Review: Ocean Beach

Ocean Beach by Wendy Wax
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars. I absolutely loved the first book in this series so I was excited to dive into this one as well. While, as another reviewer pointed out, there is nothing wrong with this one, I liked it well enough but I didn't love it. It just didn't draw me in like the first one but I did still want to know how things were going to turn out.

In this book, due to Kyra's filming of the restoration of Bella Flora, the ladies have been offered a pilot for "Do Over," which Lifetime has presented to them as a restoration show, but they soon find out is actually a reality TV show, much to their displeasure. Still, they set out to bring "The Millicent," a house owned by a 90-year old retired vaudeville performer (Max) back to life so he can fulfill his wife's dying wish.

You can't have a reality TV show without drama and the ladies certainly have their share of that - but not necessarily that they want aired for the entire world to see: Maddie's 27 year marriage to Steve is still incredibly strained. Avery still feels the sting of Deirdre's abandonment and does not want to work beside her. Nicole is introduced to a potential client who she hopes will reboot her matchmaking service while being pursued (romantically this time) by FBI Agent Joe Giraldi who doesn't trust the guy. And Kyra is now mom to the infant son of one of the world's most famous movie stars (who also happens to in South Beach shooting a movie) and she immediately butts heads with the Lifetime cameraman, much like Avery did with Chase Hardin in the first book.

In places it felt like there was a formulaic approach happening (potential "hatred to romance" plotline, impending crisis which threatens everything), which was a bit disappointing, though I was pleased when some things didn't turn out the way I was expecting them to based on what happened in "Ten Beach Road." There was also a mystery aspect to this one (what happened to Max's son, who was kidnapped at age 3) and I liked how the ladies managed to find ways to try to figure that out without the watchful eye of the film crew. I also liked how that was the real driving force in Max wanting the house restored. Max's bond with Kyra's baby was incredibly sweet and endearing.

There really was a lot to like about this book. I can see how it would be hard to write a series in which the main characters are restoring houses and keep it fresh. One can only talk about that process so much before it gets old - I know as I've been remodeling my own home while reading these books. I was trying to imagine how "Do Over" would be as a reality show, and quite frankly, I thought it would be pretty boring!

The jokes about Maddie's inability to text coherently became old by the end of the book and there were some things that just didn't ring true: like a famous designer not coming up on a Google search under her maiden name, but when found by searching her married name, articles came up listing her maiden name as well. That had me shaking my head in total disbelief.

Overall, this felt like catching up with old friends, which is a great quality to have in a series! I look forward to see what is going to happen next for these ladies, just with lower expectations than the first book gave me for this one. And if this series were adapted for TV, I'd still totally watch it.

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