Julie (jjmachshev)'s Reviews > Sunset Bay

Reviewed for queuemyreview.com; book release March 2009

What does a woman do when the emotional ‘props’ in her life disappear—one by one? Susan Mallery is one of my favorite authors and her books always linger in my mind after I’ve finished reading them. It seems there’s always something about her female heroines that I can identify with and wonder, “What would I do if I were her?”. “Sunset Bay” is Mallery’s latest novel which will be released in March 2009. It didn’t take long for this story to grab my attention and my heartstrings.

Megan’s life is pretty darn good. Not perfect, but darn good. And she’s worked her butt off to make it so. She’s a successful accountant, with a supportive father and a doctor for a fiancé. Jealous yet? Well, don’t be because her happy life is about to fall apart right before her eyes. Her father…isn’t; when he finds out, he doesn’t take it well. Her fiancé? A cheater and she finds out right before the wedding. Her job? A new barracuda of an intern is sabotaging hers. To top it all off, her old boyfriend Travis is back in town. You know, the one who’s all wrong for her? The one her father drove away? The one she can’t seem to stay away from?

When I re-read what I just wrote I realized that my description made this book sound ‘heavy’. And I guess maybe it was, a bit. But somehow Mallery kept me reading without having to burst into tears (okay, a few sniffles, but that’s all I’ll admit to) when Megan’s life went down the toilet. Even though I normally write a quick synopsis of the hero’s side, this time I didn’t because this story is much more all about Megan and how she reacts and thinks and feels about everything going on in her life. It’s still definitely a romance, don’t worry, and a darn sexy one to boot; but there’s more depth and soul-searching on Megan’s part or maybe I just identified so much more with her, but Travis came across as almost a secondary character for me. And that didn’t bug me at all.

I mean what woman hasn’t had a boyfriend that cheated? Or faced a time when she might lose, or at least have her name blackened in, her job? Or suffered through a horrible ‘family’ issue? I’m guessing not many. We all have difficult times in our lives and I remember a couple of times as I read this book I was thinking, “Well, my life doesn’t seem so bad in comparison.” I mean, really. Imagine all the above things happening within a space of two weeks or so? How would you deal with it? Hello therapy! But Megan coped almost like one of those pop-up bozos that were popular at one time. You punch ‘em and they go down but then they bounce back up…over and over and over again. Her life changed in almost every way and she managed to find some good (eventually) in each of the changes. How uplifting is that?

Did I like this story? Yes, I surely did. Will I read it again? Yes, but it will be a while. “Sunset Bay” is Susan Mallery’s depiction of a woman who reinvents herself and ‘finds’ herself at the same time. It’s also a story about determination and overcoming adversity…and in the uncertain and troublesome times we’re living in now, I can’t think of a better message for an author to send her readers.