The Last Beach Bungalow Book Review: In the Wake of Cancer, Can a Beach Home - or Any Home - Build Comfort and Security?

I'm certainly one of them, having memories of dream homes and nightmarish houses. When I picked up author Jennie Nash's first novel, The Last Beach Bungalow, I could relate to the desire of a woman to find a the perfect dream house... especially since that woman had just gone through a terrible bout with breast cancer.

April Newton is that woman, a vivid soul at the heart of this novel. Yes, that's right, it is a novel - but it reads like nonfiction, so believable that I had to check to make sure that what I was reading was in fact labeled fiction or a novel. It was but the author herself is a cancer survivor so the novel has that extra ring of authenticity to it. Even if you prefer nonfiction, you're likely to love this one. I did and it is one of those rare novels that I want to reread, if only to try and figure out how the writer created such a powerful book.

Here's what adds extra punch to this novel: April finds an ad that offers some lucky winner the chance to own The Perfect Beach Bunglow, a home built in 1928 in Redondo Beach, one that has soared in actual value. The owner of this house, however, doesn't want to sell her beach home to just anyone. Because she loves her house so much, she wants to pass it on to the right family or person. So she places a quirky ad in the paper, inviting people to tell her why they want this beach house. She is hoping for fate, faith and love to bring the right person to her. Optimistic? Definitely.

This ad segues perfectly with April's needs. Although her odds of surviving breast cancer have just improved dramatically, according to her doctors, she doesn't feel so joyful. The disease has left her feeling distanced from her husband, wary about the future and unable to celebrate being alive. Her husband, in a desperate act of love and faith, has been working on building the perfect dream home but April isn't in love with this house, even though it is going to have the best of everything, from granite counters to oversized kitchen cabinets.

Lovely as it is, it isn't her idea of the perfect home. Who can't relate to that? Whether your dream home is that 100 year old fixer-upper or a contemporary model embodying an architect's ideal vision, can't we all relate to the desire to find our place in the world? To "feel at home", whether that is in a Cape Cod house or simply by finding peace in our hearts and surrounding ourselves with family and friends?

That is one of the major themes of The Last Beach Bungalow. The charm of the book resides in the unique and special writer's voice behind the book as well as the details and vivid characters created by author Jennie Nash. I savored this book because of those details, from the memories of April's struggle with cancer to her career as a magazine writer. Every moment was a pleasure to read. I enjoyed learning about article ideas that could actually appear in magazines, reliving an interview (fictionalized but I wouldn't be surprised it was based on real interview) with Chuck Williams of Williams Sonoma and getting to know April's husband, the rhythms of her life and her varying emotions as she tried to find courage and resilience and hope for her future.

The main question, of course, is: will April win her dream home, the beach house or bungalow she craves so strongly?

And, of course, I'm not going to answer that question for readers of this review. However, I am going to note some other features of this book that should appeal to both readers and potential novel writers:

1. At the back of the book are a set of questions, labelled as Fourteen Conversation Starters for Home Seekers, Breast Cancer Survivors, Shoe Lovers and Others Who May Want To Discuss This Book With Their Friends Plus Twp Behind-The-Scene Moments from the Author.

The question section is definitely a conversation starter and if you never read the book at all, it would be worth purchasing for that section alone. Read it and you'll be motivated to think about the homes and people you've loved - and why. Read it and think about every house you've ever known, from that first tree house to a favorite room in a house. Read it and think about anyone you know who has had breast cancer.

The Behind-the-Scenes moments focus on the actual events that inspired the author to write The Last Beach Bungalow. Both of those moments will give you chills and make you wonder about what is "meant to be" in life. The first account focuses on finding a home and being a cancer survivor. It isn't fiction this time. It actually happened to the author.

And the second? There was a real-life contest to win a house. I'll let you read that one and find out what happened. It isn't what you expect and...no....Jennie Nash isn't the winner of that contest. But it sure provided some excellent material for the book she wrote!