Review: It Comes In Waves by Erika Marks

It Comes in Waves by Erika Marks

Published: July 1, 2014

Publisher: NAL Trade

Format: via publisher

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

For competitive surfer Claire "Pepper" Patton, the waves of South Carolina’s Folly Beach once held the promise of a loving future and a bright career—until her fiancé, Foster, broke the news that he and Claire's best friend, Jill, were in love.

Eighteen years later, now forty-two and a struggling single parent to a rebellious teenage daughter, Claire has put miles between that betrayal and that coast. But when ESPN invites her back to Folly Beach for a documentary on women in surfing, Claire decides it might be the chance she needs to regain control of her life and reacquaint herself with the unsinkable young woman she once was.

But not everything in Folly Beach is as Claire remembers it, most especially her ex-best friend, Jill, who is now widowed and raising her and Foster’s teenage son. An unexpected reunion with Claire will uncover a guilt that Jill has worked hard to bury—and bring to the surface years of unspoken blame.

When Claire crosses paths with a sexy pro-surfer who is as determined to get Claire back on a board as he is to get her in his bed, a chance for healing might not be far behind—or is it too late for two estranged friends to find forgiveness in the place that was once their coastal paradise, where life was spent barefoot and love was as dizzying as the perfect wave.

My Thoughts

Hands down one of the best summer reads out there this year! It has surf, sand, and the beach but most importantly it focuses on forgiveness. This is the story of Claire and how a documentary about her surfing past takes her back to where she spent her best years at Folly Beach. We learn of her greatest love Foster and how he broke her heart so much she never surfed again.

What I loved most of all was the telling of her past, how she came to know Foster, Jill and Shep. Also how she came to Folly Beach in the first place and her relationship with her parents. Claire was a natural at surfing and that’s what brought her and Foster closer together. They spend summers surfing the days away and fell completely in love. Claire envisioned they would always be together until Jill her good friend and roommate ended up in love and pregnant with Foster’s baby. She left Folly Beach never to return again and eventually never surfing again in the process. She was crushed and her love for everything just fell to the wayside.

While this is a book about surfing and the beach it isn’t the main focus here. It’s all about forgiving. Sometimes it isn’t enough to try to forget things; they will always come boiling back to the surface in time. We have to try to forgive not necessarily for the benefit of others but for ourselves. It’s not a good thing to harbor bad feelings it only hurts us in the end. I loved how once Claire deals with and releases the past everything in her present life seemed to fall into place. Sometimes it’s good to revisit the past in order to make our present come alive. This is one read I highly recommend.