I won this novel as a giveaway on Goodreads. 2.5 stars.

I tried really hard to like this novel more. It had a promising premise but it ended up greatly disappointing me. The Cottage at Glass Beach is about Nora, a politician's wife, who flees to the remote island of her birth with her two young daughters in the wake of her husband's infidelity. On the island, she reconnects with her aunt and meets a mysterious man, who may or may not be a mythical selkie.

I really liked the summary of this novel and was excited to see how Barbieri wove in the political element of Nora's husband, as well as the remote location in Maine. I liked the descriptions of Nora's mother and the other island inhabitants, as well as the many images of the ocean. Alos, I love novels set on islands, and while this sounded like a chick lit/beach read, it still sounded promising.

I was not impressed with the quality of writing in this novel. The dialogue was stilted and the actual narrative was poorly done. I know this was an advance reader's copy of the book, but it read as if Barbieri was writing in bullet points and had yet to flesh out the story and what actually happened. I also was disappointed in the quality of the dialogue, which seemed stilted.

I still think this novel has potential, if it could be fleshed out. In particular, I'd like to see more interaction/fleshing out of Nora's relationship with her husband. I think that would help give with the characterization issues this novel has and give Nora as a character a greater sense of history.