Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC! This was hilarious and witty, I enjoyed the quirkiness and the hilarity, but this became repetitive and the characters were very frustrating. Unfortunately, I enjoyed the premise much more than the execution of this novel.

Humorous, great story-telling, almost realistic in parts; the ending saved it for me
This book was hard to rate because it was well-written and entertaining but only in small doses. To me it was written like little snippets of Kathleen’s life; funny events which were loosely tied together with a story about her separation from Tom, recollections of past events, and living in Whitbey with all its small-town antics and intrigue. I found myself putting the book down and doing something else for a while and then coming back to it. The ending where everything is tied up in a very neat bow saved this book from being fewer stars. Some parts were very real to life such as the government corruption and her entitled pregnant daughter who blames Kathleen for only sending gifts for her and the new baby but neglecting her son-in-law. What?! I hope the author intended for us to see Kathleen as irritating because that is how she came across to me. Some of the things she did make me wonder about her common sense. I volunteered to review an ARC of this book through NetGalley.

This novel starts off with Tom and Kathleen who have been married for 30 years living, in Kansas. Tom decides he is no longer happy and wants to find himself. Kathleen is confused, but thinks her best decision is to sell the home and move to a beach town where her "best friend" has been living. She finds a tiny home on the beach in the town of Whitby. There she meets her cranky, but friendly neighbor Rosemary. Living in a beach town isn't at all what Kathleen expects it to be. There is a monster house being built next to her so she hears noise all day. She and Rosemary decide to fight the town and try and get the construction to seize.

As the novel goes on, Kathleen and Rosemary basically are fighting the town hall about everything. Tom comes back from his "quest to find himself" and parks his RV in Kathleen's driveway. The story is suppose to be full of funny and silly mishaps and town arguments, along with some misadventures with Kathleen's best friend Josie. It was a fine read, but I wouldn't say it was a favorite of mine. I appreciate the opportunity to read this in advance and I thank Vintage Anchor Publishing and NetGalley.

Thank you to Vintage Anchor and to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a review. Save What's Left follows Kathleen, a 60 year old retiree, who moves to a small New York beach town after her husband of 30 years asks for a divorce.

While I think that the idea of the book held promise, the restlessness of life after retiring and the obsession older people have with local government and code enforcement, I just found myself getting bored. The first act of the book establishing the town of Whitbey and the conflict with the house next door does a good job of setting up the story. However, by the midpoint of the book I found it repetitive and the scenes going on a little too long. I think the plot could have been interesting, it just wasn't executed well. It is entirely possible that I am not the right audience for this book too.

In some respects, Save What’s Left is the anti-beach novel, along with a commentary about current real estate development practices!
Tom and Kathleen live in Kansas City, Kansas and have been married for 30 years when Tom announces a life changing decision. The next thing you know, Kathleen is buying a beach house (without seeing in person or doing any due diligence) based on years of Christmas letters from a high school friend.
Kathleen’s story is stitched together with her emails to the town supervisor, detailing her latest complaints and concerns. You’ll learn a lot about building codes and construction problems, as well as summer people and small town politics.
I like that the book had older protagonists. And also like the setting at a New York area beach - most novels like this are set at a southern beach or one in Cape Cod or Nantucket (although unlike those books, this town sounds like one you don’t want to visit)!
There are a lot of rants in Save What’s Left, and maybe it was too many rants for me. I kept reading because I wanted to see what happened - and that ended up being as inane as a number of other parts of the book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Anchor Books for the opportunity to read Save What’s Left in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advanced copy of Save What’s Left by Elizabeth Castellano from the publisher Vintage Anchors via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: When Kathleen Deane’s husband, Tom, tells her he’s no longer happy with their life. Kathleen is completely shocked and has no idea what to do, but she’s not staying in Kansas alone. Remembering the delightful Christmas letters her childhood friend Josie sends every year, Kathleen buys a small former Oyster shack in the beach town Whitbey. But when she arrives she finds construction going on next door and becomes wrapped up in the world of small town red tape, her beach escape has become a beach nightmare.

What I Loved: The language is very witty and has a very sarcastic tone. I also liked the premise of this book. I also kind of like the ending.

What I Didn’t Like: While this book had so much promise, it ultimately felt repetitive. Perhaps, because I listened, but it honestly just felt like the character was complaining. There was really no growth, but rather felt like we were going downhill. I think this could have been done better if the book wasn’t as repetitive, the book feels like 90% emails. Ultimately, it feels very negative. If you are looking for literally the anti-beach read, that’s what this is. But the bright cover and coverage seems to be working against this book finding it’s audience.

Who Should Read It: People who love books with negative characters but don’t need them to grow. People who love mocking small town life.

Summary: A woman moves to the beach and finds her not so happily ever after.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book. I listened to the audio version.

While I thought some parts were funny, and I liked the twist at the end, sometimes, I felt like I was listening to a repetitive stand-up comedian. That said, it was worth the time I spent listening.

Save What's Left was not all what I expected. Kathleen moves to a beach town which she has heard so much about from a friend of hers after her husband leaves her. She encounters one problem after another with construction going on all around her new home. A lot of local politics and just negative remarks throughout the book. A hard read for me. Certainly not a "beach read" in my opinion.

Save What's Left is a delightful debut that takes on the presumed path of the ever popular beach read and turns it on it's head.

After Kathleen's husband of 30 years tells her that he's no longer happy with their life, she decides to buy a beach house sight unseen in a small community that her best friend always spends Christmas vacation in. Finding Whitbey to be quite unlike her friend's letters, Kathleen immerses herself in the local politics, scuffling with her neighbors over zoning and code violations.

I appreciated that Castellano really subverted your expectations about what this book would be. It starts out with a premise that's pretty tried and true, and then explores the cost and experience of small town beach living. Kathleen sorts through the complexities of her life, her relationship with her daughter, and her husband Tom. The writing was witty and the story was engaging. I am excited to see what Castellano does next.

This storyline is hilarious so unique that I couldn’t stop laughing. It is such a great mock on living in an “exclusive community”. The characters are so quirky and their interactions with each other are priceless. I swear my jaw dropped. zThis would make a fantastic movie or tv series.

This was a quick summer read with some laugh-out-loud moments. Unfortunately, I wasn't really invested in the backbiting small-town seaside business, which was pretty much the book. I know there will be an audience for this, but I'm just not it. Maybe the crowd that loves a Nextdoor dumpster fire.

This is Kathleen's story of giving the past 30 years of her life the finger and buying a 700 sq. ft. former oyster shack on the beach on Long Island. She and husband, Tom, are native New Yorkers who have lived the past 30 years of their lives in Kansas, where Tom is a surgeon. One day he tells her he's not happy and needs to find himself, and off he goes on a 4-month, world cruise.

Kathleen sells the house and buys a little shack near her friend Josie, who has gushed about the seaside village in all the year-end letters. What she finds is an incestuous little hamlet with everyone's nose in everyone else's business, code violations and illegal rentals and committees. And then Tom shows up in his Airstream and takes up residence in the driveway. He becomes a hit in the neighborhood.

And that's pretty much it.

I liked the banter and the style of writing. The story just wasn't for me.

My thanks to Vintage Anchor and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"I'm that kind of person. The worst kind of person. I'm a beach person," claims the narrator near the outset of the hilarious Save What's Left, Elizabeth Castellano's fictional tell-all about Kathleen Deane's descent into beach-town mayhem. The 50-something recent divorcee sells her Kansas home and purchases, sight unseen, a fixer-upper beach house on Long Island. The problem, of course, is that Kathleen is not the kind of beach person she imagined she'd become--strolling sandy shores and soaking in the sun--with the purchase of this new home following her husband's unexpected departure. Instead, she bemoans, "I'm now the kind of horrible person who genuinely cares about what so-and-so had to say about the traffic from the chowder festival," and has a box full of paper complaints that "began as minor grievances but are now exhibits in a money-laundering scheme."

It's easy to romanticize small-town, beachside life; who hasn't dreamt of giving it all up in favor of a simpler way of living? But in her debut novel, Castellano reveals something like a hidden underbelly in this too-common dream: bickering neighbors, ugly construction, never-ending parking nightmares. As the capers of Kathleen's neighbors, though, become more and more over-the-top, Save What's Left becomes something of a parody of beach-town living, packed with laugh-out-loud moments of absurdity, and touching moments of community and camaraderie found in unexpected corners. An easy, breezy delight from start to finish, Save What's Left is a charming, comedic tale of one woman's quest to reinvent herself--and perhaps reinvent her new town in the process. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

I gave this one a third of the way into the book and then had to DNF. The FMC was an absolute annoyance and her infuriating negative commentary was hard to stomach. That’s the outlook of an extremely immature individual not a retired woman making it out in the world on her own. I read some reviews of the book to see if I was missing anything if I DNF’d it and it doesn’t seem like it changes in any meaningful manner.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Save What's Left by Elizabeth Castellano

#NetGalley published 6/23/23
#womensfiction

Let's start with, I HATE THAT GENRE NAME! Well... Anyway...

After he husband decides he needs a big change in life, Kathleen decides to uproot her life to buy a house on the beach sight unseen. Was it the right decision? She finds herself in a tiny beach community getting into the politics of it all.

Kathleen's neighbor gets her started in the political world of Whitbey. Can she get stuff done. Will she get back together with her husband that followed her? Will she find herself amongst it all?

SPOILER ALERT!
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If you like snark, and second chance romances, this book is for you. She is super sarcastic in the narrative. She doesn't know what she wants until the bitter end. Cute book. I'll probably try another one by her if I see it.


#vintageanchorpublishing
#vintageanchor

What I love most about this book is a midlife female main character and the not-so quaint aspects of quaint & quirky small town coastal living! (Coming from someone in midlife and who lives in a small town on the coast of NJ). A fun change from the usual summer beach town reads and a quick read.

Anyone who has fallen for the hype of re-settling in a quaint beach town will be drawn to Elizabeth Castellano's novel about quirky place called Whitbey where construction projects rarely follow building codes, and email complaints are never answered by local government. Kathleen Deane's husband Tom tells her he wants to trade their routine life for a year finding himself. Kathleen is so upset she packs up and moves from Kansas to the east coast to a sight-unseen shaky home next to a huge construction project. From this not-the-best start, Kathleen takes on the local powers who ignore her while dealing with rude construction workers and a woman's walking group who holds the real power in the town. A fun read about a 60-year-old her wants to re-invent herself but finds a whole nest of problems that are just hilariously bizarre.

This book was utterly charming. It is described as an "un-beach read." While I completely agree with that moniker, it was the perfect beach read for me.

After 30 years of marriage, Kathleen's husband decides to tell her that he is leaving their marriage and sets out on a trip. She is stunned. She thought everything was the way it was supposed to be. Even though she is confused and blindsided, she starts thinking about what she wants in life. This leads her to buy a beach house in Whitbey. Then things really start to get interesting.

Kathleen arrives at her new home and everything is not what she expected it to be. She becomes an "expert" on local laws surrounding buildings, property, and zoning. Her whole life becomes wrapped up in the town. The story is told from her point of view, as well as through her emails to the town supervisor.

I found this book to be hilarious, charming, bittersweet, and hopeful. I truly lost count of how many times I laughed out loud. The story moved fast for me. I flew through it. Also, I absolutely loved the ending! Kathleen Deane is a character that I won't soon forget.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor Books for the opportunity to read this book! It is the perfect summer read. I was fortunate enough to read it in a chair on the beach. However, it is the perfect summer read for on your porch or by your pool. I highly recommend this book!

DNF @ 41%. I told my husband that if I ever get to be as annoying as Kathleen is when I turn 59, to simply lead me out to pasture and drive away from me. My god, Kathleen is a Final Boss Karen! If I wanted to read about city codes and bylaws and loopholes and infractions, I would join my city's local government, not read a piece of fiction. I am stuggling to maintain even a modicum of interest in this book. It started out really compelling and even funny at times, but has quickly devolved into just the most annoying, snipey, grating book I think I have ever read. If you want to not have neighbors, don't buy a house on the beach! Seems like a no-brainer! Kathleen and her grumpy neighbor Rosemary find something new to complain and commiserate about whenever they see each other, and it got to be way too much for me. Kathleen TELLS US she's not a nice person, that she would rather have one bad friend who is a mean person than have someone lie to her and tell her platitudes and compliments. That tells you everything you need to know right there. Not my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley, Vintage Anchor, and Elizabeth Castellano for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for my review.

When Kathleen's husband unexpectedly leaves her to "find himself," she makes an unexpected decision of her own and moves from her comfortable suburban Kansas life to a faraway beach town, buying a dilapidated cottage sight unseen. Instead of the peaceful, idyllic life she'd imagined, she finds herself at the center of beach town politics -- zoning, permits, etc. At some point, her husband returns and lives in an Airstream trailer in her driveway. So, lots going on in this book, which is truly fun to read. I loved Kathleen and her determination, and the cast of characters in the little beach town is fascinating! I look forward to recommending this title.

Review will be posted on 7/11/23

59-year-old Kathleen has left dreary Kansas behind to live out her dream on Long Island. After her husband suggested they divorce and he proceeds to travel on a European cruise without her, she plans to start over in an idyllic beach town recommended to her by her lifelong friend. When she moves into her two-bedroom beach shack on the water, she is expecting to find a beautiful and peaceful escape. It is anything but that! The house needs some work and next door to her they are building a monstrosity that is many floors and aptly dubbed the "Sugar Cube." The construction next door and on the street is driving her nuts as well as her neighbor, Rosemary, whom she immediately befriends as they have a common enemy. The construction project is causing her many issues not to mention all the violations of the town's codes. She writes the town supervisor to no avail and starts attending town meetings regarding various issues, such as the development of a vacant waterfront property. Living in a beach town has much more political issues than she thought before, but this town seems especially filled with some questionable incidents. To make matters worse, Tom, her estranged husband, shows up on her driveway in an Airstream ready to hang out! Elizabeth Castellano's debut, Save What's Left, had me laughing out loud one minute and cringing the next. It's a fresh take on beach reads and I am here for it!

I felt for Kathleen from the start of Save What's Left. How could I not? She just wanted to start over in a sleepy beach town, but it has been nothing short of a disaster. After personally living next door to very disturbing construction for over a year, I could relate to Kathleen. However, she takes it above and beyond; she becomes obsessed with the Sugar Cube as well as its impact on her street. Kathleen, being a bit wacky, finds that this gives her purpose, but it's not exactly healthy. I could understand her frustration as many town officials blatantly disregarded the Sugar Cube's violation of town codes. Slowly, Kathleen peels back the layers of the beach town to expose something a little more disturbing underneath.

What really drew me in was Castellano's writing style. It was so good! I found it to be witty and funny; there were moments when I was laughing out loud-- in public! My only issue with Save What's Left was that at times Kathleen's plight did get repetitive, but by the second half of the book, the plot does get moving. If you are looking for a beach read that is a bit different than the usual fare, look no further! Let me know if Save What's Left is on your TBR list and your thoughts in the comments below.