The Girl I Used to Be by Heidi Hostetter (that summer book .txt) 📕

refusal was immediate. “Absolutely not,” she scoffed. “An artist should never give away her work. I will settle for a sold sign though, firmly affixed to the wall there. So I can be sure the photograph is mine. And I’ll come back later when you’re officially open. Thank you for letting me barge in now.”

Jill glanced outside at the long black car parked along the curb, a uniformed man waiting beside it. Surely she hadn’t planned to drive back to Summit?

Jill called her back. “Would you like to come inside for some coffee while you wait?”

To her surprise, Mrs. Brockhurst laughed. “Oh, honey, it’s okay. I’m going to visit Wim Ivey. Pretty sure I’m gonna surprise the hell outta her.”

Jill was so stunned at the drop in facade and the New Jersey accent, she felt her mouth fall open.

At that, Mrs. Brockhurst laughed harder. “Wim and I go way back. We worked Atlantic City back in the day. She was a psychic, did you know? Had an act with a crystal ball and everything, but that’s a story for another day.”

After Mrs. Brockhurst left, Jill returned to her cottage. She stood on the back deck and looked out over the ocean, watching waves break against the jetty, pushing foamy water across the sand and filling tidepools along the shore. Further out, an ocean tanker crept along the horizon, and a trio of seagulls swept across the blue sky. Despite the shaky start, she’d come to love Dewberry Beach. She’d found a home here and imagined Aunt Sarah and Uncle Barney would be pleased.

“Jilly?” Ellie called from the kitchen. “Phone for you—it’s Danny. He wants to know what time to pick you up for dinner before your show.”

Smiling, Jill went inside to answer the call.

If you were swept away by Jill’s story, you will absolutely love The Shore House. As summer comes to Dewberry Beach, a mother and daughter must confront the things unsaid in their past…

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The Shore House

A Dewberry Beach book

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When the Bennett family arrive at the shore house to spend the summer together, they bring more baggage than just suitcases…

When Kaye Bennett, matriarch of the Bennett family, summons her adult children to the shore house, she anticipates a vacation full of nostalgia. It’s a chance to relive the carefree joy of summers past: burned hot dogs and drippy popsicles, sunburns and mosquito bites, the crash of the ocean waves and the sounds of crickets at night... But when Kaye’s son and daughter arrive, late and uncooperative, it becomes clear the family desperately need to reconnect.

Kaye and her daughter Stacy have been quietly at odds for years and resentment has grown around words unsaid. Faced with spending the summer months in such close quarters, Kaye is determined to remind Stacy of happier times and why she once loved their beautiful beachside home.

But both Kaye and Stacy are holding something back. And only when a heart-stopping moment on the beach puts what Stacy most loves at risk are the two women finally able to set free the secrets in their shared past.

Will opening up to each other about what’s in their hearts allow the Bennett family to finally heal? A story of love, forgiveness and the power of family bonds, The Shore House is a heartfelt summer read, perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand, Pamela Kelley and Nancy Thayer.

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Books by Heidi Hostetter

Dewberry Beach

The Shore House

The Girl I Used to Be

Lowcountry

Things We Surrender

Things We Keep

Inlet Beach

The Inheritance

A Light in the Window

Available in Audio

Dewberry Beach

The Shore House (Available in the UK and the US)

A Letter from Heidi

Thank you so much for choosing to read The Girl I Used to Be. If you enjoyed it and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, please sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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Isn’t it funny how the smallest encounter can grow into something so much more?

The main character for this story, Jill DiFiore, was a brief mention in The Shore House, the wife of a secondary character and that’s it. In fact, she didn’t even make an appearance at the party her husband hosted. I thought it was odd, but lots of my characters are odd. When The Shore House ended, Jill’s voice got louder. She told me she had a story of her own and it was time to tell it. So I let her talk. Turned out she had a lot to say, and The Girl I Used to Be is her story.

For me, it was wonderful to return to Dewberry Beach, this time in the off-season. In October, the small shore town takes on a whole different look. Summer guests have left, their vacation homes shuttered until Memorial Day. The off-season on the New Jersey shore is every bit as beautiful as it is in the summer, but now the focus is on a community coming back together as daily life for residents falls into an easy routine. Instead of fireflies and sparklers and crabbing off the pier, there’s hot tea and spice cake and catching up with neighbors you’ve only managed to wave to in the busy summer months.

Jill comes to town unexpectedly and doesn’t intend to stay long. She has plans for her life and they don’t include Dewberry. But the New Jersey shore works its magic, and the results are unexpected. I hope you liked the story—and the ending—as much as I did.

My next book will be set in Dewberry Beach too, this time with a different family and different circumstances to address. I look forward to visiting the shore again and I hope you’ll join me.

I hope you loved reading The Girl I Used to