I received an advanced copy of this through NetGalley. If you like small town drama, this might be the book for you. We all know and hate busy bodies in our own neighborhoods, and this book is centered around one of the worst tattle tails with mostly good intentions. The character development was decent, but they were such a cast of irritating people that I wasn’t a fan. Of course, this is true to life in any neighborhood, but I can visit my own HOA Facebook page for the drama any time I like. The author did a great job of describing and developing the town, buildings, and characters. I’d definitely consider reading more by her in the future.

Crazy story of a woman who moves to a house on the beach looking for peace but finds everything but peace and quiet.

When a long-term marriage crumbles as the husband decides he needs more and heads off for a world cruise, what's the remaining spouse from Kansas to do? Why, sell everything and head to the East Coast and buy a quaint seaside cottage. And that's just what Kathleen does. However, just as in her marriage, her new life doesn't pan out any better than the one she left behind. What seems to be different is Kathleen becomes a caricature of all privileged women out there, angry about anything and everything that stands metaphorically or literally in their way. In this instance, the new house being built next door that blocks her view. Kathleen goes at it with everyone until she finds a friend in a snarky woman with whom she bonds over their mutual dislike of everything.
When Tom, the husband, returns from his world cruise still unfulfilled, he ends up living in Kathleen's driveway in a trailer and making friends with all the frenemies of Kathleen. Tom sees people and circumstances differently which unsurprisingly, annoys Kathleen to no end. But it does make for some honest relationship moments.
Where I thought this would be about a woman finding herself in past mid-life, it seems more like she has found a way to entertain herself with petty wars.


Thank you to Vintage Anchor publisher for access to an early copy. All opinions are my own.

I really liked the beginning of this book even though Kathleen's husband, Tom, of 30 years told her at breakfast one day he was leaving and going on a world cruise. The author's use of humor throughout Kathleen's ordeal kept me reading. She sells the house and furniture and buys a beach house sight unseen in the northeast part of the US where a friend of hers lived.

This part of the book became depressing to read just as the character was depressed. Kathleen moves into her house which was originally an oyster shed and finds the neighbor next door was remodeling their house breaking lots of county regulations. The rest of the story is about how she fights to have the county enforce their laws. Oh yeah, Tom does pull into her driveway in an Air stream and acts like nothing had changed.

Had the author maintained her lighthearted mood throughout the book I am sure I would have enjoyed this book it more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-copy of the book in return for an honest review

I downloaded this book thinking it would be a light-hearted beach read. Kathleen Deane is going through life, not happy, not sad, just existing. When her husband Tom announces he is leaving her, she decides to move to an idyllic beach community. When her neighbor starts to build next door, calamity ensues as they butt heads over his code violation monstrosity . Each chapter of the book starts with a letter written by Kathleen to the town supervisor with unreasonable and increasingly unhinged requests. Kathleen is abrasive and her complaining nature is tiresome, so by the end of the story I was not really rooting for her character anymore. . The story was ok, but at times it was a bit over the top, and a tad too long.

Some people tell long-winded stories that they are just certain are the funniest, wittiest things their audiences have ever heard and they couldn’t be more wrong. SAVE WHAT’S LEFT is author Elizabeth Castellano’s version, and protagonist Kathleen Deane is her version of the long-winded friend who just cannot tell a story without making the listener (reader) cringe at the details and lack of a good ending. Kathleen’s tales are neither funny nor redeeming and she is really hard to root for or like. She urges readers not to purchase beach homes and if she is the likely neighbor found there; we should all follow her advice. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ for Save What’s Left by Elizabeth Castellano. Kathleen Deane’s husband tells her over pancakes that he is no longer happy in their marriage and wants to go on an extended cruise. She reacts by selling all of her things and buying a beach house sight unseen. She moves to Whitby, where she confronts lazy and/corrupt city officials and other residents daily. At first her complaining was sort of funny, but as it persisted page after page, I didn’t find it as humorous and instead hoped her character would evolve…. The book really cast a negative light on beach-city dwellers.

I did like the author’s writing— just not these characters.

Thank you to the author, Anchor, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my review.

Light fun beach read that everyone can relate to. You will fall in love with each character despite their flaws and flakiness.

I'm sorry to say that this book was just not for me. This is marketed as a witty, summer beach read about a middle aged woman starting over in a small beach town and taking on the local government and the neighbors renovating the McMansion next door to her small beach shack. For me it was one long complaint list that went on well past the the comic relief and just became sad. There were a few humorous parts but mostly it dragged. I thought the ending was a surprising and the most delightful part of the whole book. Too bad it was only a few pages. As other reviewers before me have said, it would be better if it was toned down. The complaint department should have closed well before this book ended!

An interesting take on getting obsessed with small town politics and how it can consume your thoughts. The character dynamic was not what I expected and was kind of difficult to follow sometimes.

Well....I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I requested it thinking it was going to be super funny and charming, but honestly, it is so negative in some parts. Yes, I did laugh some. At first, the character of Rosemary reminded me of one of the Golden Girls, but then she became mean. I wanted to like Kathleen, the main character, so much more than I did. At first I was rooting for her, then near the end after hearing about her obsession with town business and zoning boards....I just wanted to be done.

It seems like Kathleen went looking for this huge change, but it never really materialized for her. The issues she had personally and in her marriage just kind of traveled with her to a different setting. At the end, she seemed happier. Maybe?

This book takes a little bit to get into, but then once you find the rhythm of the story you'll either find yourself cheering for Kathleen or total exasperated with her, or a little bit of both.. It's an interesting look at what happens when you try to change your life, but your life follows you instead and nothing really changes. that will make a whole lot more sense when you read this book, lol. The book is an interesting look at how a community doesn't change but sticks with tradition and complacency until it gets shaken up, and then once it does what happens can sometimes perplex outsideers. Kathleen gets caught up in all the chaos and she soon realizes it doesn't matter where you live. sometimes things just go with you. I ended up reading this one in spurts because Kathleen would frustrate me. I didn't understand why she was changing her life but not making changes, and reverting back to her norm. But I think that's the colonel of the book is you are who you are and sometimes making big changes isn't going to happen. It's an interesting summer read though either way..

I won’t be finishing this. I don’t think I’m the right audience. It reads like a middle aged mom novel, which isn’t inherently a bad thing, but as a 20 something bookstagrammer im not the right audience. Thanks anyway for the ARC.

Thank you for the advanced electronic copy of this book, I enjoy the opportunity to preview and review it.

This is a book about nothing. It was supposed to be about a character moving to her dream home and starting over in a new community, but it was a glass half empty and getting emptier book. It was frustrating to read of a character who was always crabby and complaining. The book is promoted as humorous, but really it was just full of city codes, disgruntled neighbors, and grumpy interactions between characters. The first half went quickly, but after repetitive story lines and more of the same, I felt the book wasn't going anywhere and just wanted to be done. I wanted to find one likeable character, and even the "fun friend" was not supportive, and was hoping for the daughter to come in and make things brighter, but that scene was just a huge fight. When the character complains about not being happy and being lonely, I didn't have sympathy, I wouldn't have wanted to be her either.

I was expecting an upbeat or at least entertaining summer read. This book is one negative thing after another without the story going anywhere. Sorry but I can't finish this one.

This is an easy "beach" read. There's no mystery, no suspense, no love interest. It's about one woman who seems to be a follower and gets dragged into other peoples issues. I was given this book to read for free from Net Galley. I read about half of and and unfortunately and it expired before I could finish it. :(

Rating - 3.4

I found this story on NetGalley and found the premise interesting (we love a beach read and this is the antithesis of one so I wanted to read it!) was excited when I was able to get my hands on a Advanced Readers Copy [ARC]. While I may not have been the target audience for this story (as the main characters are retirement age and I am not....unfortunately), I truly enjoyed my escape to Whitbey and the uniqueness that this beach town drama brought with it. I was able to picture the entire town and the folks inside of it perfectly and while I may not have fully understood all of the emotions involved, I could feel them!

After 30 years of marriage, Kathleen finds her world turned upside down when her husband, Tom, informs her that he is interested in a divorce and is no longer happy with their life. In desperation, Kathleen looks to reinvent her self and escape to Whitbey, what has been painted as a dreamy beach lifestyle by her long time best friend, Josie. But Whitbey isn't all it's been described as. After purchasing a small cottage at sight unseen, Kathleen learns that her new neighbors and their building of a monstrous home are at the focus of the town's concerns.

After be-friending Rosemary (another neighbor), the two set out to stop and fight all of the changes that are being perceived to ruin their quaint beach town. Engaging in the town politics, and being blatantly ignored by the Town's Supervisor, these two do what they can to save their town. But saving the town isn't the only thing that Kathleen does - she has to save herself and discover her own happiness despite feeling like everything is going wrong - she's also got to save herself from the .

This story was a good vacation read (despite it getting a little long at times) and I absolutely loved that the chapters started with Kathleen emailing the Supervisor (so you read her email first!) and then would dive into more of the story telling in a traditional sense. Castellano did a wonderful job of also allowing resolution and not making this all just continue on forever like it seemed at times it might. Although I don't know if the ending was fully believable, it did provide a nice bow to wrap everything up including references to things from the beginning of the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Elizabeth Castellano who, in collaboration with Vintage Anchor, provided me a copy so that I could provide an honest review prior to publish date!

On the one hand, I enjoyed Castellano's writing. On the other hand, I don't know that I actually enjoyed this story, which follows the descent of Kathleen. Kathleen retired, was dumped by her husband, and moved to a small beach town on Long Island. She finds the house she bought sight-unseen wasn't what she imagined, and has to deal with a monstrosity of a house being built next to her. With the encouragement of a neighbor, she takes on the town government to try to get people to actually, you know, follow the law. Or, at least, the local regulations.

Kathleen is immediately thrown into a horrible situation and I alternated between being incredibly frustrated by her and sympathetic as she tilted at the windmill of her local bureaucracy. Castellano may have had Kathleen become too involved too quickly, and the not-infrequent asides about how Kathleen complaining about the housing issues was boring wasn't exactly endearing from the reader's viewpoint. Fundamentally, I think my problem is that I just didn't understand Kathleen's motivations. It didn't help that a lot of action happened off-screen.

Even so, I was consistently amused. It helped that Kathleen acknowledged the depths to which she was falling, and I was curious about what new disasters would strike. I wanted to throttle pretty much every character in the book, but I flew through it. I'm interested to see what Castellano does next; I think the foundation here was solid, but just needed some redirection.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-copy of the book in return for an honest review.

While I wanted to love this book, I just didn't. It fell flat for me, but I do think that patrons at my library would enjoy this book, so I would recommend it for purchase at the library.

I think I would call this an anti-beach read. Kathleen packed up and relocateed her life to a beachfront home following her husband's departure. As soon as she arrived, Kathleen realized this was NOT going to be the idyllic life she was expecting.

I have to admit, this book was a lot of fun. It was quite a tale filled with lots of over the top antics, and I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit. Kathleen's war with the construction crew and owners next door provided endless fodder which made me glad I never had to live through something like that.

Under all the humor was the story of a woman who found her life turned upside down. Her husband of thirty years suddenly decided he no longer wanted to be married. Here was Kathleen thinking she was with her mate for life. A bit adrift, she tried to find her place in this seaside town. There were some times that I really questioned Kathleen's sanity, but I was happy with where she ended up. She found a "home", she embraced a second chance, and she found herself.

Overall, this was quite a fun and farcical story peppered with some rather sweet moments, tons of hijinks, and some twists I did NOT anticipate.