Second chances. Redemption. Acceptance. These are what you’ll find at Chesapeake Bay but for Chrissy Jenkins, being accepted was never attainable. Enter the world of The Chesapeake Diaries where friends and families can either drive you apart or bond you to each other forever.
In the twelfth installment of the award-winning novel series, The Chesapeake Diaries, Dune Drive tells the story of Chrissy Jenkins, the great-great granddaughter of Ruby Carter, the famous matriarch of Cannonball Island. Out of necessity to escape an abusive ex, Chrissy finds the opportunity to return to Cannonball Island to start a much needed new life. Hoping to forget her past yet using her culinary skills in the present, Chrissy starts a new journey in Chesapeake, although begrudgingly.
Dune Drive is written with it’s usual classic wit and ease by Mariah Stewart, a New York Times and USA Today’s best selling author. Set in the iconic and idyllic coastal town of Chesapeake Bay, Dune Drive takes us once again into the small-town family with the heart of gold. This time however, the story centers on Chrissy, a talented yet undermined chef who feels she doesn’t truly belong. But as Chrissy slowly starts to unwind on Cannonball Island, she finds long lost faces and new beginnings.
One of the beauty of reading a book by Mariah Stewart is her incredible talent in letting you see the vulnerabilities of the heroine or hero and rooting for said heroine or hero until the very end. You feel the bumps and bruises which makes the triumphant closure for the characters all the more gratifying. The supporting characters in Dune Drive are just as vividly described and important and helps Chrissy realize that she is so much more than what she thinks of herself. Of course there has to be a dashing, handsome, albeit frustrating hero! In the case of Jared Chandler, he is just as delicious as all the other heroes in Mariah Stewart’s stories.
If you’re looking for a fun “beach read” or an immersive and sweet story about finding oneself and realizing true love between family and friends, then you’ll thoroughly enjoy reading Dune Drive. You don’t have to read all of the Chesapeake Diaries in order to enjoy this installment but it would help in understanding how the quaint little beach-side town of Cannonball Island works.
Dune Drive is currently on it’s Book Tour and can be purchased at any main booksellers and online. Dune Drive and the Chesapeake Diaries is published by Pocket Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Book description:
Always believing she was an ugly duckling, Chrissy Jenkins thought she had finally turned into a swan when her real-life Prince Charming swept her off her feet. But as his true character began to crack his perfect facade, Chrissy realized that not only was she better off without him, but that she was the only one who had the power to transform her life.
Returning to her ancestral home on Cannonball Island for a family wedding, Chrissy is reintroduced to a legacy she’d all but forgotten. In choosing to stay on the island, she reboots her life, successfully reinventing herself as a chef at Blossoms, an up-and-coming restaurant in St. Dennis. But despite her newfound self-confidence, she still doesn’t trust her taste in men. So when she meets Jared Chandler, a handsome ship salvager staying at the inn while he conducts a nearby recovery operation, Chrissy’s certain she can keep him as a friend—even though he’s everything any woman would want in a man. As fellow newcomers, together they discover the charm of the historic bayside town and explore the idyllic island.
But when Chrissy agrees to be Jared’s date for his father’s wedding, they embark on a weekend that will find them each seeing the other in a completely different light, one that will change their lives forever.
About the Author:
Mariah Stewart is the award-winning New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of numerous novels and several novellas and short stories. A native of Hightstown, New Jersey, she lives with her husband and two rambunctious rescue dogs amid the rolling hills of Chester County, Pennsylvania, where she savors country life and tends her gardens while she works on her next novel. Visit her website at MariahStewart.com, like her on Facebook at Facebook.com/AuthorMariahStewart, and follow her on Instagram @Mariah_Stewart_Books.
* I was given a galley of Dune Drive for the Dune Drive blog tour.
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