Author: Sandie Docker
Year of Release: 2020
Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
Genre: Modern & Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, Historical Romance
Release date: 16th March 2020
Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Synopsis
MYSTERIES
When Laura discovers an old photo of her grandmother, Lillian, with an intriguing inscription on the back, she heads to the sleepy seaside town of Banksia Bay to learn the truth of Lillian’s past. But when she arrives, Laura finds a community where everyone seems to be hiding something.
SECRETS
Virginia, owner of the iconic Beach Shack café, has kept her past buried for sixty years. As Laura slowly uncovers the tragic fragments of that summer so long ago, Virginia must decide whether to hold on to her secrets or set the truth free.
LIES
Young Gigi and Lily come from different worlds but forge an unbreakable bond – the ‘Sisters of Summer’. But in 1961 a chain of events is set off that reaches far into the future. One lie told. One lie to set someone free. One lie that changes the course of so many lives.
Welcome to the Banksia Bay Beach Shack, where first love is found and last chances are taken.
Review
Laura Prescott comes across an old photo of her grandmother Lillian, the photo holds an alluring inscription on the back unable to silence the continuous questions entering her brain about the photo, who is the stranger standing alongside her grandmother? Why was the photograph  and this town kept hidden from Laura by her grandmother for so long?
 Banksia Bay what are the secrets it keeps? But the most important question Laura finds herself asking is what has this stranger and this sleepy town got to do with her grandmother?  Laura puts her skills as an Investigative Journalist to good use heading to Banksia Bay a small coastal town in the hopes of finding answers to her growing questions.
Laura arrives in town and begins to slowly piece together the answers to her questions, the more she’s able to fill in the blanks the more the local owner of the iconic Beach Shack café Virginia begins to find herself remembering events of a past she thought and hoped were safely berried. Should she come clean expose the truth to this stranger whose arrival  in her beloved Banksia Bay ultimately changing  the lives of your loved ones forever? Or should she make sure the secrets stay secrets?
Once again Sandie Docker has set pen to paper having read and loved The Kookaburra Creek Café and The Cottage at Rosella Cove I had no doubts I would be adding this to my to-read pile if you haven’t discovered Sandie Docker I highly recommend getting on board.
The Banksia Beach shack is so well written I found the element of romance worked so well in this book, it wasn’t cringe-worthy at any strange, I’m not a reader of romance by any means, there have been a few times I’ve found myself so drawn to this genre thanks to a bright cover or intriguing synopsis but have been put off by the romance involved.
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Sandie  has mastered the craft of sewing the old with the new. If you read her previous offerings you’ll know what I mean, this time around I found myself eager to visit the Bakery and the other shops around town. During my time amongst these pages I wanted a strawberry milkshake, sadly not an option but there was homemade shortbread or two consumed. I also connected with the fact that Laura was a reader makes me curious to know what her favourite genre was.Â
One thing that has always drawn me to this Australian Author’s books is her ability to tell stories in locations you want to visit and then come home pack your bags and move there, using characters you can see yourself befriending, I love the attention to detail when it comes to describing Banksia Bay and the townspeople.
The use of flashbacks to help unveil the plot twist only added to this reader’s eagerness to keep reading. The Banksia Bay Beach Shack took me a day and a half to read, I just couldn’t put this down.  Even though I love Sandie’s other works I believe this one has to be my absolute favourite thus far, it has a little bit of everything friendship, secrets, first love, grief, self-discovery and acceptance.
I found myself moved by some of the events that take place in the book and even though I don’t want to spill the beans I really liked that there was an elements of surprise even if it made me somewhat sad,  I didn’t see it coming. I’m not big on surprises most of the time but the surprises here worked for the story, I also found that this made my bond with the characters even stronger.
I do have some unanswered questions  but perhaps the reader has been given license to make up their own mind?
I highly recommend The Banksia Bay Beach Shack to readers of Modern & Contemporary Fiction, I also believe this is one of those magical books that can break a reader out of their reading slump. One of my favourite reads and covers of 2020, I’m already eager to devour her next offering and wondering what bright cover awaits us all?                                       Â