is so much more. It’s the story of women in their late fifties who have had to start over, due to divorce or a husband’s death. For one of the three, it means a return to Wyndham Beach where she has close friends, a support network. For Liddy, it means learning to move on with her life after her daughter’s suicide, a suicide she doesn’t understand. Even younger women, Maggie’s daughters in their thirties, are dealing with decisions as to relationships and jobs.
Liddy Bryant is described as tall with a few extra pounds on a large-boned frame. She has salt-and-pepper hair. She’s attractive, but certainly not the twenty-some-year-old beauty often found in romance novels. It’s so refreshing to read about a woman who has had loss in her life, still grieves, but finds ways to continue to live. It’s refreshing to read about women who provide friendship and support for each other.
Goodbye Again isn’t a story of deception and lies in romance. It’s not a story filled with high drama. Mariah Stewart’s latest novel is filled with realistic characters coping with life and day-to-day small dramas. It’s a story of likable people. It’s just right.
Mariah Stewart’s website is https://mariahstewart.com/
Goodbye Again by Mariah Stewart. Montlake, 2022. ISBN 9781542033077 (paperback), 379p.
FTC Full Disclosure – The author sent a NetGalley link, hoping I would review it.
