Monarch Beach
A Novel
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3.6 • 28 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Anita Hughes' Monarch Beach is an absorbing debut novel about one woman's journey back to happiness after an affair splinters her perfect marriage and life—what it means to be loved, betrayed and to love again.
When Amanda Blick, a young mother and kindhearted San Francisco heiress, finds her gorgeous French chef husband wrapped around his sous-chef, she knows she must flee her life in order to rebuild it. The opportunity falls into her lap when her (very lovable) mother suggests Amanda and her young son, Max, spend the summer with her at the St. Regis Resort in Laguna Beach. With the waves right outside her windows and nothing more to worry about than finding the next relaxing thing to do, Amanda should be having the time of her life—and escaping the drama. But instead, she finds herself faced with a kind, older divorcee who showers her with attention… and she discovers that the road to healing is never simple. This is the sometimes funny, sometimes bitter, but always moving story about the mistakes and discoveries a woman makes when her perfect world is turned upside down.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A divorc e discovers a new life and possibly new love in Hughes's overwrought debut. Raised amid San Francisco's rich old families and living with her eight-year-old son and handsome husband in picturesque Marin County, Amanda Blick has what appears to be the perfect life. But when she catches her husband, a French chef, with his sous chef, Amanda jumps at her widowed mother's invitation to the St. Regis Resort in Laguna Beach. In between obsessing about her ex, deliberating about her wardrobe, exercising, and sunbathing, Amanda meets Edward another chef. Can she allow herself to trust again and fall in love? Amanda's immaturity about relationships is compounded by Hughes's flat prose and painfully awkward descriptions of sex. Combined with her monied entitlement and deferential, almost childlike attitudes, the result is a protagonist who lacks agency or any real sense of responsibility. Escapism is one thing, but Amanda's incessant brand name-dropping grows tiresome, as do the marketing brochure worthy descriptions of the resort.
Customer Reviews
I like this author, but...
I like this author and have read many of her books, but she is really bad with the food and design elements. It takes me out of the story when she describes the food in her books, because it’s as though she doesn’t know food at all. Same with fashion and design. She might just not have experience at fine restaurants or with fashion and interiors, or she may just have bad taste and thinks she has good taste. I am not sure, but it’s weird that she continues to write about these subjects with no insight into them. All of her characters are designers, chefs or food critiques and none of them are believable because of this. Read Jane Green, Lauren Weisberger or Emma Straub if you want well described design and food. Other than that her stories are a good escape, always set in fantastical settings, but you have to ignore a few things. Also, she has a tendency to repeat similar descriptions or phasing multiple times in a book.... Which can be annoying.
Fun, enjoyable read
I really enjoyed reading this book! The characters were complex and interesting & the story was fast paced and entertaining. I recommend this book to all my friends! :)
Good book
Quite good, well written and interesting. A great beach book (especially if you are staying at the St. Regis Monarch Beach, as I was when I read it).