A summer home that has been left abandoned for years, but a summer home that Bonny now desperately needs to return to regardless of the pain and memories it holds.

The town of Watersend, South Carolina, was quaint, a treasure from childhood, and had the best bookstore with a marvelous bookstore owner that could pick out a book you "need" not a book that you want.

We meet many likable and believable characters except one in THE BOOKSHOP AT WATER’S END. You are able to empathize with the characters as well as want everything to turn out for them.

The main character, Bonny, was a successful doctor, but a tragic mistake in the emergency room one night caused Bonny to be put on sabbatical and has her deciding to return to the childhood summer home that contains secrets and some happy and not so happy memories.

A happy memory was the friendship between Bonny and Lainey. They were labeled the "summer sisters."

They had made a pact to always be there for each other. Bonny needed Lainey now, and Lainey came back to the house with her two children even though she also had some bad summer memories and really didn’t want to.

The bookstore and its owner were definitely a happy memory. Mimi, the bookstore owner was marvelous. Any book that has a bookstore and a book club in it definitely makes the story line even more appealing.

Two not-so-happy memories and ones that were difficult to forget gnawed at both women. The disappearance of Lainey's mother and Bonny's love for Lainey's brother, Owen, who was the love of her life, but a love she could never get to stay were memories difficult to get over.

The book’s setting was perfect, and the descriptions of the house, the town, the beach, and the ocean put you there with the characters sharing their days and their feelings both good and bad.

THE BOOK SHOP AT WATER'S END was a warm, inviting read bringing women together for what we do best - support each other.

This was my first book by Ms. Henry, and it was a delightful, summer treat.

ENJOY!! 5/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.

I love books about books or bookshops and was expecting a bit more than I got in this story.

This book evolves around two grown women (both mothers, both married but only one of them happy) who became friends at the age of 8 on a summer vacation at Watersend. Bonny's parents purchased a summer cottage and invited some friends to come spend the summer with them. Her parents' friends arrived with a daughter her age, Lainey, and an older son, Owen. The children were inseparable and barely survived each school year until they could meet again and rekindle their friendship. Lainey and Owen's mother liked her alcohol and pills and their father was tiring of her lifestyle. In the heat of an argument, their father shouts to their mother that they would all be better off she if she were gone from their life. The next morning found him being granted his wish. That was the end of their summers at Watersend and the end of their summers spent together.

Fast forward 20+ years and Bonny finds herself in a marriage that brings her no fulfillment or comfort. With both of her parents recently deceased she is in charge of divesting all of their properties. She has sold all but one -- the cottage at Watersend.

Needing a break from her marriage, her ER medical career which has suddenly gone wrong, Bonny calls Lainey and asks her to join her. The cottage holds both good and tormented memories for them both but neither know if they have the strength to do what's needed to put the past behind them.

The characters in this story were well defined, and for the most part likable, but I just never got that "wow" moment. How I thought it was going to play out at the beginning was much the way it ended so no surprises there. It was well written and gave a great descriptive feel of life in a small beach town and the barefoot feel of sand between your toes but I just needed more.