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BEACH COLORS
BEACH COLORS
BY SHELLEY NOBLE
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Fans of Jane Green and Kristin Hannah are going to adore Beach Colors, a fun, heartwarming, and sandy story from Shelley Noble, a former dancer and choreographer whose credits include the films Mona Lisa Smile and The Game Plan.
While renowned designer Margaux Sullivan was presenting her highly praised collection during New York City's Fashion Week, her husband was cleaning out their bank account. A week after he disappeared, the bank foreclosed on Margaux's apartment and business.
Suddenly broke, betrayed, and humiliated, Margaux has nowhere else to turn to but home: the small coastal town of Crescent Cove, Connecticut, where she once knew love, joy, and family before she put them behind her on the climb to fame. When she's stopped for speeding by local interim police chief Nick Prescott, Margaux barely remembers the "townie" boy who worshipped her from afar every summer. But Nick is all grown up now, a college professor who gave up his career to care for his orphaned nephew, Connor. Though still vulnerable, Margaux is soon rediscovering the beauty of the shore through young Connor's eyes . . . and, thanks to Nick, finding a forgotten place in her heart that wants to love again.
But as she continues to work on a bold new line that will get her back into the game, Margaux realizes that soon she will have to make the most important, most difficult decision of her life. . . .
While renowned designer Margaux Sullivan was presenting her highly praised collection during New York City's Fashion Week, her husband was cleaning out their bank account. A week after he disappeared, the bank foreclosed on Margaux's apartment and business.
Suddenly broke, betrayed, and humiliated, Margaux has nowhere else to turn to but home: the small coastal town of Crescent Cove, Connecticut, where she once knew love, joy, and family before she put them behind her on the climb to fame. When she's stopped for speeding by local interim police chief Nick Prescott, Margaux barely remembers the "townie" boy who worshipped her from afar every summer. But Nick is all grown up now, a college professor who gave up his career to care for his orphaned nephew, Connor. Though still vulnerable, Margaux is soon rediscovering the beauty of the shore through young Connor's eyes . . . and, thanks to Nick, finding a forgotten place in her heart that wants to love again.
But as she continues to work on a bold new line that will get her back into the game, Margaux realizes that soon she will have to make the most important, most difficult decision of her life. . . .
AN EXCERPT FROM BEACH COLORS:
Margaux Sullivan stood unmoving and listened to the echoes of her failure. Only a week ago, her Manhattan loft had been thrumming with energy, excitement, and caffeine, as twenty-five pattern cutters, drapers, and seamstresses worked round the clock to prepare M Atelier’s latest collection for the event of the year. New York City’s Fashion Week.
Now it was just an empty space. The finished pieces carted away in cardboard boxes. The long work tables cleared of everything but a few forgotten scraps of fabric. The manikins repossessed, the brick walls bare except for the row of five by three foot photographs of Margaux’s award-winning fashions that her creditors left behind.
The asymmetrical black, moiré satin sheath had been her first CDFA award winner. The black wool Tuxedo had made the cover of Vogue. Marie Claire had called the black tulle ball gown—not a fluffy evening dress, but cutting edge stark—“Tulle with a Bite.”
The models stared back at her, caught in time, sleek and scowling. This dress will make you thin, this will make you beautiful, this will make men adore you. Black, unique and powerful. They’d promised to make Margaux’s dream come true.
Now it was just an empty space. The finished pieces carted away in cardboard boxes. The long work tables cleared of everything but a few forgotten scraps of fabric. The manikins repossessed, the brick walls bare except for the row of five by three foot photographs of Margaux’s award-winning fashions that her creditors left behind.
The asymmetrical black, moiré satin sheath had been her first CDFA award winner. The black wool Tuxedo had made the cover of Vogue. Marie Claire had called the black tulle ball gown—not a fluffy evening dress, but cutting edge stark—“Tulle with a Bite.”
The models stared back at her, caught in time, sleek and scowling. This dress will make you thin, this will make you beautiful, this will make men adore you. Black, unique and powerful. They’d promised to make Margaux’s dream come true.
To finish reading this excerpt, visit Author Shelley Noble's website HERE.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A former professional dancer and choreographer, Shelley Noble lives in New Jersey. Read Shelley Noble's "Bio" in her own words on her website HERE.
PRAISE FOR BEACH COLORS:
“Honest and deeply moving, BEACH COLORS proves that home is where the heart is.”
— Lisa Verge Higgins, author of The Care and Maintenance of Friendship
“Shelley Noble’s “Beach Colors” is a deft, graceful rendering of the journey home to love.”
— New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Grace Burrowes
"With broad brushstrokes Shelley Noble paints a beautiful, vivid picture of a small coastal town we wish we grew up in and tight-knit friends we wish we were part of. We're taken on Margaux Sullivan's journey of loss, healing, rediscovery of self, and love of a man and his boy. With Noble's words we see sunsets and sea grass, fashion and frustration, life, love and happily ever afters. I can't wait for her next book!"
— Robin Kaye, author of The Domestic Gods Series
— Lisa Verge Higgins, author of The Care and Maintenance of Friendship
“Shelley Noble’s “Beach Colors” is a deft, graceful rendering of the journey home to love.”
— New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Grace Burrowes
"With broad brushstrokes Shelley Noble paints a beautiful, vivid picture of a small coastal town we wish we grew up in and tight-knit friends we wish we were part of. We're taken on Margaux Sullivan's journey of loss, healing, rediscovery of self, and love of a man and his boy. With Noble's words we see sunsets and sea grass, fashion and frustration, life, love and happily ever afters. I can't wait for her next book!"
— Robin Kaye, author of The Domestic Gods Series
MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
BEACH COLORS by Shelley Noble is your quintessential beach read and I say that as it has all the proper elements to fit the category, especially the setting. Placed in Crescent Cove, a small coastal village, BEACH COLORS reunites two people who but for their careers and life paths, might have been already together in this splendidly detailed hamlet. The town becomes as much a part of the story as do the characters as it paints that mental image of an ideal place to fall in love and spend your life.
Engaging throughout, the main character, Margaux Sullivan, is so well written that readers will feel for her right away. She is a successful designer when her husband comes out of nowhere and shatters her world. He empties their home and bank account and leaves without a word. Shocked beyond comprehension, Margaux draws herself up to return to the town where she grew up and knew love and family and friends.
An encounter with Nick Prescott, interim police chief, on Margaux’s “speedy” way into town, brings back memories of their youth mostly for Nick. He adored her from afar but realizes he has too much on his plate as an adult to think about it now. Nick had been a college professor when he took on the job of raising of his nephew Connor who has been abandoned by his mother. Connor is closed to the world but slowly and surely, in the predictable way, a connection is made with Margaux. This brings tension to Margaux and Nick and they must decide whether getting back to their “real lives” is really what they are meant to do. Could Margaux actually give up the hustle and bustle of design, and Nick leave behind the hallowed halls of collegiate learning?
Shelley Noble has done a fine job of drawing the reader in with all the delightful characters including Margaux’s friends, Grace and Brianna. How the story plays out as Margaux and Nick struggle to balance their professional and personal lives makes for a satisfying and fun read. I think Noble may just have a series on her hands if she chooses to take it on and expand on these characters.
GIVEAWAY
THANKS TO MARY AND WILLIAM MORROW
BOOKS, I HAVE ONE COPY OF BEACH COLORS
TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE LUCKY FOLLOWER
--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
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HOW TO ENTER:
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GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
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GOOD LUCK!
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