The novel starts out when Kathleen decides to leave Kansas City for little coastal town after her husband of 30 years, Tom, tells her he is unhappy and their marriage "just isn't working out" and he is leaving for 6 months on a cruise around the world. She remembers the annual Christmas letters that she gets from a childhood friend, and finds a converted oyster shack (700SF) on the beach which she buys sight unseen. She sells everything from their 30 yr marriage except Tom's collection of antique radios (which she ships to the new house), and begins a new life in Whitley.
However, she quickly finds issues with the glass McMansion being built (4 ft away) next to her little home, and emails the town supervisor, and other government officials on a regular basis complaining about it. She never receives a reply from the town administration, and attempts to talk about the issues at town meetings are ignored. She makes friends with a neighbor, Rosemary, who has similar issues with the monstrosity, also with out resolution.
Several months into her new life, her estranged husband shows up in his new Airstream, which he parks in her driveway - it seems he was bored on the cruise - and he becomes thoroughly involved in life in the little town.
I was ready for a light read - and in that respect, this filled the bill. However, I found it repetitious, and I was bored reading each letter/complaint with the same outcome.I was surprised that her childhood friend didn't enter into the novel except for a line or 2 in the middle and at the end. The last 10% picked up a little, and I was satisfied with the ending...but I do think it could have been shorter and still have the same story.
I received a complimentary ARC from Netgalley and the publisher and the opinions expressed are my own.

I received a copy from Netgalley for my honest review. I felt that there was a lot of repetition in the book. The struggle with zoning continued with no response from the board. Tom, her soon to be ex husband, makes friends with everyone. Her friends are very diverse, from hippie to uptight. I didn’t really connect with the characters. The problems from the house next door, including contamination of the groundwater, don’t get any reaction from the town. I found it hard to believe.

This book started out with a bang. It was funny and sounded like it was going to be an entertaining and quirky read. The main character’s husband left her to go on a cruise around the world. She decides to sell everything and buys herself a house on the beach. Well the first few chapters were great and then she moves into the beach house where a house is being built next door. The rest of the book is just her arguing with the town and neighbors about the house. It’s just a bunch of complaining and letters written to the supervisor in charge of the build. It was so repetitive and the complaining started to become a bit much. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of this one.

After thirty years of marriage, Kathleen’s husband Tom announces that he doesn’t want to be married anymore and is taking off on a world cruise. Blindsided, Kathleen is thinking of what to do with the rest of her life. She decides to move to a beach town where her childhood friend Josie lives. However, her beach cottage is not the idyllic place she dreamed it would be. The cottage is an old oyster shack that is falling apart. Not to mention the monstrosity building of the home next door that seems to get away with ignoring all the local zoning codes. She has a grumpy neighbor named Rosemary who has been fighting with the town for years. Kathleen soon joins the fight. She soon becomes almost obsessed with everything going on in town, but she’s not wrong. Then her husband Tom shows is in a large Airstream and takes up residence in her driveway! The book is well written, the characters have distinct personalities, but it just wasn’t for me. There’s nothing wrong with the book as it was entertaining and funny. I read as a form of escape from stresses in my life and while I could relate very well to the main characters it wasn’t an escape for me.

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It took me some time to get through reading this book.
The premise of the story sounded so intriguing.
The main character made me cringe more then once….she really isn’t a very nice person.
Recommend you read this book and see what you think. You may love it. For me, it was a ok read.
Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

In the wake of her husband leaving her to "find himself," Kathleen impulsively sells their home and possessions and buys a Long Island beach house sight unseen. Upon arrival, she encounters workmen sitting on her brand new white couch left on her deck, and things devolve from there. Kathleen gets wrapped up in town politics, zoning laws, and her husband's inevitable return! This is a humorous, quickly-paced, and relatable story. A great first novel!

Thank you to Vintage Anchor, Anchor and NetGalley for an electronic ARC of this novel.

Save What's Left by Elizabeth Castellano is a well written book about a woman who uproots her life to go live in a beach town. Her husband of many years has left her to go find himself, so she wants a fresh start. Kathleen soon finds herself embroiled in town zoning regulations and the cliques of small town life when the house next door starts renovating.

This novel was kind of exhausting. I wasn't into all the zoning fights and the protests. It seemed very surfacing and it wasn't a relaxing book to read. I didn't really like any of the characters and the plot just seemed to cover town meetings and zoning laws. The writing was good, but I wasn't fond of the plot.

I love Castellano's writing but this story left me scratching my head. None of the characters are very likable and there's a lot of ranting about noise infractions and construction issues. It got tiresome very quickly.

2.5 stars

Thanks to Anchor Books for the copy to review.

I am glad that I had the time to read this one quickly only because I did grow tired of the constant chaos. I’m confused why anyone would move to a beach house in an effort to find peace and instead involve herself in being a busy body in her new town. Even if the town was corrupt, I’m not sure it was worth all the effort and anxiety she put herself through.

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. I did enjoy the story but not so much the main character Kathleen. The story moved along and that kept me engaged as I was curious as to how it would all end. Even though I didn’t have a connection to Kathleen that’s ok as I won’t always enjoy every character I ever meet in a book.

Kathleen, a woman in Kansas who has been married for decades, unexpectedly finds herself at a crossroads when her husband announces he is leaving her. She buys a cottage sight unseen in a small beach town on the East coast. The cottage is a mess and the town is even a bigger mess. And Kathleen can't help herself from getting involved. Cute at times, there wasn't really anything intriguing about Kathleen as a character.

Well I'm not quite sure what to think of this "Summer Read" The antithesis of a typical, happy, finding love, starting over, everything ends happily, typical Beach Read? I laughed out loud, but still too much complaining and frustration to make this a book that I would recommend to others. The relationship between Mother and Daughter was disturbing and sad. Definitely happy I read it since I have been reading too many typical beach reads and this definitely provided a break from those.

Other than the points where this had some really funny humor, this book was dumb. The concept was dumb. The husband was dumb. The town was dumb.

I finished it thinking to myself, wow that’s it??

Sorry, but I could not finish. The main character was completely unrelatable. She purchased a house, site unseen, after her husband left her. And then was surprised to find out there were major issues in her new community that she knew nothing about beforehand.

She let her ex-husband walk all over her while she stirred the pot within her community, filing complaints and taking (understandable) offense when she was brushed off by civic leaders.

I enjoy curmudgeons as much as the next person, but the snarkiness was 100% of the time, and I just didn't find anything to like about her at all. So, I gave up on reading the book halfway through.

Thank you to Elizabeth Castellano, Vintage Anchor and NetGalley for an advance review copy. I wish you all the best even though this book wasn't for me.

A cute story with a very annoying main character. Some character flaws are easy to overlook and some are not. Kathleen has every single flaw and yet she’s still a fun to read about character. I would not have guessed this is a debut novel. The story would also make good tv.

Sorry, but this book just wasn’t for me. I found the MC to be rude, entitled and abrasive. She moved to a beach town, downsized to a small house/shack, and started controversy with the local government and her neighbors.

Not sure how this was voted a GMA book club entry, though I do thank the author for sharing her hard work and wish her well.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

I had such high hopes for this beach read but unfortunately, it just went out with the tide. After 30+ years of marriage, Kathleen's husband Tom decides that he needs to go find himself and that the marriage is over. So what does she do? Kathleen up and sells their Kansas home, then buys a beach house (truly a shack) sight unseen across the country where she knows one person from long ago. When she arrives, lie is not the picture postcard that she envisioned. Kathleen is greeted by noise, dust, and workmen from construction going on next door of a little beach house becoming a huge mansion called the Sugar Cube. Kathleen joins up with the nosy neighbor across the way and together they fight the zoning board and planning commission. In fact, Kathleen is so obsessed with this that she totally ignores her daughter who is pregnant. From there is the whole plot of the book, one endlessly long tirade of negativity and complaints. No fun. No romance. No humor. Some surprises at the end with a bit of a twist of drama going on in the town. But to top that, Tom shows up in her driveway in an RV, having become bored on his world self-discovery cruise, and proceeds to became fast friends with everyone on the island whom Kathleen ignored. I really wished to see Kathleen blossom and change, but alas, she did not. Originally I feel this had the promise of a good story but it seems that it stalled and never took off. Save What's Left? Nothing really to save here. How disappointing.
Many thanks to #netgalley #savewhatsleft #elizabethcastellano #vintageanchor for the opportunity to read and review this book.

When Tom tells Kathleen that he’s unhappy with their life and marriage, Kathleen is confused and not quite sure what to do. They’ve been married for thirty years after all! While Tom’s off finding himself, Kathleen starts to think about herself and what she wants. She ends up in a small beach community on the east coast where her childhood friend, Josie sends Christmas cards from every year.

However, shortly after arriving Kathleen learns that it is not as idyllic as she pictured. Her new neighbor is cantankerous and there are so many code violations. The worst offender by far though is the Sugar Cube, a monstrosity of a house right next to Kathleen. As Kathleen becomes more and more involved with the town and politics, she realizes that while this isn’t the fairytale she dreamed up – it might be exactly what she needed.

What a cute and well written debut novel! I felt like I was right next to Kathleen on the beach. I know she says not to move to the beach right up front, but one of my dreams is to have a house, much like Kathleen’s, on the beach. This was such a delightful and cozy read and I could envision enjoying it with my toes in the sand. There wasn’t much of a plot necessarily, but it was more of a self-discover book for Kathleen. I did find myself chuckling throughout as well. I look forward to more books by this author.

I hope you check this one out June 27th!

Thank you so much to Vintage Anchor and Netgalley, @netgalley, for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to, at least, like this book as it feels like it could be (sort of) about me. However, after a crackling first couple of chapters I found that the plot rather lurched along in a lumpy and quite confusing way.

When Kathleen Dean’s husband announces, over pancakes, that he’s leaving her after 30 years of marriage to find himself, she decides that she wants an adventure too while he goes off on a cruise round the world. So she sells their house in Kansas and buys an ex-oyster shack in a seaside town. So far, so nicely and funnily set up.

But once Kathleen arrives in Whitbey, things go awry both for her and for me, the reader. The plot starts to revolve around small town planning and zoning regulations as Kathleen’s new neighbors are building a monstrosity next door. Unfortunately, though it is written with a sharp and entertaining wit, this is a frustrating and rather meandering plot line which is then compounded with a further subplot about something called the Bay Mission, which I never really understood. After many construction shenanigans, a rather unsatisfactory (not to say immoral) resolution is reached in which Kathleen does a complete volte face in character.

It felt to me like the author decided she needed more, much much more, to happen than just an organic tale of an older woman starting a new life in a new place. So a lot of stuff is jammed in that either leads nowhere or comes in from out of the blue.

The trouble with the plot being so overstuffed is that we often lose Kathleen’s voice which is a shame as, for me, it’s the high point of the novel. Though she’s rather hard to pin down as a character (and is often contradictory), her voice in the few relaxed spaces where it’s allowed to come through is a perfect encapsulation of an intelligent woman who has been suppressed for much of her life and is now finally bursting free.

So, for me, a very promising premise but a rather disappointing delivery.

Thanks to Anchor and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Kathleen was shocked when her husband decides to leave her, so she makes the decision to move to a small beach town. I had high hopes for this book, but sadly it did not catch me as I had hoped for. I look for certain things to happen in any book, that can really pull me in none did that with this book. Having said that it was a ok read, but not a great read. I would still recommend because I know not everyone enjoys the same books.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Penguin Random House, I am leaving my review voluntarily.

Save What’s Left had many bright moments for me…the jingle shells which I collected with my mom each summer, the current craze for pickleball, and the ultimate dream of living in a small quaint town near a beach. Kathleen’s husband told her he was leaving her and going on a world wide cruise so she followed her dream and bought a small house near the beach. She is soon embroiled in a frustrating dispute with the town over a house being built next door infringing on her property, which she calls the Sugar Cube, a clever name. I enjoyed reading her numerous emails about the ongoing rules the builders were breaking next door. The ridiculous nature of what they were doing became an actual turn off for me, as it was so out of the scope of what would be allowed.
Kathleen remained a cantankerous character on the pages of a book and I was never able to make a connection with her. I do believe if she had done something that drew me in I would have enjoyed this read more.
The reveal at the end was also so far fetched that it didn’t ring true. I had hopes when she and her daughter and husband were having a dispute in the Sugar Cube but I found myself identifying with her daughter. For me personally, this story had so much potential but it missed the mark.
Many thanks to Elizabeth Castellano, Anchor Books, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this just published book. Two and a half stars.