Sometimes the happiness we’re looking for has been there all along… Adele and Justine have never been close. Born twenty years apart, Justine was already an adult when Addie was born. The sisters love each other but they don’t really know each other. When Addie dropped out of university to care for their ailing parents, Justine, a successful lawyer, covered the expenses. It was the best … expenses. It was the best arrangement at the time but now that their parents are gone, the future has changed dramatically for both women.
Addie had great plans for her life but has been worn down by the pressures of being a caregiver and doesn’t know how to live for herself. And Justine’s success has come at a price. Her marriage is falling apart despite her best efforts.
Neither woman knows how to start life over but both realize they can and must support each other the way only sisters can. Together they find the strength to accept their failures and overcome their challenges. Happiness is within reach, if only they have the courage to fight for it.
Set in the stunning coastal town of Half Moon Bay, California, Robyn Carr’s new novel examines the joys of sisterhood and the importance of embracing change.
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In this stand-alone novel, two sisters find themselves at a crossroads. For years, Addie has taken care of her parents with the guilty blessing of her much older sister, Justine. Now that their parents have passed, Addie’s new life is harder than she thought it would be. Years of caretaking have kept her out of the workforce, her graduate degree unfinished. Justine, meanwhile, comes face to face with her husband’s infidelity. She moves her two daughters back to Half Moon Bay, a beautiful coastal town in California. As with all her books, Robyn Carr makes the town come alive. Each sister is different and vibrant—and decent. It was so refreshing to read a book about good-hearted people making their way in a new reality. Uplifting and fresh, the kind of book that leaves you with a warm feeling in your heart.
I really loved this sister story. Finding who you are after a big change of life takes being honest with others and yourself. I really related to the older sister who had a plan for her life that was blown up by her husband. I liked how finding love was a smaller subplot than finding yourself for both of the women.
Sunrise on Half Moon Bay by author Robyn Carr is a wonderful story about two sisters who face unexpected transitions in their lives. Justine is twenty years older than Adele and has a fast-paced career and a busy family. Adele is at a crossroads after leaving college to help care for her parents for eight years. Since the death of her mother, Adele has been unable to reconnect with life outside of daily caregiving and feels at a loss in her plans for the future. Adele’s best friend, Jake, tries to encourage her to learn to live her life again. One evening when he takes her out for pizza, Adele is shocked to see Justine’s husband kissing another woman. Adele meets with Justine and tells her that Scott was with another woman. This begins a season for change for both of the sister’s lives. The story proves that life can change in an instant and it will be our choices and decisions which will make a difference in how the story ends.
I enjoyed reading Sunrise on Half Moon Bay very much. I was a caregiver to my mom for six years and once it was over, I did the same as Adele. I felt as if I had lost a part of myself, but I was glad I had given those years for my mom.
Publication Date: April 14, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This is the perfect beach read to me! I love the sisters and all of the side characters – I feel like I know them already.
SUNRISE ON HALF MOON BAY by Robyn Carr is her new Women’s fiction novel set in a small California coastal town featuring two sisters who are about to deal with life changing transitions. This story is full of love, empathy, strength and pain as the two sister’s lives change.
Justine and Adele have led very different lives. They are twenty years apart in age and even though they like each other, they are not close.
Justine is a successful, high-power corporate attorney with a stay at home husband and two daughters. Married since college, Justine has devoted her life and long working hours to making a comfortable life for her family. With her company’s merger, she has to make some decisions about the type of work she wants in the future. And then she finds out her husband of twenty-eight years has been having an affair.
Adele returned home from college to be the caregiver for her ailing parents. After eight years as a caregiver, she has few friends and is stuck in a rut. Then Justine comes to tell Adele, finances are tight and she needs to get a job, Adele feels betrayed.
Each woman must find ways to start over and they both discover they need each other more than ever. Together they fight to overcome their failures and learn to fight for their new happiness.
I enjoyed this book so much and found it difficult to put down. Justine and Adele were so different and yet they were there for each other. Justine’s feelings of pain and heartbreak were written with such empathy by this author. How she was afraid to cry because she thought she would crack and not be able to keep all her responsibilities together ripped at my heart. I was cheering for Adele as she took the steps to change her personal life, but I was completely frustrated when she kept refusing to move on emotionally.
I was engrossed in all the emotions, good and bad that this story made me feel. All the secondary characters were fully fleshed and were essential players in this story. There is one mild sex scene that is not gratuitous. (Please Be Advised: this story contains adultery, domestic abuse and a stillborn birth.)
I highly recommend this emotional and ultimately uplifting story.
Love all of Robin Carr’s books. Easy, satisfying reading.
I’m familiar with Half Moon Bay, CA, and it is a fun, unique community with beauty abounding. I felt the story depicted what the town wishes to convey — homey and friendly. The book was joy to read and the characters were wonderful. I enjoyed it.
Robyn Carr never disappoints.
Easy quick read- kinda chick lit
Easy, satisfying read. Fairly predictable. Enjoyed the characters.
Robyn Carr’s novel, Sunrise On Half Moon Bay is set in a coastal town where two sisters reunite their relationship after each sister goes through hardships that make this story so captivating. I love the descriptive details, the characters evolving around each of the sisters, and the emotions attached to each sister’s lives.
Justine, the older sister by twenty years, learns of her husband’s affair after thirty years. Scott, her husband was a weakling and the circumstances of his affair shows the male’s side of domestic violence and how he deals with this. Justine shows how a woman copes with this betrayal and deals with this especially for her two daughters.
Added, the youngest sister, has put her life on hold to take care of her parents for the last eight years. After their deaths, she has to reinvent her life with no job, no will power to decide for herself and no romantic prospects. This story shows how she copes with getting a new prospective on her life.
The two sisters work towards a new goal together. I’m A fan of Robyn Carr’s writings and Sunrise On Half Moon Bay is an exceptional read!
Robyn Carr is an exceptional author.
Always a good story from this author with the appropriate amount of romance!
Thank you to NetGalley and Robyn Carr for the ARC of Sunrise on Half Moon Bay.
Adele and Justin are two sister several years apart in age. Justine is a prominent lawyer married with two daughters. Adele drops out of college to take care of her aging parents. With the help from Justine Adele can take care for her parents without worrying about money.
When their parents pass away, and Justine’s marriage falls apart they both find themselves unsure of the direction their lives will turn.
It is a story of becoming close as sisters again and learning what they want in life.
I was taken in from page on by the Robyn Carr gave us. I am a true fan of her books and enjoy them all.
I enjoyed reading this book.
I love this book. Couldn’t put it down!
I really liked this book. It reminds me that friends and family often have things happening in their lives we know nothing about. It reminds me of how important they can be to us and for us. It encourages me to fight for the happiness the is within reach.
I listened to the audio version of this book. Robyn Carr’s story telling is just at a level that surpasses that of most of the authors out there. You know from the first sentence that you are going to be taken on a magical journey during the length of the book.
This is a Women’s Literature novel that delves into so many different type of relationships, but the most prominent theme is the journey that the two sisters, Justine and Adele, take to find themselves and what matters to them.
This is just a wonderful audio book and Therese Plummer’s narration is the cherry on top.
Two sisters, 20 years apart in age, friendly but not really friends due to the age difference. One cheating house husband, two teenage girls. One longtime male friend who wants more and is patiently waiting, one new male friend who is waiting not so patiently.
Addie, now 32, still lived in Half Moon Bay in the home where she grew up. She’d spent the last eight years caring for her ailing parents, dropping out of grad school. Now, after they’re both gone, she’s basicallyl become a shut-in with no job, no self esteem, and no boyfriend. Her older sister, Justine, lives nearby with her husband and two teenage daughters. Justine learns her husband of thirty years has been having an affair and their marriage is over. She’s been the breadwinner, he’s taken care of the girls but not much else, and now blames Justine for everything that he didn’t do with his life.
Justine’s divorce spurs Addie to get a job, to lose weight, to go back to school, to get a boyfriend — basically to have a life! They work out getting along as sisters and friends, overcoming the gaps in their ages and their outlooks on life in general, developing new relationships and friendships to improve their lives, together and apart.
This is different from most of the author’s books. I really loved her Virgin River series, and the others about Sullivan’s Cove.Not so sure about this one, but it is a good, quick read.
Adele and Justine are sisters that were born 20 years apart, I think that is why I felt a disconnect between them. Adele has spent many years putting others before herself and putting her plans on hold. She didn’t mind doing it, but lost herself in the process and doesn’t know how to get her life on track now that she can. Justine is going through a life change, not of her own choosing, and must figure out what she wants out of the next phase of her life. In both of these parallel stories the characters have to find their own way with the support of their family and friends. I liked the direction that the story took, with both women realizing their own strength and their ability to make good decisions. Overall I thought it was a good story.