Save What's Left: A GMA Book Club Pick
by Elizabeth Castellano
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GMA BOOK CLUB PICK - ONE OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER - An outrageously funny debut novel about a woman who moves to a small beach town looking for peace, only to find herself in an all-out war with her neighbors.
"Irreverent and unexpectedly tender, this story takes neighborhood feuding to new heights and finds beauty and reinvention in unlikely places." --Oprah Daily
"Brings a tongue-in-cheek tone to the beach read genre."--TIME
When Kathleen Deane's husband, Tom, tells her he's no longer happy with his life and their marriage, Kathleen is confused. They live in Kansas. They've been married thirty years. Who said anything about being happy? But with Tom off finding himself, Kathleen starts to think about what she wants. And her thoughts lead her to a small beach community on the east coast, a town called Whitbey that has always looked lovely in the Christmas letters her childhood friend Josie sends every year.
It turns out, though, that life in Whitbey is nothing like Josie's letters. Kathleen's new neighbor, Rosemary, is cantankerous, and the town's supervisor won't return Kathleen's emails, but worst of all is the Sugar Cube, the monstrosity masquerading as a holiday home that Kathleen's absentee neighbors are building next door to her quaint (read: tiny) cottage. As Kathleen gets more and more involved in the fight against the Sugar Cube and town politics overall, she realizes that Whitbey may not be a fairytale, but it just might be exactly what she needed.
Save What's Left can best be described as the "un-beach read." It pulls back the curtain on life in a beach town, revealing the true cost of a pretty view. Told from the candid and irreverent perspective of a newcomer turned local, this is a story of forgiveness, fortitude, and second chances.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9780593469194
- Binding
- Paperback
- Authors
- Elizabeth Castellano
- Publisher
- Vintage
- Published Date
- May 7, 2024
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 304
- Physical Info
- 7.7 in L x 5.1 in W (0.45 lb)

I really wanted this book to be good! It wasn't. It droned on and on with complaining and pointless dialogue and then the end was completely anti-climactic! In my book club of 10, a few couldn't even finish it. The rest of us gave it a 1 star.
Save your money and your time. I highly recommend passing on this book. I’ve never read a book with such excessive complaining; it seemed to be the entire plot. I’m not entirely sure what the author intended to convey, but I’ve left feeling confused and unsatisfied.
Quite frankly, it was a good story that held my interest but it almost lost me early with the Kansas City description. She said it has a football team and Fortune 500 companies so I know she meant my hometown of Kansas City, MISSOURI. She kept saying it is in Kansas. So I got over that, and it’s an engaging tale with much humor . I recommend it. I like her writing style.
Well written and funny. Great book when you want something upbeat and entertaining. I'll be looking for more Castellano books in the future.
Normally when I read a book that’s bad, I just either finish it, or don’t, and go on with my life figuring that maybe it’s just not to my liking. But from the first page, I kept thinking, “how the hell did this book get published?”. I was waiting for a plot, a single likable character, some semblance of a story. It was just one unending rant about everything that the main character didn’t like about the town she moved to. Her husband is an unsympathetic jerk. None of the other characters in the book is even worth mentioning. I read the entire book because I felt that a plot had to appear at some point. I was wrong. If I could have given it zero stars, I would have.
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