September Book Club Blog: Sunrise at Crystal Bay

Okay, considering how late in the month this book club blog is being posted, you might already have anticipated what I am going to say -- Sunrise at Crystal Bay, by Mia Kent, was not the best thing I've read this year.

I've been trying to objectively ask myself why that is, since I have to acknowledge, it isn't the only book I haven't liked this year. Maybe it's because I am trying to systematically read through my tbr, so by law of averages, some books by authors I've never previously read are not going to hit with me. Then again, maybe it's because this year I took up reading romantasy, and perhaps that has spoiled my enjoyment for simple contemporary romance? But no, that's not it, since I've read several that I did enjoy. So, maybe this book just wasn't that good.

Sadly, that is the conclusion I've come to with Sunrise at Crystal Bay. To be honest, it almost, almost, ended up in my dnf pile. As it is, from chapter six on I skimmed a lot of the narrative writing and mostly read the dialogue that was spoken. To me, that was the entire issue with this book -- too much narration! Waaay too much.

This is a short novel with a really interesting premise. The main character discovers that thirteen years ago her husband and best friend had a one-night fling caused by alcohol and mutual need. That fling resulted in a son. Both the fling and the parentage are kept from our main character, but when she eventually learns about it, she flees to her childhood home -- Crystal Bay.

Even though I already knew before this set up is completely laid out that I was not going to enjoy the writing craft here, I was curious about what she would do. I mean, in Crystal Bay, she crashes at her childhood best friend's place. Since he has feelings for her and she has feelings for him, probably not the best call, and yet neither of these two characters understand why their respective partners are angry at the situation. Her children both call her -- daughter accusing, son supportive, but nothing is developed with her children beyond these calls. Her mom thinks she should try to work things out, her sister thinks she should throw hubby out with the trash -- but nothing is developed there, either. It's almost like instead of having her wrestle with her own emotions, the author uses these other characters to state both sides of the argument for and against reconciliation.

Hubby turns out to be... spoiled, I think would be the reality. She has met his needs even when he has controlled hers -- but that isn't developed, either. We see that he is not a great husband, but outside of the affair, she never seems to come to this realization. They go to therapy, and he suggests the affair happened because she wasn't meeting his sexual needs while the children were young and draining -- and that isn't explored, either. It is flatly rejected and becomes the final nail in hubby's coffin.

Anyway, if it isn't evident, I was not impressed with much in this book. My favourite part might have been the relationship between our main character's mother and younger sister. There was real tension there, but written in a way that makes sense to me as family behaviour.

Overall, I'd say the treatment of a 25 year marriage falling apart is way too large for 200 pages to portray effectively. I'd say that anyone who is married for 25 years, then leaves (justified or not) and ends up with the man who was her high school crush and whom everyone thinks she has been in love with all along, is not without some blame in the dissolution of her marriage. The depth that could have been explored here is absolutely and completely missing from this story.

In truth, as a divorced woman and mother myself, this book kind of made me think I'd like to tackle that topic myself some day. And that is the best takeaway I have for Sunrise at Crystal Bay.