Waiting For The Storm by Marie Landry [blogtour]

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 381 KB
• Print Length: 205 pages

Seventeen-year-old Charlotte O’Dell knows this summer is going to suck. Her mother just died, her sister hates her, and her dad has completely checked out. Fulfilling her mother’s final wish, the family heads to Angel Island for the summer to stay in a beach house her mother once loved. 

After a year of being shut away taking care of her mother, Charlotte is numb and practically afraid of her own shadow; she hopes going to the island will give her the time and space she needs to begin healing, and an opportunity to bring her family back together. When she meets her mysterious neighbor, Ezra, it doesn’t take long for Charlotte to confess the issues she’s developed. Ezra begins giving Charlotte assignments to get over her fears, and although she accepts his tasks, all she really wants is to be with him. When she’s with Ezra, she’s able to forget the hollow ache in her heart and the fact that her family is falling apart. But Ezra has secrets…

Can Charlotte pull what’s left of her family together, mend her broken heart, and allow herself to fall for Ezra? Or is it all just a storm waiting to happen?

Cover: A nice, simple, relevant cover.

A novel about loss, life and love.
I really enjoyed this one.  It was a really sweet novel about a family trying to cope with their mum passing away but drifting apart.  They carry out her last wish by renovating a holiday house she would visit and loved when she was younger.
I really loved Charlotte's character.  I felt I could relate to her.  She's very bookish, loving to curl up and escape into a book, and starts blogging for the local library.  Obviously she was going to strike a chord with me.
The romance aspect was sweet.  I really liked Ezra.  They really are 'two peas in a pod'.  While their friendship was great, I didn't feel any great chemistry between them, so I wish there had been more to make the romance 'gel' a bit more.
I think the grief process was tackled really well in this book.  Each one of the family deals with it in a different way- her dad becomes 'Zombie Dad', her sister Ella acts out, and Charlotte's sleep patterns are effected, after taking care of her mom for such a long time she can't break it.
I definitely recommend giving this one a try.
3/5 stars.