Spoilers for those who have not read Beach House #1 and Swimming Lessons otherwise known as Beach House #2).

I ultimately felt bored and slightly letdown by the third book in the series. I honestly considered just passing it up since I am not a fan of reading about affairs in romance novels. Between that and how Lovie honestly seemed to ignore her two kids for her "romance" I wasn't feeling the plot at all. And when Monroe showed how and why Lovie ended up staying in her marriage I maybe went bah. 

So "Beach House Memories" has a present day setting with Lovie and her daughter Caretta (Cara) who are at the beach house. Lovie knows she has cancer and her days with her daughter are numbered. From there Monroe has her reliving her memories from 1974 when she had an affair with a biologist who was in South Carolina reporting on the turtle nests there. 

So for me I found Lovie to be a weak character. We are shown as readers that she realizes her husband is cheating on her. Taking her mother in law's advice to ignore it (who does that?) she eventually realizes she is sick of her husband and her living different lives. She is hoping that their annual summer trip to the beach house that was left to her will bring them closer together.

Readers already know that this is a lost cause based on book #1 in the series. So for me I was just beyond bored to read about things. We get to see how Lovie's mother didn't really care to help her. And we see how the long standing family housekeeper was there to support the children and Lovie. And we get to see the man we have heard about for so long, Stratton Rutledge who seems even meaner and less appealing than possible. 

Lovie and her "relationship" with Russell Bennett was boring. I didn't see any chemistry, but read a lot of justification for why she was doing what she was doing. The hypocrisy of the whole thing after she rails at her husband for cheating on her just made me roll my eyes.

Things got worse for me as we get to read about characters we have known and loved who in this younger setting are warning Lovie about the trouble she could be bringing upon herself.

I honestly didn't get why Lovie stayed after an explosive incident. We had heard about things from the other books, but this book was long justification that didn't fit.

Other characters are not developed that well as I said already. We get younger versions of Cara and her brother. And most of the book we don't really get to see Lovie mothering her kids. She gets obsessed with spending time with Russell and that's all she wrote. The house and the beach don't have the same appeal as they did in the first and later books.

The writing was up and down. I thought that Lovie sounded ridiculous at times. This book takes place in 1974 and characters were running around saying how disgusting they found "bra burning" and "women's liberation." Didn't that all happen in the late 1960s through the 1970s? I know that the bra burning incident that most people talk about is the one at the Miss America's Pageant in 1968. For Lovie to act surprised by things that are going on in the U.S. makes me think she had her head in the sand and never read a paper.

The flow was awful. I was happy to get to the end. There were no surprises there though Monroe interjects some magical realism that honestly didn't fit what came before. 

Found myself bored. We knew about Lovie’s affair from the other books. It wasn’t that interesting to read about. And her staying with her abusive husband made me cringe. He beat her and even cracked ribs and I’m just astounded that they stayed in their marriage. We know the father messed with the kids lives from other books, so you realize that she made the wrong decision. Glad I read to complete the series, but definitely didn’t like this one much.

~ Third book completed in May #CleanSweepARC Challenge.~

This will not be the first time I've mentioned how much I love the Lowcountry. It with certainly not be the last; it's one of my favorite southern fictional settings. Monroe's love for the Lowcountry is also evident in most of her stories. This time, she has combined her passion for the beautiful coastal islands and the preservation of loggerhead sea turtles and their hatchlings. Mary Alice tells two stories here really, one of Olivia Rutledge, a woman trying to make a difference in her beloved beach community, who's trying to hold on to her family, love, and memories. Second, and what I found most interesting, a story that revolves around preserving the nests of sea turtles and protecting the defenseless hatchlings from destruction, development, and predators. In the end, Olivia is not much different from the mother sea turtle. Both get their strength from the sea and return year after year to a beach home that's in their blood. As always, Monroe delivers.

**E-galley courtesy of XOXO afterdark.com.

The SC Department of Natural Resources began monitoring sea turtle nesting activities and strandings in the late 1970s. Information gained from this program contributes to ongoing sea turtle nest management and protection projects on all of the state's beaches.

For more info on loggerhead sea turtle study:

http://www.seaturtle.org/nestdb/genetics.shtml