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The winner of The Last Beach Bungalow, according to random.org is commenter #20, Anita Yancey! Congratulations, Anita! I’ve already emailed you for your address. 
Jennie Nash offered me a couple of signed copies of her book for October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Sorry, though…I’m keeping one for myself (which I read) and will be giving the other away.
The Last Beach Bungalow is about April who has just reached her 5 years cancer-free, which is a huge milestone for anyone who has had cancer. But she’s not happy, she’s restless, as the house her husband is having built is almost ready to move in to. April ends up hearing about this little beach bungalow in Redondo Beach that’s being offered to the right person for $300,000. The right person will be picked by the little old lady who is giving up the house to go live with her daughter.
April starts obsessing over this house, believing that the house is what will bring her out of this funk. She thinks this bungalow is the answer to all of her problems. And maybe it is, but she has to compete with thousands of people to get it.
This was a very nice, quick read. I don’t think that April really understands her husband and she hasn’t been working on her marriage, so it’s easy to feel the rift. Perhaps it was April’s insistence on studying her navel that made me feel disconnected from her, particularly when she’s one of the lucky ones who’s looked death in the eye and been able to say, “Not now. Not this time.” She knows what she needs to do to bring her marriage from tepid to hot.
It’s hard to remember that happiness comes from the inside, not the material things that we have surrounding us.
But I liked it. I liked the premise of someone essentially giving a house away to the most deserving person. I wonder, if I heard about something like that, what I might write? What do you think you would write?
Rating: 84 out of 100
Check out the author’s guest post over at Planet Books!
Here’s how you can enter:
- Leave a comment telling me whether you’d prefer a small(ish) older house with character or a big brand new house. That will get you one entry. Anyone who doesn’t do this will not be entered!
- To get three more entries, post about this on your blog with a link back to this post.
- If you don’t have a blog, email five friends telling them about this giveaway and cc me on the email so I know you’ve sent it. This will get you three more entries. If you have a blog and still want to email five friends, be my guest.
The whole wide world can enter, but if you win and you live outside of the US and Canada, please understand I will send this book the cheapest way possible. Meaning it’ll get on a donkey, reach the ocean, where it will then end up on a fish, which will deliver it to a whale, which will take it to the shore closest to you, so that some mangy mutt can grab it and deliver it to you, only for you to find that the mangy mutt won’t give it up without exchanging it for a little bit of meat. So beware.
Winner will be notified via email. Contest will close on October 19th.