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| The Beach House | 
 enlarge | Author: Jane Green
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $6.99
You Save: $17.96 (72%)
New (49) Used (37) Collectible (1) from $6.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  151 reviews
Sales Rank: 1040
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.5
ISBN: 0670018856
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780670018857
ASIN: 0670018856
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: EX-LIBRARY; used item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned for refund. Buy with confidence - your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Best book yet... June 18, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
From the moment I began this book, I was hooked. It was Jane's best book yet, the characters were interesting and the writing was so rich with descriptions I felt like I was in Nan's house as a fly on the wall. There is a definite lightheartedness to her writing this time around.
It's so nice to see her writing evolve with each book. I was sad to see it end, but looking forward to her next book.
 not quite a "3" July 22, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Books like this are the reason for half-stars! I would give this 2.5 if possible. It wasn't AWFUL or I would not have finished it. But it was an audio and it was the only one I had for a long car ride.
The thing that attracted me to this book was that it was set on Nantucket. I love that place. But I wasn't far into the audio when I realized that was the best part of the book!
I have never commented on the production of an audio book - I guess because most are well done. But this one...the narrator barely took a breath between changes of locale, time, or scene. This was quite annoying,
Character development was uneven at best with some characters hardly fleshed out. There were way too many coincidences and the action was very predictable. And the writing itself was awkward.
The thing that really annoyed me were the factual errors that could have been so easily remedied by a good editor. The author had hydrangeas blooming on Nantucket before they bloom in Baltimore! And Nan was fixing her overgrown, heavily laden tomato plants at the same time in June that school had just let out for the summer! No one north of the Mason-Dixon line has tomatoes that early. There were quite a few other mistakes like this which makes me wonder if any editor was involved at all.
AnishaattheBeach June 20, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I just finished Beach House - - I read it into the wee hours of the morning and then right when I woke up. It is funny, warm, charming, and does what every book you buy you secretly hope will - allow you to blissfully lose yourself in another world for hours on end and then, when you're done, you fall in love with yours. A wonderful, WONDERFUL read.
 Too far-fetched and silly July 28, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've read most of Jane Green's novels and have enjoyed them. I expected a light beach read but as the story went on it got extremely far-fetched and ridiculous. I even thought the writing wasn't up to par as well. I did finish the book but I wouldn't recommend it to my friends and I will not read Jane Green anymore. I'm very disappointed.
A charming and comforting beach read June 30, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Beloved author Jane Green, herself a recent transplant to the United States, sets her latest novel, THE BEACH HOUSE, in perhaps the quintessential American coastal environment: the island of Nantucket. Almost without realizing it, long-time widow Nan Powell has gained a bit of a reputation in her town. Living alone in a historic beachfront house, Windermere, freely bathing (nude) in her neighbors' pools and transplanting their hydrangeas, the old woman, cycling down island roads in all weather, has become an eccentric island fixture.
But Nan's free-spiritedness has been bound to catch up with her sooner or later. Windermere is getting old and run down, and Nan has also neglected her finances, remaining blissfully unaware of her dwindling assets until her financial adviser alerts her to the very real possibility that she'll lose her house. When Nan decides to bring in summer boarders to supplement her income and save her home from bloodthirsty developers, she also secretly hopes to bring Windermere back to the old days, when it was bursting with life, overflowing with laughter and love.
It doesn't take long for Windermere to work its magic, despite the troubled backgrounds of the boarders who make their way there. There's Daniel, who's hiding a life-changing secret from his separated wife, who can't understand why he's walking away from the perfect marriage. There's Daff, a divorced mother of an attention-seeking teenaged daughter caught between her hard-working, grieving mother, and her father, who has moved on with a new girlfriend. And there's Nan's own son, Michael, whose latest girlfriend in a string of failed relationships might have been the worst mistake of all.
Much like the Nantucket coast, Green's prose is characterized by breezy, effervescent storytelling. Rapid shifts from character to character help move the story along, and even the minor characters (like Michael's married girlfriend and Daff's ex-husband) have their (brief) moments in the sun. Green is most effective when setting up each character's unique background, situation and personal crisis. Once the players are gathered at Windermere, the novel --- just like a good weekend at the beach --- develops into a dreamy haze of sun-dappled good feelings, interrupted only occasionally by a few rocky patches.
Skeletons lurk in almost everyone's closets in this book, and they all get a good airing before each crisis's inevitable conclusion. Although THE BEACH HOUSE offers readers few surprises, comfort, not confrontation, is what most want out of their summer novels. And Green's latest offers comfort in abundance. Reassuring reunions, self-discovery, transformation --- not to mention secret inheritances and true love --- lie in store and result in a supremely satisfying happy ending. All these elements help ensure that the book will leave readers --- much like the inhabitants of Windermere --- swept away by the spell of Nantucket's charming past, before SUVs, celebrities and multi-million-dollar houses displaced old families, friendly gatherings and authentic homes.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
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