Colleen Coble's The Inn at Ocean's Edge ~ Reviewed

The Inn at Ocean's Edge (A Sunset Cove Novel)
by Colleen Coble
Series: A Sunset Cove Novel (Book 1)
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (April 14, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1401690262


Description: 

Claire’s visit to a luxury hotel in Maine awakens repressed memories, threatening all she holds dear.

In 1989, Claire Dellamare disappeared from her own fourth birthday party at the Hotel Tourmaline on the island of Folly Shoals, Maine. She showed up a year later at the same hotel, with a note pinned to her dress but no explanation. Nobody knows where Claire spent that year—and until now, Claire didn’t even know she had ever been missing.

But when Claire returns to the Hotel Tourmaline for a business meeting with her CEO father, disturbing memories begin to surface . . . despite her parents’ best efforts to keep them forgotten.

Luke Rocco lost his mother under equally mysterious circumstances—at the same time Claire disappeared. After a chance encounter reveals the unlikely link between them, Claire and Luke set out together to uncover the truth about what happened that fateful year.

With flashbacks swimming just beneath her consciousness and a murderer threatening her safety, Claire’s very life depends on unscrambling her past . . . even if her family refuses to acknowledge it. Someone—maybe everyone—is hiding something from Claire Dellamare, and it will cost her everything to drag the truth out into the light.

Review: 

Colleen Coble has crafted quite the twisted tale in this novel.

Claire Dellamare, high powered heiress, steps into a world that feels freakishly familiar when she surprises her father to help him close on an important deal. After a panic attack upon entering the lobby of the Hotel Tourmaline Claire convinces herself that she is overreacting. But then the details about her past begin to unfurl. When she witnesses a murder that few believe even happened she finds herself a suspect and in danger. The mystery deepens as does the danger. Claire finds herself trusting Luke, the handsome local who wonders if she has suppressed memories important to him as well as her own memories of what happened that fateful night his mother disappeared.

This is a fast moving novel with intense drama within the first few pages. The tension does not let up as the reader finds out more and more surrounding the mystery that seems to tie Claire to Luke's mother.

I generally like my fiction to move a little slower paced, but found I was compelled to go along for the ride. As I tried to put all the puzzle pieces together with the mystery of what happened to Claire, I got caught up with the characters as they helped me meet my goal. This novel would be a terrific summer read. Even on a sandy beach, if you dare.

Reviewed by: Kelly Klepfer