Annie Marlow has been through the worst. Rocked by tragedy, she heads to the one place that makes her happy: Oceanside in the Pacific Northwest, the destination of many family vacations when Annie was a teenager. Once there, Annie begins to restore her broken spirit, thanks in part to the folks she meets. [from front flap]

Debbie Macomber’s Cottage by the Sea drew me in at my first glance of the title. Most of my life I’ve dreamed of living in such a place. And it invited me into the tender story of Annie Marlow who is trying to reorient her life in this small town with happy memories after a terrible tragedy.

We are with Annie when she learns a horrific incident has struck her family. The telling is frustratingly slow, but that may be completely realistic. Having not experienced such a thing, I can’t say. But I did want to tell the speaker to spit it out. The devastation to Annie is clear and compelling.

The cast were all interesting characters, some with enjoyable, unusual quirks. And their interactions, for the most part, helped Annie take steps toward healing. Some of Macomber’s descriptions are delightful and bring the story alive:

~ Disapproval dripped from her words like melting wax.

~ “What do you want?” he demanded in a voice that rattled from years of tobacco use.

But a few issues slowed the story’s unfurling. In some spots character motivation either wasn’t clear or seemed contrived. Another issue for me was the author often repeated things in the first quarter of the book, explained something from a character’s past in an awkward way/time, and told us things that we’d just read the character doing.

I wanted to love this book. And there were many things I did like, but enough of the other to make reading at times trudging, not sailing, and prevent me from giving it 5 stars. I’m not sorry I read it, and the story is memorable. I just wish reading it had been smoother.