Beautiful Place by the Sea by Danielle Smyth (pub date 02/13/26)

 

From Danielle Smyth, the best selling author of Ghost Writing (a Shelf Media 2025 Top Notable Indie Book and 2025 North American Book Award Gold Medalist) comes Beautiful Place by the Sea. It's a heartfelt coastal romance set in a small Maine vacation town—complete with a cozy bookshop, a spicy love story that starts off on entirely the wrong foot, and family secrets that refuse to stay buried. It’s about grief and healing, inherited stories, and the places that call us home even when we try to run from them.

At the center of it all is Ivy Parker, a disillusioned school librarian fresh off a devastating breakup. Seeking respite from her life outside Boston, she escapes to the seaside town that has always felt like home. Ivy takes a part-time job at the local bookshop and immediately butts heads with Oliver Clarke, the town’s guarded, infuriatingly attractive bookseller. Their early clashes give way to simmering tension—and before long, feelings neither of them expected.

When Ivy uncovers a decades-old family secret, it reveals unexpected lessons about true love and the choices people make for those they care about. These revelations force her to consider what she truly wants—and as she grows closer to Oliver, they must figure out how to make space for each other without losing themselves in the process.

Beautiful Place by the Sea is a slow-burn romance about second chances, seaside magic, and finding the kind of love that feels like coming home. https://astralumenpress.com/products/beautiful-place-by-the-sea

I was sucked into Beautiful Place by the Sea on the first page with just two simple words, Beach Haven.  For Ivy, Beach Haven is the name of her family’s rental property in Maine where she and her family spent their summer vacations.  For me Beach Haven is the shore town where I’ve been spending some of my summer since I was a baby.  Like Ivy these annual trips and the locations are special and sacred, full of memories of our pasts, a sanctuary and a place to renew our hope and spirit.  Like Ivy, I am a lifelong reader and while I didn’t become a librarian like she did, I did work at Waldenbooks/Borders for 10 years and it was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.  However just like Ivy loved going to Shoreline books every summer as a kid, I loved visiting the small used bookstore on the Island.  It was chock full of Harlequin romances and Sweet Valley High books.  They of course had a little of everything but those were my most frequent pickups.  You could get 10 Harlequins for around $2.00?!!! Can you believe those 80s prices.  Ahhhh but I digress, back to the subject at hand, Beautiful Place by the Sea was one of the sweetest romances I’ve read in a long time and not just the romance between Ivy and Oliver but the it was also a beautiful love story about family and how meaningful certain people and places can be in our lives.  Smyth did a fantastic job with creating these engaging characters and crisp realistic dialogue.  If you’re looking for the perfect romance just in time for Valentine’s Day look no further than Beautiful Place by the Sea.

I was honored to receive a digital copy of Beautiful Place by the Sea from the author, Danielle Smyth, as part of her “street team” in exchange for an honest review.  Beautiful Place by the Sea officially releases 2/13/26 but you can pre-order you copy now by visiting the publisher’s website (linked above.)  Also check out the author on Instagram for more information @danielle.smyth.books

 

 

The Lightning Bottles by Marisa Stapley

 

Jane Pyre was once half of the famous rock ‘n’ roll duo, the Lightning Bottles. Years later, she’s perhaps the most hated—and least understood—woman in music. She was never as popular with fans as her bandmate (and soulmate), Elijah Hart—even if Jane was the one who wrote the songs that catapulted the Lightning Bottles to instant, dizzying fame, first in the Seattle grunge scene, then around the world.

But ever since Elijah disappeared five years earlier and the band’s meteoric rise to fame came crashing down, the public hatred of Jane has taken on new levels, and all she wants to do is retreat. What she doesn’t anticipate is the bombshell that awaits her at her new home in the German countryside: the sullen teenaged girl next door—a Lightning Bottles superfan—who claims to have proof that not only is Elijah alive, he’s also been leaving secret messages for Jane. And they need to find him right away. Simon & Schuster

I heard about The Lightning Bottles from one of my favorite booktokers, Lovie, and immediately went to go check it out of the library and I am so happy I did.  I know “I couldn’t put it down” is a cliché but it was so true for The Lightning Bottles.  I love books that are focused on the music industry and creating music.  While I don’t play any instruments like my many talented family members, I do love to sing and had the time of my life singing on stage with my cousin’s band this past summer.  It was incredible to just put all our creative energy together and create moments of pure joy.  The Lightning Bottles immerses you in this creative joy and shows the epic highs and lows of the music industry as well as examining the constant extra scrutiny put upon successful women.  Like the protagonist Jayne, I have been misunderstood and labeled the “b-word” just by standing up for myself.   I also loved the 90s grunge music setting, it was the sound of my high school years and immediately filled me with nostalgia.  The Lightning Bottles isn’t just a love letter to music but a love letter to true love and found family.  It was so many things contained in 294 pages of perfection.  

 

 

The Book of Sheen by Charlie Sheen

 

Of all the Hollywood bad boys in history, Charlie Sheen might be the baddest of them all. Now nearly eight years sober, for the first time, and in his own words, Charlie—who wrote the book himself—will truly tell all. He writes of his childhood on film sets with his father Martin Sheen, to his teen years making home movies with the Penn brothers, to early fame with roles in Platoon, Wall Street, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, to his breakout sitcom role on Spin City, and his controversy-riddled time coping with the chaos of divorces and drugs on the set of Two and a Half Men. Charlie Sheen should not be alive to tell these stories.

The Book of Sheen is a heartfelt (and hilarious) memoir of the mistakes we make and the demons we can’t shake. It is a candid portrait of the complicated, controversial, and one-of-a-kind Charlie Sheen.

From the golden days of 1980s Hollywood and Los Angeles, filled with heartthrobs like Rob Lowe, Sean Penn, and Sheen's brother Emilio Estevez; to the humid jungles of the Philippines and mock-army training that crossed dangerously into life-threatening for the filming of Platoon; to the early aughts' sitcom dominance replete with coke-filled writers' rooms, every Sheen anecdote drips with shocking lucidity, humor, and self-deprecation.
 
Sheen deftly leads readers through his childhood as the son of award-winning actor Martin Sheen (a "Cathoholic"), which took the family from New York to Mexico to Italy and beyond; his competitive brotherhood against fellow teen heartthrob and Brat Pack member Emilio; his debilitating stutter that continued into adulthood and which he attempted to hide from producers and directors; his friendships with Chris and Sean Penn, Rob Lowe, Nic Cage, Matthew Perry, and other troubled stars of the era; his adventures on and off camera for films like Platoon and Wall Street and shows like Spin City and Two and a Half Men; his challenges in fatherhood and the kids that ultimately got him sober; and more. Woven throughout is a constant: addiction, and Sheen's perpetual battle with it.
 
Riddled with regrets, filled with humor, and finally candid, Sheen delivers a truly hilarious no-holds-barred memoir, one fitting for a star of his caliber and controversy. Simon & Schuster

Posting memories of 2016 is the viral internet trend these days but if you rewind the clock even further to Spring of 2011 you may remember #winning and all the viral memes it spawned after Charlie Sheen’s very public meltdown and subsequent firing from his hit TV series.  This is just one of the many stories Sheen reveals his truth on in his memoir, The Book of Sheen. 

My favorite parts of the memoir were the stories he told about growing up and making scripted movies with his brother Emilio Estevez along with the  neighborhood kids like the Penn siblings and being on famous film sets and locations with father Martin.  It was really cool to hear how creative he was and the talent he had from a very young age.  Sheen also delves deep into his struggles with substance abuse.  He doesn’t hold back from the humbling, embarrassing and life threatening experiences he went through.  Despite his harrowing experiences and struggles he hasn’t lost his sense of humor.  At one point he quips that all the films he made in 1997 are so bad that no one would watch them.  As a connoisseur of bad movies, I accept your challenge Mr. Sheen.  I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir and wish Charlie all the best for success in his sobriety.

I borrowed The Book of Sheen from my local library as can you or you can pick it up at your local bookstore or online retailer.  

 

 

Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

 

In seven days, Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old and back home, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Until Halloween night, when she is violently attacked by an unseen intruder, suffering a catastrophic head injury. Doctors are certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a fatal aneurysm. To her parents’ dismay, Jet rejects an extremely risky operation in order to guarantee herself at least a few more days.

Jet never thought of herself as having enemies. But now, in the one week she has left, she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.

As her condition deteriorates, she reconnects with her childhood friend Billy, the only one willing to help her. With Billy at her side, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:

Jet is going to solve her own murder. - Penguin Random House

 

“In seven days, Jet Mason will be dead.”  No, this isn’t a sequel to The Ring but rather the latest novel from Holly Jackson and her first for adults.  Twenty-seven-year-old Jet Mason survives a brutal attack only to discover that the assault left her with life threatening injuries that will kill her in just seven days.  So, she sets out to solve her own murder.  I loved the twist of having a living victim solve their own murder.  I also loved Jet’s strength, sarcasm and dark humor.  There were also numerous plausible suspects and motives to this crime, so it kept me guessing to the very end.  While the novel is somewhat dark by nature of its subject matter, it also has a sprinkling of a love story for balance as well as contemplative nature on what makes life meaningful and savoring every moment.

I borrowed my copy of Not Quite Dead Yet from my local library as can you or you can pick it up from your local bookstore or online retailer.  You can also visit the publisher's website for more information.