The Magic of Sea Glass by Jenny Hale

After the loss of her fiancé a year ago, event planner Lauren Sutton can’t seem to go on with her choice of career or the life she’d built with her fiancé any longer. Floundering emotionally, she makes a snap decision to sell her half of the business and spend the summer among the sand dunes and changing tides of the Outer Banks, taking care of an old inn in Rodanthe, North Carolina with its elderly owner Mary Everett.

Perhaps the salty breezes of the Atlantic and the warmth of summer sun on her face will help her find her direction. What she doesn’t expect to find is a story hidden away in a string of sea glass that will change her life forever.

And complicating things is local fisherman Brody Harrison. All she’d wanted was to sink her toes in the sand and let the coastal breeze calm her aching heart. But Brody shakes up her plan in ways she’d never imagined.

My Review

Lauren is grieving after the loss of her whole world tragically. She is in the business of planning the happiest day of people’s lives, but it is taking a toll on her while she is still battling her own loss. 

She gets away to the beach of Rodanthe, North Carolina, but on a working trip vacation as she can’t sit still. She worked as an assistant to a small boutique bed and breakfast. 

In Chapter 2, we jump to a different person and timeline. I’m unsure what Penelope and Phillip have to do with this story and jumping back so long ago.

Finally, we glimpse something in a flashback that makes more sense and ties the storyline with them. The bracelet is the catalyst between the here and now and back then. This book has a lot of dealing with grief over the unexpected loss of a loved one. Lauren is battling her own inner issues. 

We do get a little bit of closed-door romance between Lauren and Brody, but I like that they keep it casual. I also like the found family in the beachy summery read. Her family finds her in more ways than one in this book. This story is full of surprises, from grief recovery to newfound family and friends and, of course, a few riptides as well to pull you back to the time jumps. But they make so much more sense now. 

This book ends wonderfully and so much more than I expected. It was a slow burn with a friends-to-lovers storyline, but I adored the setting and the sea glass. 

If you would like to read The Magic of Sea Glass by Jenny Hale, you can find this book on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases.

If you like this book, you may also enjoy books with these tags and categories: Closed Door Romance, Summer, and Friends to Lovers.