ROCK THE BOAT

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.