Veena’s review of Beach Vibes by Susan Mallery
Contemporary Romance published by Canary Press 18 Mar 25
An absolutely fantastic summer beach read, even it if came out in Spring. Families can anchor a person, while at the same time uproot everything you’ve ever believed and then spit you out.
Beth runs a successful sandwich shop in Malibu and has just started going out to do something for herself when she meets Jana. Jana, a single mother, lives with her brother, can’t stop raving about her boyfriend whom she is deeply in love with. Wanting to spread her happiness, she introduces Beth to her brother Teddy. Turns out Jana’s boyfriend is no other than Beth’s brother Rick, a successful surgeon whom Beth has brought up.
Happy Families? Perhaps especially after Beth gets over her knee-jerk reaction that Rick falls for unsuitable types who take advantage of him. Then horror! Beth finds out that Rick is cheating on Jana. With her new romance with Jana’s brother just getting off the ground, what should she do? Clearly, she decides to make the wrong decision to keep Rick’s secret on the down low, convinced that Rick will drop the other girlfriend.
Truth, as we know, always wins out and it is not pretty. Poor Beth is now on the outs with Teddy and Jana and Rick as well. As it turns out, Rick is not who Beth believes him to be, despite having raised him. Can she wade through this mess her life has become and find her happily ever after?
Sometimes, these women’s fiction stories can become slow and draggy, but this one just kept me in the moment, and I truly enjoyed how it all came about.
Grade: A
Summary:
What would you do if you caught your brother cheating on your best friend?
While Beth is proud of her Malibu beach shop, Surf Sandwiches, she’s even prouder of her charismatic brother Rick, who rose from foster care through surgical residency. She makes subs, he saves lives. Life takes a turn for the happy after she finds out Rick is dating her new best friend, Jana. Then Jana’s handsome brother adds even more sparkle to Beth’s days…and nights.
But when she catches Rick with another woman—like, with-with—her visions of an idyllic family future disappear in one awful instant. Either she betrays her brother, or she keeps his secret and risks losing the man she loves and her best friend.
