Susan Mallery’s books are comfort reads. None of them are keepers but they are solid entertainment. Sunset Bay is no exception.
Sunset Bay represents Mallery’s first foray into women’s fiction. The first part of the book takes place in 1998. Megan Greene is a small-town high school student who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. She has a fraught relationship with her hypochondriac mother and is irritated by her perfect little sister. The one person who seems to understand her is her father.
Megan’s love-interest is Travis Hunter, the town bad boy. Fresh from juvenile detention centre, Travis is not considered suitable boyfriend material. Nonetheless, she defies her parents and starts a relationship with him. This culminates in an illicit weekend trip to Las Vegas, where they are busted by Megan’s father.
Faced with the choice between leaving with Travis to an uncertain future, or returning home to an all-expenses-paid stint at university, Megan takes the safer option. Travis leaves town without her.
Fast forward ten years and Megan is a successful L.A. accountant with a handsome fiancé. She’s reasonably satisfied with how her life has turned out, although she has the occasional twinge of regret at not pursuing her dream of becoming a fashion designer.
Then her life starts to unravel. Neither her father nor her fiancé turn out to be the men she thought them to be. Megan’s life is further complicated by a coworker who is trying to sabotage her chance of promotion. Desperate for a break, Megan and her two best friends head for Las Vegas.
Travis has spent the past decade in Texas, building up a successful custom built motorbike business. Now he’s on his way home to help his sick mother. As coincidence would have it, he stops in Vegas en route. There he meets Megan and they rekindle their romance.
There’s a lot going on in this book. Frankly, I thought several of the secondary characters could have been culled. Megan’s friend, Payton, serves no purpose whatsoever. The romantic subplot involving Megan’s sister, Leanne, was boring. I would have preferred more time devoted to the evolution of the sisters’ relationship.
On a more positive note, I liked how the author handled the character of Megan’s father. His behavior was disappointing, but realistic. One of Mallery’s strengths as an author is her ability to write a sugary sweet story without giving all plot threads a happy resolution.
Despite my criticisms, the book was a fun read and a pleasant way to spend a few hours. Grade: B-
