Review: Waiting for Sunset by Starr Ayers

I wrote this for Clean Fiction Magazine, so its that format. Clean Fiction Magazine

My Review of Waiting for Sunset by Starr Ayers              A- show some ankle.

Back of the Book: When Olivia Houston’s need to let go collides with her reason to move on, she finds herself thrust into a tomorrow she didn’t see coming. Ever since her husband’s death, anxiety has pitched its tent in the mind of thirty-two-year-old interior designer Olivia Houston. Weary of the tyranny of the urgent, she longs for quiet and welcomes the invitation to update her cousin’s 1950s cottage in Sunset Beach, North Carolina.

On a jog to the tip of neighboring Bird Island, Olivia discovers the mysterious Kindred Spirit mailbox. Planted in the dunes decades earlier by a young couple, the box contains journals with visitors’ entries—as well as an item that plunges Olivia into a search for the family of WW2 Sergeant Walter Larsen.

While at the Kindred Spirit, Olivia collides with Chase Evans, a deep-sea charter boat captain with a circuit-breaker smile, whom Olivia soon recruits to assist with her search. Their shared pursuit takes them far beyond the sands of Sunset Beach and well outside the borders of their hearts.

What will future visits to the Kindred Spirit mailbox hold for Olivia? Will her Sunset Beach sabbatical bring the healing and peace she seeks or compound her heartbreak and loss?

My review: 

First impression: Twain timelines with two poignant stories. Step into the 1940s while remaining firmly in 2022 and watch as these two parallel stories merge to finally embrace to solve the mystery and sort out love.

Action: The pace is slow and sweet as molasses. The few months may seem longer in the present as it spreads out while the reader travels back and forth a half-a-century. The present is on the lazy Islander time and the past is in the less hectic time after the war.

Adventure: Walks and bicycle rides on the beach. Amazing sunsets as friendships blossom and a mystery emerges. The mailbox is center to this whole book. Messages and trinkets draw Olivia and Chase together, tugging them into the past where a mystery needs to be explained. Fear, love, romance, wrong decisions, tragedy, friendships, family, encounters, and more can interrupt the trajectory of the players like a zephyr can change the course of a ship.  

Romance: Attraction appears mystifying when your heart needs to make a choice. Two beautiful women simultaneously come into Captain Chase Evans’ life while two very handsome men grabs decorator Olivia Houston’s fluttering romantic interest. Is the mailbox the invitation to love or the culprit to confuse a woman’s senses?  

Religion: References to God and bible verses run through the pages. It’s overt, steady, and understandable, but not overdone or preachy. The characters rely on God and pray for His direction and help in their lives in both centuries.

Art: Olivia is decorating and doing a facelift for a cousin’s cottage on the beach. In the duo time, Marilyn is also an artist with sketching and eventually painting.

Final Thoughts: There is mention of a marital affair focusing on the regret and aftermath of it, but it’s all referred to in the past.

Waiting for Sunset is full of scene and emotion. It demonstrates texture and light. I discovered a few things like wide tires on a bike make it possible for sand cycling. I learned about the amazing real Kindred Spirit mailbox. Starr Ayers paints the island sunset with a colorful brush stroke. The storyline is heartwarming. The characters act and sound genuine, with real struggles and emotions. I needed a few tissues here and there, as tears cascaded and blurred the words. I think you will enjoy this book and recommend you add it to your TBR pile.  

 

Buy Waiting for Sunset 5 Stars! *****