Review: Ocean Beach
Madeline, Kyra, Deidre, Avery, and Nicole were successful in renovating one old home so they decide to take on another. This time they’re going to restore The Millicent, a historic home, that belongs to movie legend Max Golden, in Miami’s South Beach area. The stakes are high this time because they could get a reality show out of it. Each one of them is desperate for it to be a success for a different reason.
I was excited to read Ocean Beach, by Wendy Wax, because I think she’s a wonderful person. Unfortunately, I didn’t love the book the way I had hoped to. I thought it was cute, and liked it okay, but I didn’t love it. I think it’s probably because I didn’t read the previous book, Ten Beach Road.
With five female renovators, one baby, two Lifetime employees, an aging movie star, and a few others, there were a lot of characters to keep track of. I was a little confused by all of the women at first and finally had to make myself a little cheat sheet to keep track of them. Of course, some of the characters played bigger roles than others, but several of them weren’t that well developed. Again, I might have known the characters better if I’d read the first book.
I found the plot of Ocean Beach to be somewhat predictable and even a little silly at times. The book was light and fun, though, and a fairly quick read for a book that’s over 400 pages long. Still, I would recommend reading Ten Beach Road before reading this one.
Ok and cute can be good, I do not need to love all the books I read (even if I want to )
when I started reading your review I immediately thought chick-lit and felt I would probably skirt this one. I don’t mind chick-lit though, but worry that you have to have read the previous novels to know who is who
Maybe this would be particularly cute by the beach? But I’m with you, if there are too many characters that aren’t well differentiated, it makes reading a lot of work! Thanks for your honest review!
Definitely sounds like more of a beach read, and I’ll make a note that if I pick this one up, I’ll bring along Ten Beach Road to read first as well. Thanks for the tip!
I’ve read elsewhere that you need to read Ten Beach Road first!
You summed up my thoughts perfectly!
I read Ten Beach Road so I hope I will like it a bit more than you did!
I think this book is richer if you read Ten Beach Road, which I adored. It helps introduce you to the characters and develops them a bit more.
Thanks for your honesty sweetie.
aww. I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy this one. i’ll keep in mind to read the other one first, but right now by stack of books to read is so high that i’m only adding the good ones to my wishlist. i might just pass on this one for now.
Good to know I should read Ten Beach Road first (I was wondering).
Thanks for your review, too many characters are hard to keep up with sometimes.
I am planning on reading both of these soon, and have heard from others as well that skipping the first book makes this one more difficult to get into. I am sorry that you didn’t like this one more, but I really did appreciate your honest reactions to it!
Kathy, thanks for your honest review! I’d like to read something by this author.
I’ve had Ten Beach Road in my bookcase for a little while — think I’ll take your advice and read that before I would delve into this one!
Cute can work sometimes, especially for summer reading. If I decided to read these, I’ll start with the first one.
Oh me oh my…I do hate it when I can’t keep the characters straight…sorry it ddn’t totally work for you!
cheat sheet..been there, done that. and it is a bad sign.
Thank you for this review. I had seen it a lot around bloggyland and put it on my tbr. Crossing it off now.
It definitely helps to have read Ten Beach Road. I will admit that when I first met the characters, I had trouble remember who was who but by the end of that book, was invested in them. So I was happy to see them all again, with a few new people thrown into the mix. It is a great summer read though.
I did read Ten Beach Road and really enjoyed it. I loved this one – to me it was like catching up with old friends. Sorry it didn’t do it for you.
I read and loved Ten Beach Road, so the reunion was a pleasure for me. Perhaps it’s a good idea to read them in sequence.
I have a review copy of the second book in a (different) series and am on the fence whether I should make time to read the books in order. Sometimes there just isn’t time! Glad this was a cute summer read though, even though there were so many characters to keep track of.
I like the occasional cute story but I also get confused with too many characters. It does seem like a good one for summer.
Good to know it’s a sequel of sorts. I hate when I read a book without knowing that first, it’s almost always a disappointment.
So I guess it is a sequel to the first book?