The Beach Quilt

Yorktide, Maine #3

by Holly Chamberlin

Set in a picturesque Maine beach town, bestselling author Holly Chamberlin's heartwarming and insightful novel delves into the choices and changes faced by two families over the course of one eventful summer. . .Everyone in Yorktide, Maine, knows sixteen-year-old Sarah Bauer. She's a good student and a dutiful daughter, as well as a beloved best friend to Cordelia Kane. So it's a surprise to all when sensible Sarah reveals that she is pregnant. Though shocked, Sarah's family is supportive. But while Sarah reconciles herself to a new and different future, the consequences ripple in all directions. Her father--a proud, old-time Mainer--tries to find more work to defray expenses. Her younger sister grapples with a secret she can't share. Cordelia feels abandoned, and Cordelia's mother faces the repercussions of a long-ago decision. As Sarah's mother, Cindy, frets about how she'll juggle childcare with her job at the local quilting store, she seizes on an to band together and make a baby quilt. Piece by piece, a beautiful design emerges. And as it progresses, reflecting the hopes and cares of the women who create it, each will find strength in the friendship and love that sustains them, in hardship and in joy. . .Praise for the novels of Holly Chamberlin"A thoughtful social commentary and tender narration of friendship and loyalty." --Publishers Weekly on Last Summer"Nostalgia over real-life friendships lost and regained pulls readers into the story." --USA Today on Summer Friends

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Ebooks, Summer Reads, Womens Fiction, Family

417 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 24, 2014

About the author

Holly Chamberlin is a native New Yorker, but she now lives in Portland, Maine - the aftermath of stumbling across Mr. Right at the one moment she wasn't watching the terrain. She's been writing and editing - poetry, children's fantasies, a romance novel or two, among many other genres and projects - her entire life. She has two cats, Betty and Cyrus, and when she's not writing her hobbies include reading, shopping, and cocktails at six.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do not waste your time on this one! The story is so drawn out and filled with such stupid, inane details that add nothing to the story. I didn't like the authors style of writing, very juvenile. Just don't! Mad at myself for continuing to read it when I never liked it from the start!

[Janet | purrfectpages · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to write negative reviews, especially when it's on a giveaway book, but I simply did not enjoy The Beach Quilt. On the plus side, it was a quick, easy read. However, while it was easy to digest, it lacked depth and purpose.

The Beach Quilt tells the story of sixteen year old Sarah who unexpectedly becomes (but who at sixteen EXPECTS?) pregnant by her older, deadbeat boyfriend. No one, including Sarah, saw it coming since Sarah is a smart, level-headed girl who follows the rules. If anything, her flighty best friend Cordelia is more likely to make a crazy, life-altering decision. What unfolds is the journey Sarah goes on in making the hard decision to keep the baby and be a single, teenage mom.

For such a potentially weighty subject matter, The Beach Quilt was oddly... weightless. Although a long novel, nothing ever really HAPPENED (other than the main character getting pregnant, that is). What made the matter more confusing was that there was potential for conflict given the abundance of characters. For example, we hear how best friends Sarah and Cordelia are complete opposites, but no back story really lends itself to why they get along so well or why they remain such close friends. Then there's the attempt at conflicts injected midway through the story in the revelation that Cordelia's mom gave a child up for adoption years ago, or the foreshadowing of a forgotten child syndrome that could be a problem with Sarah's sexually confused younger sister. But instead of being story lines that are mined, instead they remain as planted seeds, never cultivated.

As I was reading The Beach Quilt I kept shaking my head in the missed opportunities, convinced it was going to be a two star rating pretty early on. However, the attempt at a plot twist in the last hundred pages or so really left things on a sour note for me and just went downhill from there. I'll spare the details here, but I also wouldn't spare your time in reading this novel.

[Jamie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept reading this book even though I never really felt connected to the people in it. I should have given up and moved on. The ending was terrible and completely out of the blue.

[Connie Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to read this and hoped it would be heart wrenching and heartwarming all at the same time. The potential for both was there but I didn't feel it. The story centers around a teenage pregnancy and what this does to the relationships of the four main characters....Sarah, her best friend Cordelia and their Mother's Cindy and Adelaide. Mother/daughter dynamics....female issues...yeah!

I thought this started out strong.....having all 4 narrate the progress of the story in quick chapters. But it only got weaker and weaker for me. I felt the characters were left flat, almost one dimensional and opportunity to dig a bit deeper was not taken. I also felt that there was a lot of repetitive dialogue among the characters....surface stuff.

Chamberlin dropped in the topics of adoption and sexuality as side stories, but then just sort of left them there.....hanging when they could have been covered much more. It was like she wanted to cram more than one dilemma into this story but never went anywhere with them. I also felt she tried to give the reader all the drama they were waiting for in the last few chapters, which didn't work for me at all....too rushed.

That said, after a couple very intense reads, this is just what I needed. A quick, sort of mindless read to pass a lazy, too hot to be outdoors kind of Saturday.

[Joni Owens · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite possibly the absolutely worst book I’ve ever read in the 35+ years I’ve been reading. The author comes across as judgmental and frigid. All while condoning ppl for judging. Then the plot holes and unfinished storylines were unforgivable. I hate read this to completion bc I never dnf.

I can’t warn you off this book enough. Such a waste of time when it had such great potential.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any book about the beach and quilting intrigues me. This book is more than a simple beach read. The complex struggle of teen pregnancy, adoption and family secrets are woven together as these women create a special quilt and bond together. The story occurs in a beach town in Maine in the Busy Bee quilt shop. "A quilt is a treasure that follows its owner everywhere. " 3.5 stars

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the quilting thread that tied so much together in this book. The characters were authentic and grew with the story. The jagged twist near the book's end unsettled me at first but then flowed as the other plots were satisfactorily stitched together.

[Lisa M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the story drawn out. Too much time spent on details that were not integral to the story. I didn't hate it, just was disappointed.

I received this book as an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Merged review:

I found the story drawn out. Too much time spent on details that were not integral to the story. I didn't hate it, just was disappointed.

I received this book as an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to have to agree with the other reviewers on this one. I love some of Chamberlin's novels (like "Seashell Season"), but others just seem to be hit or miss. This book had so much potential, but it just fell flat, as there was too much time spent on silly and minute details. I wanted it to go so much deeper into the characters thoughts and struggles than it did.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to get started on. It did show how one little mistake affects so many and in different ways. Each chapter was only a few pages and didn't let you get deep into the story. Struggled to finish.

[Brenda Wall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this may be one of the worst books I've ever read. The content, development and writing appeared amateurish. Some chapters - less than 2 pages - were completely pointless. They added no value to the story whatsoever, just length. I am surprised that this book got to this final point past editing and publishing . There was too much emphasis on the annoying characters of Adelaide and Cordelia, with no real depth. What could have been a touching, family and community story, fell completely flat.

[Kati · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this as a goodreads.com First Reads giveaway. I came at this book having been one of those smart-but-stupid teen moms (though I found out I was 3 weeks pregnant just 2 days before my 18th birthday, so a year+ older than the character Sarah) and having suffered some hemorrhaging in childbirth myself. Was, like Sarah, a good student who made a rather stupid choice. I found this book to be preachy (though not necessarily of the Christian sort of preaching), contrived, over-thought....

It started with a total info-dump in the first 5 chapters, giving us each of the main characters in a chapter, each chapter from their point of view, and much too much more info in those chapters than was necessary. We learn about the strained relations between extended family members when such info could've been dropped much more casually further on in the book, and in most cases those minor-characters (relatives of the main characters) didn't come into play at all. We didn't need to know all about Cordelia's auntie who owns a rustic cabin on the shores of Lake Michigan. She wasn't mentioned more than twice more in the rest of the book. That kind of info-dump was the whole set-up of those first 5 chapters and it was unnecessary.

The teen characters, Sarah and Cordelia are often much more thorough about their thoughts and feelings on certain issues and concepts than any teenager I've ever seen, or been. Again, having come at this book as a past teen mom, I see Sarah thinking through her pregnancy as even more "mature" than most 20-somethings would. It didn't ring true, it felt forced and overthought. It felt as though the author was contemplating all this and putting her thoughts in Sarah's or Cordelia's mind. If it had been a woman of Adelaide' or Cindy's age, those thoughts would've made more sense, but the depth and solid consideration of the experiences, problems, complications, frustrations, etc.... coming from these teen minds just felt fake. Sarah is portrayed as being very smart, but the way she thinks about things is mature on a level that most 30-year olds I know don't consider things. She became a very unbelievable character. Cordelia was unbelievable from another perspective. She was portrayed as being shallow and self-absorbed. I found her frequently very unlikable. But just about the time the author would have her being incredibly shallow and immature (even freaking out about a dentist appointment or any other doctor's appointment, to a degree that most people stop being terrified after about 10 or 12), Cordelia would spout something too well-thought out and contrived to be coming out her mouth even as a 40-year old. Stevie was the only teen who's thought-process felt reasonably real, though once or twice she also felt over-done.

Cindy's secret-keeping from her hubby was not resolved in any way, and I felt like it should've been resolved in some manner, either with her hubby finding out by accident and being upset, or being sad that she didn't confide sooner after she finally does. She never does confide, and given the supposed strength of their relationship, this feels false.

Adelaide is about the most likable of the character, though she gets rather preachy at times and is also sometimes very wishy-washy in her opinions and thoughts on Sarah's pregnancy and other incidences in the story. I felt that there was a situation involving Adelaide's parents that should've been resolved.

I also really liked Stevie. I think she's the character that I came to care about the most. She felt the most real, the most well-rounded. The cat, Clarissa, was a bit of a device that didn't seem to really go anywhere.

One thing I felt was positively ridiculous was that the author gave 4 of the 7 or 8 guys mentioned in the book names beginning with J. We had Cindy's hubby Joe, Adelaide's hubby Jack, Sarah's boyfriend -father-of-her-child- Justin, and Cordelia's crush John. Makes one wonder if the author knows that there are a million other names out there that can be chosen, some very "all-american, blue collar" names, and they don't all start w/ "J."

The BEST part of this book was how quickly it went. Each chapter was no more than 5 pages long, which means that for all the contrived nature of this story, it did flow quickly.

Finally, I found the events at the climax and following to be contrived as well. Suddenly there's a character who's not needed any more, kill them off. And in a way that had been made much of throughout the story, so yeah.... let's go with that mechanism of death. So many other ways that this character could've been killed off, that the author had to pick the one that had at least 2 of the characters scared through half the book just felt gimmicky.

[AJourneyWithoutMap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, intricate and yet heartwarming, The Beach Quilt by bestselling author Holly Chamberlin is set in the picturesque coastal town of Maine, and follows the story of sixteen-year-old Sarah Bauer, and how her actions will decisively change the course of her life and that of her family and those closest to her forever. The Beach Quilt is about friendship, family dynamics, home, choices and secrets. It is also about how one’s action and decision touches an entire family, and what it means to stand as one in the face of debilitating circumstances.

Dutiful, obedient and loving almost to a fault, Sarah Bauer is adored by almost everyone. When she gets close to nineteen years old Justin, who is quite the opposite of Sarah, the unlikely friendship surprised many. When she reveals that she is pregnant, a situation no one dreamed possible, its import is felt by everyone close to her – her thirteen years old sister Stevie, her mother Cindy, her father Joe, her best friend Cordelia, Cordelia’s mother Adelaide and Adelaide’s husband Jack. They all reacted in their own different ways, each according to their relationship with Sarah.

Putting their differences and initial shock behind them, they all join hands in making a baby quilt which helped them to overcome their own to find the courage and move forward as they await the birth of Sarah’s baby. The Beach Quilt by Holly Chamberlin is refreshingly different and the story is truly original in concept and characterization. This tender, heartwarming and passionate novel will touch your heart like no other story.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library and read it on my Kindle.

I debated finishing this book. The story showed promise, but became really bogged down in the middle. As someone else said, it reminded me of a YA book and I've read better in that genre. Something about the characters' personalities and how they spoke, thought, etc, did not ring true. The maturity levels did not match their ages. I disliked Cordelia and had no sympathy or patience for her.

Too many disparate stories were crammed into the book, even though it dragged. I was beginning to think there would have to be a sequel, that the author couldn't possibly wrap it, especially after the twist very close to the end. I would have preferred to see those storylines fleshed out more than some of the minutia that was in the middle of the book. Even the twist was strongly foreshadowed.

There were the obligatory social messages. Not needed for this book. I would not have read this if I'd known how I would struggle to finish it.

[Penny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book and hate to give it a negative review. I was happy and looking forward to reading it. I wanted to read a new author to me and the book sounded like something one of my favorite authors, Kristin Hannah would write. Not so the case.......although, the book had potential to be a great read, teen pregnancy, a gay child coming out, the death of a daughter, and an adopted child finding his birth mother, the author failed to bring any depth to the story. I found the characters very boring and the ending just didn't fit........almost like the author just thought of a way to bring the story to an end. This book seemed like it was written by a new author not a Best Selling Author. I was very disappointed.

[Polly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst written book ever

Worst written book ever

I don't know who edited this book, or even decided it should be published but they should be fired! this was the most disjointed book I have ever read. the information about teen pregnancy, death of the woman and all the bad things that happen to children of teens was presented like a textbook! don't waste your time!

[Kate McDougall Sackler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Flat, uninteresting characters and a plot that had potential if handled differently. Then a twist--WTF. Almost as an afterthought, the book ends where it should have begun.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

What did I think? Boring and a waste of time! Oh, well. Every now and then you run across one of these books which only makes you appreciate the good ones!

[Teena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another fluffy holiday read. This book tries too hard to address too many family issues and does not succeed with any of them.

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am clearly in the minority, but I really loved this book. It had short chapters and multiple perspectives so the writing style was exactly what I love. I also really liked both of the main characters and was very surprised by the ending.
This book is about two girls in high school, Sarah and Cordelia, and their friendship. Their moms also work together in a quilt shop, so the families are very close. Sarah is an outdoorsy girl and Cordelia is a girly girl. They have very little in common aside from a lifelong friendship and somehow it works. Both are good girls. However, Sarah gets pregnant by her hunky college boyfriend and shocks everyone. He offers to marry her, but clearly out of obligation. She says no and they break up and he moves away. The book goes on and just follows their life throughout the pregnancy. Sarah decides to keep the baby and both families deal with what the repercussions my be (Financial strain, change in the friendship, etc.). Near the end, Sarah goes into labor and everyone is so excited. However, she dies during childbirth! Whoa! I did not see it coming. The first 80% of the book was pretty fluffy and cute and then that was just a shockingly dark turn. I sat there reading with my 2 week old daughter asleep next to me and I just had to pick her up and hold her. Life is so precious and I cannot imagine anything happening to my child or to me that would rob me of experiencing the awesomeness of birth and getting to know my child.
Maybe its because I just went through pregnancy and childbirth, but I could totally relate to all the thoughts and excitement that come with bringing a new life into the world. It is so tragic that Sarah is gone and I think this will stay with me for awhile.
I would recommend it and I am going to pick up another Holly Chamberlin book soon!

[Gwendolyn Broadmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beach Quilt, a novel, by Holly Chamberlin, unfolds in picturesque Yorktide, a small Maine beach town, where the inhabitants make it an essential point of interest to know everyone else's personal business. Sixteen-year-old Sarah Bauer is a good girl: an outstanding student with dreams of university, loyal best friend to Cordelia Kane, a caring sister, and a respectful daughter. If anything, she's a bit too sensible; therefore, all and sundry are doubly shocked when young Sarah becomes pregnant. While her parents remain lovingly supportive, the shock-waves ripple outward and few in the community remain unscathed. Sarah's father, a proud Mainer (already over-burdened) seeks more work to prepare for the onerous expenses ahead. Sarah's younger sister harbours a secret which, now, she feels unable to share. Sweet flighty Cordelia (normally indulged by all) feels abandoned. Cordelia's mother is plunged into obsession over a painful secret in her past, and Sarah's own mother, Cindy, loses sleep worrying of how she'll manage extra hours, at her friend's local quilting store, while juggling upcoming childcare needs. Can the friends and family put aside their fears and angst while stitching hopes, dreams, and love into a quilt for the upcoming baby? I recommend spending some of your precious time with The Beach Quilt, it reminds us, once again, of the timeless value of savouring the moment. Gwendolyn Broadmore, author, Life Came to a Standstill.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't overly impressed with this book. Although it was a quick read with short chapters, I felt the writing style was lacking something. It seemed to touch on a number of issues, but just skimmed the surface of most of them. I wouldn't have minded the length of the book (nearly 400 pages), if it had more depth to it. So much of it seemed to be useless information that didn't really help the story along. At other times, the author skims over things that I wanted more clarity on.... like the birth of Henry....did Sarah get to hold him or at least see him? Was her mother with her? In a couple of spots, it felt like reading a pamphlet on teen pregnancy rather than a novel. The information just wasn't presented in a natural flow to the story line. The twist near the end really didn't come as any great surprise, and the final chapter had me repeating the words Cordelia spoke on the first page of the first chapter, "Poo poo, and poo." Because of all the unanswered questions, the ending left a great opening for a sequel, but I'm not buying it...neither figuratively or literally.
On the bright side, having visited Maine a couple of times, (specifically the Portland/Brunswick area and also Bar Harbor), I loved the location and have even eaten at the DeMille restaurant mentioned, which it's always fun to come across places you've been, in a book.

[Angela Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Out of touch, and inaccurate. Chapter 52 defines women and men’s traumas. States women are now in the armed force but “they’re not allowed into COMBAT”. Women have been in combat roles since 1989! Book supposedly published in 2014 but likely sat in a slush pile for decades with only a few alterations to make it more current. Sarah texts and calls her ex, but as of yet chapter 53 hasn’t text her best friend? 16 yr old BFF’s that don’t constantly text? Also most parents would be very concerned re a 16 yr old dating a 19 yr old loser, and not act so nonchalantly. Lacked any depth or real empathy for any characters. Was choppy and full of boring filler. Is her third book I have read in the past month and I am not enjoying any of her books. I understand now why all her books were readily available on my local library online service when I went looking for something to read. I doubt I will read the remaining 2 books I have of hers in my queue. I find what I have read of hers all books to be consistently awful. Unrelatable characters, storyline that drags on forever with fillers that are so boring that I skipped through them. Novels that could be completed in a third of the pages. At least in this book the character had a legitimate problem. She was dealing with unlike some of the other characters in the books I’ve read.

[Connie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover and title are very misleading. Not a beach read, that’s for sure, and not a lot about quilting, either.

I did like this description of Maine: “There was a sort of joke about the four seasons in Maine. They were: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.”

Ok, seriously, after reading a bit I thought this might be a young adult book dealing with the very difficult issue of teen pregnancy, but NO, I would not recommend it because (spoiler alert: Gasp! The teen in question dies while giving birth! )Of course, it’s devastating for everyone involved, and wasn’t particularly informative or enjoyable to read about, either.

The writing is kind of poorly executed, rather juvenile in style….e.g. “And here was more proof that her life was no longer her own! What was she doing on a sunny summer afternoon? Not shopping. Not reading a fashion magazine. Not hanging out at the beach. No, she was sitting in her bedroom researching teen pregnancy! Fun! That was sarcasm, because not a bit of it was fun.”

[Muddy Floors · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beach quilt was a novel set in Maine; Chamberlin made me really want to visit the state (which I ended up doing last year after reading the novel). Other than the desire to visit another state, the book didn’t evoke any other emotions. It was an easy read, although a longer novel. The main character seemed likeable and the characters supporting her, seemed ingenuine in conversations. The book didn’t really seem believable in terms of the dynamics of the relationships of the characters.
The ending was a surprise, which I was appreciative of! Not at all, what I was expecting. Once you can get through the point of view being mostly inner dialogues, the story line is ok. Two best friends whose mothers work together. A lot of storylines that could have interwoven a little better. Not a book, that I would pick up a second time, but I enjoyed it.

Want to see more of my book reviews? Visit my blog:
muddyfloors.com

[Jenifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was bad. I am not sure how the author even got it published, so I went today and looked at her bio. She was an editor before she became an author, which is quite sad because the writing is SO BAD. There are over 50 chapters in this book and each one is like 10 pages. The writing is something of a middle-schooler. Short sentences with plain words. The story follows Sarah who is a teenager that gets pregnant, but all the book does is follow Sarah as she says to herself "I'm pregnant, I don't know what to do." It never weaves the characters together, for example putting together Sarah and Adalaide (who was a teenage mother herself and could give valuable information to Sarah). I cannot believe I wasted my time reading this book.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good story overall. I do not think the title is appropriate; while the quilt and the beach itself were important parts in the story, the quilt itself did not seem to me to be important enough to be the title. I also think that Stevie's struggles were only added to the story to make it "appropriate" for today. There were enough other issues dealt with in the story that this just seemed added just for the sake of adding it and appeasing popular culture. Finally, although the ending was sweet and hopeful, it left many questions. Unless the author left it open in the hope of doing a sequel or another story about that part of the story line, I wish at least a few hints of how it played out were included.

[Kristin Cioppa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published June 24,2014

I picked up this book in a little neighborhood book box library and it has taken me all summer to read. It is not a page turner, but of a story of a young girl that everyone knows in a small town in Maine. With proper names and etiquette but has a modern flair of I phones and internets, I thought these worlds strangely clashed.

While Sarah and her friends and family are supportive of her pregnancy and come together to make a quilt, a tragic ending to this tale occurs.

The setting was summer, but I can't say that this was a great summer read. I had to give it only 2 stars

[Linda Meador · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good for a light read, but really wasn't drawn to the characters. Some of the dialog wasn't believable. Didn't feel that some of the conversations between characters would have taken place in real life. Probably won't read another book by Holly Chamberlin. Had read one other book by her and she seems obsessed with gay people. Reading her books you'd think half the population is gay. It's quite ridiculous. She IS a cat person though, so that's one good point. And having visited Maine, I do like the references to the state.

[Alison/Tony King · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very average not very well written story.

I wonder why I bothered to finish reading this book? The story line was okay but the shortness of the chapters meant it is was a disjointed read. I get so tired of the way so many writers use "trick" of having character names which start with the same capital letter which this writer also used to no great effect except to add to the feeling of "where are we going now?" If I had a paper copy I wouldn't pass on. Sorry. Maybe other readers will like this writer but she's not a keeper for me.