Summer by the Tides is the latest from Denise Hunter. It involves three estranged sisters who come back to their family summer home when their grandmother goes missing. All three have secrets are still harboring resentments from years before. The book mainly focuses on Maddy, who is suffering from a broken heart, and her growing friendship with neighbor Connor. Their romance was very sweet and I loved watching their relationship grow from friends to more. The book is also deals with family secrets and how those secrets can tear a family apart. But it is also about forgiveness and grace. I was rooting for the sisters to find their way back to each other.

This will make a great beach read. I highly recommend this sweet and clean summer romance.

Denise Hunter is an author who writes in a smooth, appealing, easy going style that immediately grabs the reader's attention and keeps it from beginning to end of her tale.

The characters are realistically and so well described that they become your friend as you walk alongside them in their rocky road of life. A seemingly simple romance develops between Connor and Maddy even though challenged by distrust and fears. Both of them have a lot to overcome before they achieve happiness with one another. As in life, the path is not easy, without stumbling blocks.

The problems of betrayal and damaged family relationships are evident throughout the plot. There has to be forgiveness before anyone can once again be happy. There are just enough unexpected twists and turns to keep the reader glued to the page. I let the world pass me by as I experienced this family's challenges and successes.


This is a five star book!! A sweet romance with many deep valleys along the way. Don't miss this tale!!! A great summer beach read!

SUMMER BY THE TIDES is the story of Maddy Monroe who has just discovered her boyfriend is a liar and a cheater and that she has lost the promotion at work to him. Then she gets a phone call saying her grandmother has gone missing. Without thinking, she jumps in the car and returns to her childhood summer house on the beach. Now she has to face her two sisters and the memories of what tore her family apart all those years ago. With the help of her grandmother’s neighbor, Connor, Maddy and her sisters search for their missing grandmother, while getting the house in order, sifting through memories and facing the secrets of the past.



SUMMER BY THE TIDES is filled with family drama, forgiveness, mystery and romance. It is also an emotional rich story, so much so that it is the best novel that I have read by Denise Hunter so far. The missing grandmother, the storm that is rolling in, reliving the past, the sisters who haven’t spoken in twenty years and the secrets that they all have, made it hard to put down. Also, the fact that the setting is the North Carolina coast was an added bonus for me.I



Oh let me tell you, Connor is going to definitely give you all the feels. That’s all I’m saying…….anyway, after some time, things between Connor and Maddie certainly heat up! But it’s also very sweet and I really wanted Maddie to open up to Connor and explain why she is the way she is. She is very guarded and Connor doesn’t think he stands a chance. Hang on people, SUMMER BY THE TIDES is an intense and crazy ride.



SUMMER BY THE TIDES is a quick read that you can easily read in one sitting and love every minute of it. It is one heck of a crazy emotional roller coaster ride. I have never met a Denise Hunter book that I didn’t love and once I started reading I knew I was going on one heck of an emotional journey! Whatever you are reading, put it down, and run and get this book! If you’ve never read a Denise Hunter novel (and you know who you are) this would be a perfect one to hook you!

This book was really a pleasant surprise for me! I had never read anything by Denise, but I am an avid fan now! I was surprised to see that even though this is categorized as women's fiction it fits into the christian fiction genre as well. The family dynamics between the sisters is compelling and really grips you into the story. I enjoyed the romance between Maddie and Conner while also watching Maddie grow so much as a person throughout the novel. It was an easy read that flowed well and also had a lot of depth. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys christian fiction as well as light romances. I listened to this one on audiobook and it was a really entertaining and easy listen as well.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson Publishers for the advanced reader copy through Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was the perfect clean summer beach read. Unfortunately I wasn’t at the beach when I read it, but I still really enjoyed it! I was immediately caught up in the family drama and the blossoming love story and couldn’t wait to see if everything would be resolved by the end of the story. This sweet book had elements of grace, forgiveness and faith and I was encouraged and reminded that God can help repair relationships if we open ourselves to his healing power.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Hunter has done a superb job of displaying some of the more complicated sister and family relationships.
Hunter's writing has a mild Christian aspect to it as always, but it contributes to the story in a mild and supportive manor--not in a manor that would feel intrusive if your beliefs were different. Belief is like a balm to the characters' troubled souls.
So in this book, there are family interrelationships, religion and romance (yeah!). Maddy is one of the three sisters who all wind up back at their grandmother's beach house when she goes missing. Connor lives next door and ruffles Maddy's feathers right off the bat. The gradual move to romance between them was just a delight. He ends up being her support when everything she thinks she knows about her family turns out to be lies. In return, she might be his way out of the darkness he's been living in for the last three years.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

The Monroe family turns out to be a living embodiment of the Anna Karenina principle. You know the one, it’s that quote that goes, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

The Monroe sisters are all unhappy, and all of their unhappy leads back, in one way or another, to one summer 20 years ago when their lives were torn apart by betrayal. Actually, that should be betrayals, plural, because there were plenty to go around – including one that the sisters never knew about.

Secrets cast long shadows, and they hide lots and lots of baggage. Although, as one of the characters puts it very well, adult humans all have baggage. As we do.

Nora, Emma and Maddy are drawn back to the place where they spent that last fateful summer, the last time their family was all together, by their grandmother. Or rather, by their grandmother’s absence.

The feisty old lady isn’t dead – she’s just missing – and she’s still sharp as a tack so whatever has happened to her it isn’t Alzheimer’s. But she seems to have left her cottage on an extended outing of some kind without either cancelling her newspaper, taking her car or telling anyone that she planned to take a trip.

Her worried neighbor (and occasional volunteer handyman) calls the sisters when Gran doesn’t turn up after a few days. He’s not her caretaker – she doesn’t need one – but whatever happened is out of character enough to worry him – and in turn, all three of her granddaughters.

Maddy, at loose ends after discovering that her boyfriend was cheating on her with their boss in order to cheat her out of a promotion, leaves Charleston for the four-hour drive to the North Carolina coast as soon as she comes out of her much-deserved funk. She has nothing to do in Charleston, no idea where she’s going to turn next and welcomes the distraction of her grandmother’s disappearance although certainly not the cause of it.

She arrives at her grandmother’s cottage to discover that both her sisters are on their way – and that neither knows the other is coming. Maddy is stuck in the peacemaker role between her two much older sisters. Sisters who have been at war with each other for 20 years with no letup.

By the time they learn that their Gran is alive and well and set them all up in her cottage for yet one more attempt at family reconciliation, they have all settled into the job of fixing up the cottage and clearing out the attics. And none of them seem to be in any hurry to leave. Maddy knows she has nothing to go back to in Charleston, but has no clue why either of her sisters, both happily married with busy lives and/or careers (at least as far as Maddy knows) seem to be not merely willing but downright eager to stay in Gran’s cottage and fix it up – albeit not with each other – for an infinite amount of time. And neither seems to be calling home.

Very much on Maddy’s other hand, she hasn’t exactly said anything about her sudden lack of either a job or a love life – so who knows what secrets her sisters are hiding?

When all the secrets that all of the Monroe women have been hiding – including Gran! – they pull together to save themselves – and to save each other – as a hurricane rips through Gran’s coastal community – and finally stitches their hearts back together.

Escape Rating B: Fair warning, this is going to be a mixed feelings review. There were a lot of things about this story to love – and one that still makes my blood boil more than a bit.

While the circumstances are different, Summer by the Tides is the kind of story that works well in women’s fiction – and this is more women’s fiction than it is romance although there certainly is more than a touch of romance. There have been several recent books by Susan Mallery that have explored parts or all of this themes, the warring sisters who finally make peace and come together in a crisis, and the family healing that comes after. There’s also been a recent book (whose title I can’t remember and it’s driving me crazy) where three women in a family gather together because all of their love lives and/or careers have gone to hell in a handcart at the same time.

In spite of not having siblings of my own – or perhaps because of it – I generally enjoy these stories. It’s fun to see them putting what’s gone wrong in their relationships with each other behind them, and watching them move forward into a brighter future. Any new romantic relationships they form in the course of the story are icing on the cake and not the actual cake. That’s true in Summer by the Tides as well. Not all of the happy ever afters are romantic, but all finish the book in happier and more fulfilling places than they began it.

I love a good romance as much as the next reader, but particularly for books that feature women in the 21st century I like the story much better when the women find their own fulfillment, whatever it might be, so that any romance they find is an enhancement to that fulfillment rather than the fulfillment itself. People can’t find happiness together unless they have it within themselves.

My 2 cents and I’ll step away from my soapbox for a minute. I’ll be getting back up on it later.

So I liked the story, I enjoyed the relationships between the sisters, and even though I guessed some of what had gone wrong in the past, the revelation was still heartbreaking and there were certainly aspects revealed that I had not previously figured out. The events were devastating, that they left all three sisters with serious trust issues made so much sense. That Maddy first distrusts Gran’s neighbor Connor, and takes hesitant steps towards a relationship fits well into the way the story and characters worked.

Okay, soapbox time, because this seriously affected my enjoyment of the story. Although it doesn’t become blatantly obviously until somewhere close to the halfway point, the characters in this story are explicitly Christian, which shouldn’t have been a surprise to me as the book is published by Thomas Nelson, a noted Christian publisher. That being said, I’ve recently read several books published by Nelson, and those have not been overtly or even covertly religious, so I was lulled and didn’t expect it here.

That some characters are religious is not the issue. People – and characters – do and don’t have belief systems, and those beliefs or lack thereof do affect their lives. What disturbed me greatly occurred in reference to Maddy’s ex, who is an absolute douchecanoe. That’s not a spoiler, it’s his douchecanoe nature that kicks off Maddy’s part of the story. But, and for me it was a huge but, when Maddy talks about her breakup, she says that she should have known he was a douche because he wasn’t a Christian. There’s an implication there that I find disturbing and unnerving, that only Christians can be trusted and that non-Christians by default have no moral or ethical code and should not be trusted.

And now I really will get down off my soapbox.

To sum it up, as I said at the top, there were plenty of things about this story that I liked, elements that I’ve read before and enjoyed, so I was happy to see them again. And there was one element that disturbed the hell out of me and reminded me to be more careful about books from this publisher.

Your reading mileage, of course, may vary.

I found Summer by the Tides by Denise Hunter to be a great summer read to start the days of June off with. There are some sisters that get pulled together because their Grandmother comes up missing and that’s where the story begins. It twists and turns and there’s rejoicing and sadness and there is great description of what living on the water can bring to a person. It makes me want to buy a beach house. Life is too short to live with division. As much as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all men. Forgiveness and breaking generational habits are themes as well.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

In Summer by the Tides, Denise Hunter, brings us a cute, funny, and easy beach read for the summer. While this plot is not shocking or particularly original, it's so much fun to read. It's one of those books you can be sure of, that every time you open the cover, you can depend on pure entertainment without a lot of personal, emotional turmoil.

Maddy Monroe is definitely a lead character you can root for, and you absolutely will after the first chapter. Any woman who has ever been burned in love or while trying to advance her career, can empathize with Maddy. When Maddy meets Conner Murphy, her reticence to trust him or even like him is understandable even expected. I love how perfectly the slow burn on this romance was built.

The most interesting aspect of this book, for me, was the sister storyline. Based upon a back story that is slowly revealed to the reader. We see a tumultuous relationship between three women play out as Denise Hunter pits the bonds of family against the pull of romantic love. Reading about the struggles of three women to comes to terms with their own choices and those consequences was extremely intriguing and engaging.


Summer by the Tides is a quick read with a lot of heart. I felt good each time I picked it up and was sad when I turned the last page. This is a perfect book to read by the pool with a cool drink.


What’s Missing...
The only reason this book did not get 5 Eiffel towers (stars) is simple: I wanted more from Maddy. I understand having a crisis of confidence that makes you indecisive and unsure of yourself after what happened to her, but I dislike using an indecisive, judgmental woman as plot device. Maddy makes snap judgments about all sorts of situations. Then creates and defends some pretty strong opinions based on those assumptions. Thus, the conflict between the main characters is entirely derived from misunderstandings of her own making. I wanted a more organic conflict and not just made from easily avoidable mistakes.

SUMMER BY THE TIDES is the newest creation by one of my favorite contemporary romance writers Denise Hunter. This one is fraught with family drama, hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and mistrust but I loved getting acquainted with Maddie and Connor (as well as secondary characters Tessie and Nora). Also, Grandma was sneaky. Gotta love her.


Things are not always as they seem, people hide behind plastic smiles and try to project having it all together even when its all falling apart. Even Connor, though he was honest about losing control with the restaurant, hid behind a facade most of the time. It was nice watching them come to terms with their pain, start to move past them, and begin to heal.


The romance is not as sizzling as some of Ms. Hunter's books, but it is still present. For more conservative readers, there are soft swear words.


I enjoyed reading SUMMER BY THE TIDES and can't wait for more by this author.


I was given a copy free. All opinions are my own.

This book was amazing! Once I picked it up I didn't want to put it down. I would look forward to reading it again all day.
I loved these characters. They were flawed in all the right ways. I also loved how Maddie' s entire family was prevalent in this book. I found each of them entirely interesting.
This was my first book by Denise Hunter, but it will not be my last. It was so well written and descriptive, I felt like I was there, and since it took place on the beach, I was thrilled to be there. My only disappointment was that it had to end.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys nice cozy romances.

This is my first book by Denise Hunter but it won't be my last. I really enjoyed getting to know Maddy and her sisters and Connor and his sisters. The setup that got Maddy and her sisters to Belle Island was entertaining and made for a bit of a realistic conflict right at the beginning. I loved the contrast of the sibling relationships. While Connor's sisters drive him crazy there's a lot of affection and good intentions while for Maddy there's a lot of resentment and anger and bitterness. Poor Maddy gets stuck in the middle of her two older sisters and tries to make peace in a situation she had nothing to do with.



The word that keeps running through my head to describe this book is "nice" which sounds a bit lackluster but it really isn't. This was a nice read that had me invested in the characters and enjoying the plot without being overly dramatic or angsty. I enjoyed getting to know Maddy and Connor and seeing the relationship between the two of them was sweet without being saccharine. I really appreciated their honesty with each other both in their own first impressions of each other (some wrong, some right) and in dealing with old baggage. After reading so many books where the characters never actually talk to each other this was a delightful change. This was a book I enjoyed reading after I got snuggled into bed and it was nice in the nicest sense of the word.

I can always count on Denise Hunter to provide me with a great easy-to-read book that is not only entertaining but usually holds a few life lessons as well. Summer is all of that and more.

Grandma is missing and her neighbor calls all three of the Monroe sisters to her home in Sea Haven, North Carolina. The problem is that the two oldest sisters have not spoken to each other in years due to something that took place in their past and younger Maddie is not too sure she wants to be the mediator. Reeling from a major betrayal that cost her boyfriend and her job, Maddie doesn’t trust men and neighbor Connor falls into that category. Nevertheless, after learning where their grandmother is, the three sisters agree to stay until she decides to come home and help make much needed repairs on her home.

Summer by the Tides was a wonderful tale that delved deeply into what made each character tick behind the carefully controlled public faces. It was encouraging to observe how the sisters got to know each other again and slowly begin to let down their defenses and allow the others to see the pain behind their smiles. The relationship between Maddie and Connor was also fun to watch develop. Hunter skillfully blends just the right amount of faith, forgiveness, and reconciliation into the narrative to make Summer by the Tides the perfect beach read.

I loved this book . It was a sweet love story. And also had wonderful themes of forgiveness and grace. My favorite line "our mistake's do not define us ". Connnor is smart ,witty and wonderful listener. Maddy is strong she has had run of bad luck and has hard time believing in herself. They are attracted to each other but started off on shaky ground. I loved all secondary characters and family dynamics. I loved how sisters came together after they really talked about their lives. Connor makes Maddy feel too much. Maddy realizes she will never find happiness if she let's fear stand in her way. She realizes Connor is worth the risk. I really hope that Emma and Nora get their own stories.

Another contemporary Christian romance from Denise Hunter. Her books have been ones that I've liked, and turn to when I'm looking for something that is a bit more 'easy reading', on the lighter side.

This story has a beautiful setting and an intriguing heroine.

The opening sucked me right in. We find Maddy in the midst of an awful heartbreak-betrayed by her boyfriend.

And then, she receives a call that her grandmother is missing, so she's off to Sea Haven to find out what is going on...

On top of that, she is thrust back into a relationship with her two sisters, and both of them prefer not to be in each other's company, which puts Maddy into the hard position of keeping the peace.

As the sisters unite forces to find their grandma, uncover secrets, and learn to love each other as sisters again...the story grabs you and won't let you go.

This is a perfect summertime read.

Disclaimer: I receive complimentary books from various sources, including, publishers, publicists, authors, and/or NetGalley. I am not required to write a positive review, and have not received any compensation. The opinions shared here are my own entirely. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

Denise Hunter is the author I go to when I’m kind of burnt out from reading. Her stories are dependably good and typically on the lighter side. I love that about her stories. They don’t disappoint. Summer By the Tides fell right into my expectations. A great story, written in an interesting location, with interesting characters and a storyline that has depth but doesn’t leave you feel weighed down when you’re done. I love how she brings back bits from other stories. I believe the Crab Shack, now renamed, was in one of her other series? I love it when authors do that. It’s like a little present for fans who have read a lot of an authors books.

The issues and challenges the characters deal with are real. They aren’t carbon copies of other books I’ve read. They are unique and well thought through. I love the slow budding romance between Maddy & Connor. It’s so sweet. I really love the grandma even though she’s not a huge character in the book. I love how she cares for her granddaughters. I never had a close grandma so anytime there are grandma/granddaughter relationships in books I really love them.

That being said, I did struggle a little bit with the way the 3 sisters were written. I loved the storyline behind their animosity towards one another but I found some of the ways it was written was a little catty and whiny. I was rather annoyed at them. I don’t know if this was intentional but I just felt like it could have been much better had they been written a little differently. But on the other hand, sisters are like that. So it’s normal. It’s natural. I’m just not a fan of seemingly petty drama-filled interactions in books.

Otherwise the story was great. I loved it. I can’t wait for Ms. Hunter’s next book. She is my go to author! Love her writing. I received a copy of this book from CelebrateLit. I was in no way required to write a positive review. All thoughts are my own.

I love Denise Hunter's book and I was excited about this new one from her, and I was not disappointed. This is such a good story of forgiveness and healing. Honestly, there was a bit of an aura of mystery as well so it really kept me reading as I was not sure what all each character knew of the situation, specifically Connor. Gram seems like a feisty, yet sweet woman, and she has done so much for the girls throughout the years and that is continuing with her trying to get her granddaughters to mend their relationships with each other. Maddy, Emma, and Nora are all so different from each other, but all so similar. Each of the three are so different, but yet so alike as well. I felt like it was so easy to connect with and relate to these characters as family relationships are trying, more so at stages in life than others, and yet they are family so there is always some kind of thread or bond, of varying degrees of weakness and strength. I loved the setting of the story and learning more about managing restaurants and a marina. This town just came to life in the pages as did the characters. This is another winner from Denise Hunter for sure.

Summer By the Tides is a beach read about Maddy Monroe. Maddy has just lost her job as a restaurant manager when she caught her boyfriend cheating with her boss. Then Maddy finds out her beloved Gram has gone missing, so she hurries to her Gram's beach house in Sea Haven, North Carolina to look for her. She is soon joined by her older sisters, Emma and Nora, who don't get along. Over the summer they work on the house together, sort through family history, and Maddie finds a surprising new romance.

I wanted to read this book as soon as I heard about it. It looked like a perfect beach read and it absolutely was! Denise Hunter does a great job at capturing coastal North Carolina and beach life. I enjoyed settings like Sullivan's Landing, the little seafood restaurant where Maddie works over summer, and the marina where Connor works. I found details like hurricane preparations at the marina fascinating.

I really liked Maddie. She is in such a conflicted place at the beginning of the book, but she really comes into her own when she is reunited with her sisters and when she meets Connor. Connor is a perfect book boyfriend! He is sweet and sad (a young widower), and their relationship moves slowly with a few little stops and starts.

This is also a lovely book about family and forgiveness and choosing to move forward instead of staying mired in the past. I also liked Maddie's sister Emma (and her cute little beagle Pippy) and her delightful Gram. Nora (her oldest sister) was a complex character, but I appreciated her by the end of the novel.

I recommend Summer By the Tides as a beach read or a good read for a leisurely weekend. Fans of southern fiction and women's fiction will especially enjoy this book.

I liked the setting of the story and found the quaint place in Sea Haven, North Carolina very inviting. The author describes the area so well, you could feel the sand on your feet as you walked along the beach. It was a great place at Gram's cottage in the summertime. Those memories are special to Maddy and soon she will find herself back at Gram's place when she receives an upsetting phone call.

I really liked the clever way Gram was able to get all three sisters to come back to their summer hangout. Maddy, Nora and Emma each descend on the place frantic about their grandmother. A phone call from her neighbor has them worried that Gram has disappeared. Will they be able to mend their relationship between them? Can each sister learn to trust again and lean on each other?

Conner was a welcome addition to the story as Gram's next door neighbor. He always watched out for her and knew something was wrong when he hadn't seen her in a few days. Maddy didn't trust Conner as soon as she met him. She thought he had something to do with Gram's disappearance and didn't trust him at all. I thought she judged him very quickly and didn't care for her attitude towards him. She has come there with a preconceived notion that Conner is not a nice person.

The story starts to take shape as we learn that the family hasn't really been close in a long time. Nora and Emma haven't talked to each other in awhile and having them there together at the cottage is going to be explosive. There are lots of secrets that have been hidden in Maddy's family that has caused hurt so deep that it has divided the family. It is easy to hold a grudge for some people but what I have realized is life is too short. All the years we walk around refusing to forgive the person who hurt us, takes precious time away that you can never get back.

It was like a domino effect as secrets starting coming out and soon the sisters learn that growing up their mother had protected them from a secret to keep the family together. It was easy for each sister to blame their mother but they never knew what a precious gift she gave them to protect their feelings all these years. There is a lot of repairing to do in the family and the most important lesson they will learn is about forgiveness and trust.

There is a romance blooming in the story that didn't surprise me at all. What I liked was how two people who had been hurt by relationships slowly let the wall they had around themselves fall away. The sisters luck with men are not going well and I think that helped them at least try to communicate with each other. All three are struggling with a relationship and it will take a miracle for these sisters to reconnect. There was something that Conner said to Maddy that I really liked. He said," When I can't trust others and I can't trust myself, I can always trust God." It was a perfect way for Conner to share his faith with Maddy and let her know God was there waiting for her to turn to Him for guidance. Overall good story about a broken family that must leave their pride behind, learn to trust again and find happiness.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

Whenever a Denise Hunter book hits the shelves, I have to get my hot little hands on it. It’s during these times I wish I can feed my children cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner until I reach The End. And while all her stories are unputdownable. (I’m not above creating my own words LOL) her latest release Summer by the Tides has something uniquely special about it.

This story immediately drawn me in with the initial interactions with Maddy, and from the first pages I was rooting for her success. It was amazing how immediately I bonded to her, wanting her to move past the hurt and embrace life.

Another factor I want to point out is this romance had an element of women’s fiction in dealing with the relationships of the three sisters. Each sister harbored layers of hurt and secrets, and I found myself immersed in their situations, trying to figure out the truth behind their troubled interactions. I love how the author delicately addresses sensitive topics such as betrayal and family pain.

And of course there is a need to mention the hero! Connor is an amazing character that is sensitive to Maddy’s need for space to process and breathe. His honest nature makes her cautious heart suspicious on different occasions, but he’s consistently transparent and it’s fabulous.

One thing I absolutely loved was the setting- the beach! I could almost hear the waves lapping against the shore, almost taste the sea-tinged air. The author did such a brilliant job of painting the scenes using an oceanic backdrop.

*I received a copy from the author. All opinions are my own.