Review - - Treasure Coast Homecoming

Treasure Coast Homecoming

by Leigh Duncan

Emerald Bay - Book 1

Publisher: Gardenia Street Publishing

Release Date: June 22, 2023

Reviewed by PJ

She has one final wish before she puts a For Sale sign in front of the only home she’s ever known, but can her family make her dream come true?

Margaret Dane Clayton has spent her entire life at the Dane Crown Inn, the beautiful resort located in the quiet beachside town of Emerald Bay. But the inn once hailed as the “gem of Florida’s Treasure Coast” is showing its age, much like its fiercely independent owner. Margaret swears she’ll keep the doors of the inn open forever … until an accident forces her to accept the fact that she can no longer cater to guests on her own. After reaching the most difficult decision of her life, Margaret asks her daughter and nieces to grant her one final wish before she places the property on the market. But will these five women put their busy lives on hold to grant it?

One by one, each of the cousins arrives in Emerald Bay with armloads of excuses and far too much baggage. But when the town’s grumpy—yet oh, so handsome—mayor threatens to close the inn for good, the women agree to give the resort the overhaul it desperately needs. Working with a bank account that’s far too small and facing one crisis after another, Margaret’s daughter and her nieces race to fulfill her final wish. Only one question remains: Can this fractured family set aside their differences long enough to restore the inn … and rebuild the closeness they once treasured?

The Emerald Bay Series

After a lifetime of running the finest inn in Emerald Bay, Margaret Clayton has to make a decision … sell the Dane Crown Inn to a stranger or put her hopes for the future in her family’s hands. For most people, the choice would be simple. But nothing about her family is simple … especially not with her daughter and four nieces whose help Margaret needs now more than ever.

The five cousins know the inn as well as Margaret does. As young girls and teenagers, they spent every summer keeping the cottages and suites spotless, and enjoying the gorgeous beach as a tight knit family. Thirty years later, though, these five women have complicated, important, distant, and utterly packed lives. The last thing any of them can do is drop everything and save the inn. But, when it comes to family, the last thing is sometimes the only thing.

As the once-close cousins come together on the glorious shores of Florida’s Treasure Coast, they learn that some things never change, but others can never be the same. And the only thing that matters is family which, like the Dane Crown Inn, is forever.

PJ's Thoughts:

Treasure Coast Homecoming launches Leigh Duncan's newest women's fiction series: Emerald Bay. After devouring the books in Duncan's Sugar Sand Beach series, I'm ready to meet a new cast of characters and lose myself in another series of heart-tugging beachside stories.

This first book introduces the main characters and sets up the plotline for the series of books. Each character is given face-time with the reader, giving us the opportunity to learn a bit about them, their role in the extended family, where they are in their lives, and what personal challenges they're facing. By the end of the book, I was already invested in each of them and eager to discover where the upcoming journey will take them.

Duncan excels at creating complex family (or family of the heart) units, bringing them together, and taking them on a journey of growth (both individually and as a group) that filled with humor, emotional depth, and plenty of heart. She's equally adept at creating a sense of place, as she has done with Emerald Bay and, specifically, the Dane Crown Inn. I'm excited to watch the evolution of the Inn alongside that of the family. 

Books two and three of this series, Treasure Coast Promise and Treasure Coast Christmas, will be published in August and October respectively. I've already marked my calendar.