‘A Walk Along the Beach’ by Debbie Macomber made me cry. The story is so beautifully written, you feel like you are right there with the family, crying with them during their struggles and cheering them on in their triumphs.
Sisters, Willa and Harper, and their brother, Sean, bond together through their father’s personal destruction to heartache, pain, and alcohol after the death of his true love, their mother. With Willa taken the lead role as parent, they support each other through difficult times, including Harper’s childhood cancer diagnosis. Finally, all of them manage to graduate from college and begin their own promising careers.
Willa has opened a coffee shop in the little coastal town in Washington state where they grew up. Although, it is a heavy workload to keep the shop going, it is a gratifying struggle that she enjoys. Harper encourages Willa to strike up a conversation with one of her regular customers that has caught her eye, and soon a relationship blossoms. Sean has recently become engaged; and Harper is in training to make a long mountain hike with a group of her friends. But as we know when things appear to be going well something unexpected comes along to stop you in your tracks.
When Harper is given the news that her childhood cancer has returned, it seems everything in their lives comes to a stand-still. Relationships are tested as their father returns home and Willa, with a shop to run and a sister to care for, feels she has no time for romance. ‘A Walk Along the Beach’ does an amazing job of bringing you into the lives of the entire family. Make sure you have a box of tissues close by. You will need them!
