I was a little let down by this one, mostly because I went in hoping for some genuinely messy drama and didn’t quite get it. It wasn’t a bad book, just not what I was in the mood for.

Caroline is an editor/wannabe writer living in her best-selling author mother’s shadow. She recently left New York and moved to the small coastal town of Greenhead and falls fast for Van, a laid back, outdoorsy guy who’s lived in the town his whole life and still runs with the same friend group he grew up with. That crew includes his ex girlfriend Bailey who he’s known and dated off and on since they were kids. The whole group spends their time drinking on houseboats, lounging on the beach with their kids, and generally living like there’s nothing else in the world for them aside from living in Greenhead. But everything gets thrown off balance when Bailey announces she’s pregnant with Van’s baby and Van decides that he really wants to be a dad. Caroline gets pushed out of the friend group in the aftermath, and what she chooses to do next, driven by a mix of heartbreak and genuine fury, ends up exposing secrets the group has been sitting on for a long time.

Based on the synopsis, I fully expected Caroline to go completely nuclear on this friend group once they cut her out over the pregnancy drama. I was picturing an explosive, scorched earth “I’m taking all of you a-holes down” scenario. What actually happens is a lot more restrained than that, and honestly, a bit underwhelming compared to what I’d built up in my head. I won’t spoil the specifics, but the big explosive truth ended up landing as more of a shrug than the gut punch I was expecting. The drama throughout stays pretty tame overall, especially given how much potential the setup had for something a lot messier. What can I say, I love mess.

That said, this isn’t a bad book by any means, just not as dramatic or exciting as I was hoping for. Where it really succeeds is in the character work. Every single person in this friend group is well developed, and by the end I felt like I had grown up with them. Also, I really liked Caroline, and felt for her throughout. Honestly, she deserved so much better than Van, who came across as a pretty flat, boring washrag for most of the book. I kept waiting for Caroline to go properly feral on all of them, because at a certain point they all earned that reaction, and I wanted her to embrace her inner beeyotch. Still, I mostly enjoyed it, even though the plot itself feels a little low stakes. It just never quite escalates the way the setup promised it would.

If you’re looking for strong character work and a well drawn small town setting, this delivers. Just temper your expectations on the drama front, because it’s a lot more subdued than the synopsis makes it sound.

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