The Bookshop at Water's Edge by Patti Callahan Henry

Piper isn't real enthused about this summer.  She's at the family beach house and has a list of things to do before the rest of the group arrives.  She has to make beds, buy food, and get the house ready in general.  That's not bad but when they all get here, she has to babysit the other woman's children.  Ugh!

Berkley sent me a copy of this book to read for review (thank you).  It will be published tomorrow.

This is the story of two families that were friends and stayed at the house in the summer.  The two daughters became Summer Sisters and developed a very close relationship.  Still all that came to an end when Lainey's mother developed drinking and drug problems.  One day she just disappears.  And Lainey has been looking for her since...

Bonny went on to become a doctor, following her dream.  What she didn't expect was to find Lainey's brother in the emergency room barely alive.  She's treating him,  then goes on to another man and he dies as he's talking to her.  She can't figure out why.  Then she suddenly realizes she was so shook up about seeing Owen, she didn't check his chart.  She double medicated him.  She's then suspended.

Bonny's life was going south anyway.  Her marriage only works as long as she's what her husband wants his wife to be.  She was applying for another job in another town.  She decides to go back to the summer house with her daughter and asks Lainey to come, too.

Once there, memories from the past resurface and old hurts come alive again.  While Bonny decides what to do with her life, Lainey is still fussing about her missing mother.  They come close to losing one of Lainey's children, but he's found visiting an old lady.  The old lady tells Lainey she knew her mother...

Even at the end of this story, you're not quite sure how it's all going to end.  Just like in life, things keep evolving.  Bonny has a vision of where she wants to be and she's going to make it work.