Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly

*I received a digital copy from the publisher. I was not compensated in any way.

author: Marie Bostwick

publisher: William Morrow

release date: May 30, 2023

    Having lost her job and her marriage, Esme Cahill returns to the lake resort where she was raised by her grandparents. Her grandmother, Adele, had asked Esme to return to Last Lake just before she passed away. Now Esme finds her grandfather, George, and her estranged mother, Robyn struggling to keep the resort out of financial ruin. Not only are the finances shaky, but the resort itself is run down as well. On top of that, George has hired a mysterious (handsome) new chef that lives out of a van.

    In a storage room, along with Adele's beautiful quilts, sits a box of items Adele left for Esme. As she goes through the box, Esme slowly unravels her grandmother's secret past and a beautiful love story.

. I think that one of the things I enjoyed so much about the story is that it adds a few touches of the unexpected. There are quite a few "stories within the story". Esme's relationship with her mother is strained at best since Esme was taken from her care as a child and placed in her grandparents' custody. Both Robyn and Esme have their share of regrets, and Robyn has a few secrets of her own.

Esme's story is interspersed with chapters of Adele's. As Esme finally learns what brought Esme to Asheville and why she decided to stay, she has to take a long look at herself and her own life choices. This is a book about our dreams and the decisions we make to follow them, or let them go.

Read this book if...

...you love southern fiction

... you love stories of coming home

... you love books about family.