Title: The Last Bathing Beauty
Author: Amy Sue Nathan
Published: April 2020, Lake Union Publishing
Format: Paperback, 304 pages
Source: Author
Summary:
A former beauty queen faces the secrets of her past—for herself and the sake of her family’s future—in a heartfelt novel about fate, choices, and second chances.
Everything seemed possible in the summer of 1951. Back then Betty Stern was an eighteen-year-old knockout working at her grandparents’ lakeside resort. The “Catskills of the Midwest” was the perfect place for Betty to prepare for bigger things. She’d head to college in New York City. Her career as a fashion editor would flourish. But first, she’d enjoy a wondrous last summer at the beach falling deeply in love with an irresistible college boy and competing in the annual Miss South Haven pageant. On the precipice of a well-planned life, Betty’s future was limitless.
Decades later, the choices of that long-ago season still reverberate for Betty, now known as Boop. Especially when her granddaughter comes to her with a dilemma that echoes Boop’s memories of first love, broken hearts, and faraway dreams. It’s time to finally face the past—for the sake of her family and her own happiness. Maybe in reconciling the life she once imagined with the life she’s lived, Boop will discover it’s never too late for a second chance.
My thoughts: This is the first book I've read by Amy Sue Nathan and it definitely won't be the last. I was completely captivated by this novel and my only complaint was that I wasn't reading this while sitting on the beach!
I loved this book...I loved the characters and the dual timeline and the messages that it conveyed...I loved everything about it and I absolutely finished this book with a few tears in my eyes. It was the perfect book to lose myself in with everything happening right now and I find myself gravitating towards these kinds of books more and more at this point.
I'm always a sucker for a really good story about family secrets and this one is chock full of them, and I loved the way it played out. Moving seamlessly back and forth between the present and 1951, we find out what happened to derail Betty Boop Stern's life that she had planned so carefully at 18. She loved one boy and ended up marrying another and abandoned her plans of college and career. What happened to cause this?
I love when we get to hear characters reminisce about their earlier days. It reminds me of my grandmother and her friends, when we would listen to them tell their stories of their younger days. And this one did not disappoint. While I had some guesses as to what happened here, I was not able to put all the pieces together, but that didn't matter. This wasn't a mystery so much as understanding why Betty did what she did. It's about second chances and forgiveness, love and understanding, and I think as Betty retells her story, she realizes that she has all that and more.
I highly recommend this book and know that I will definitely be checking out the author's other books.