Whisper Beach

A Novel

By: Shelley Noble

Narrated by: Marni Penning

Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Colors and Breakwater Bay comes this unforgettable story—reminiscent of Kristin Hannah's beloved novels—of friends, loyalty, and love as three women who are reunited in the idyllic beach town where they grew up are forced to re-evaluate their bonds.

Fifteen years ago, seventeen-year-old Vanessa Moran fell in love and lost her virginity, but not to the same boy. Pregnant, desperate, and humiliated, she fled friends and family and Whisper Beach, New Jersey, never breathing a word about her secret to anyone. She hasn't been back since. Now a professional Manhattan organizer, she returns to the funeral of her best friend's husband. She intends on just paying her respects and leaving—though she can't deny she also wants the town to see how far she's come as a successful business woman. But her plans to make this a short visit fall by the wayside when her girlfriends have other ideas.

Dorie, the owner of the pier's Blue Crab Restaurant where Van and her friends worked as teenagers, needs help. Dorie's roving husband spends every penny they make and now their restaurant is failing.

Joe, the boy Van left behind without an explanation, has never stopped loving her. While he's wary of getting hurt again, he also can't help wondering what would happen if they took up where they left off.

As the summer progresses and the restaurant takes on a new look, trouble comes from unexpected sources. For Van, this summer will test the meaning of friendship and trust—and how far love can bend before it breaks.

©2015 Shelley Noble (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Rollercoaster of emotions

The story kept my attention but I was a bit put off by the harshness of some of the voices. Kudos though as there were a lot of characters and voices.

At times the story was hard to follow and I had to back up to regroup. It is a long story. So parts were predictable and others were not. But all emotions are touched in this story. I will listen to it again.

ZERO stars

I had to give one star in order to rate this book. It was quite possibly the worst book I’ve ever read/listened to in my long life as an avid reader. By going into minimal detail about the “story” (not that there is much of one, I will put as little effort into this review as Noble put forth in this generally horrendous tale. My main criticisms are as follows: there is essentially no character development; the characters are are not likeable and/or interesting; there is almost no plot; the dialogue is sloppy and boring; the themes of domestic abuse are revealed in ways that generally blame the victim. I set a very low bar (almost touches the floor) for books I consider to be beach reads. However, this book managed to reach a new low.

As for the performance, I almost could not take another minute of each character sounding as if s/he smoked 3 packs a day while speaking in a “Sopranos” meets Marge Simpson’s sisters’ accent.

Audio

I could not get into the story because the person telling the story is so bad. Unusual most people doing the audio are fine but am going to return. Twelve hrs of her would kill me. Sorry

Kind of dull

I had to ship thru most of the book to get to the end - to get to the crux of the story. Not much too it