Beach Reads: The Seahorse Cottage

Everything that could go wrong goes wrong on Bethany Wellington’s annual Cape May vacation. For two weeks every summer, the Wellington family visits their quaint Seahorse cottage in Cape May. After inheriting the home from his parents, Bethany’s husband, Benjamin, is the third-generation owner. But, just two days into their trip, everything changes in an instant when Benjamin dies and leaves behind his wife, three children, and a house full of secrets. The Seahorse Cottage by Coral Harper is an e-book series told in six parts, with a family uncovering many secrets and surviving a significant loss.

The story begins on the car ride to Cape May. Bethany, Benjamin, and their three children, Reese, James, and Hudson are eager to start their vacation. The kids cannot wait to hang out with the neighbor’s kids. After settling into the cottage, Benjamin and Bethany go out to dinner on their own, and they get into a car accident. Beth is left to pick up the pieces of her shattered family and return to Seahorse cottage.

The Seahorse Cottage series spans two years, allowing the story to flow from one part into another. Each story is told in Bethany’s perspective as she tackles life with the kids after her loss. The secrets Benjamin was hiding become evident when the police arrive at the cottage to issue an eviction notice. The Wellington family has only a few days to empty the house before it is subject to a sheriff’s sale to pay off unexpected debts.

The Seahorse Cottage

by Carol Harper
Kindle, 2020, 350 pages (6 parts)

Like real life, Cape May as written here is a tight-knit community with neighbors watching out for other neighbors. On one side of Seahorse Cottage are Carol and Dan, Bethany’s closest friends in Cape May. After Benjamin’s death, Carol and Dan immediately come to help the Wellingtons and offer to help Bethany pack up the house. As everyone is working on packing different rooms in the house, Bethany discovers stacks of letters hidden away in a desk drawer, which reveal an important secret kept from her by Benjamin. This secret can derail life as the Wellingtons know it.

When Seahorse Cottage goes up for sale, Carol and Bethany attend the auction. Bethany doesn’t want to lose the family home, which contains many memories of a once-happy family and the last place her children saw their father. Unfortunately, the cottage sells for more than Bethany can afford, but she is anonymously gifted the keys to it after the auction, much to her surprise.

As Bethany and the kids celebrate keeping the cottage, she is approached by her neighbor from the other side of the house, Peter. She discovers Peter had been keeping secrets of his own that also involved Benjamin. The surprises keep rolling in as Peter tells Bethany he wanted to make it up to her by buying her Seahorse Cottage, so the family could continue to stay in their home. Bethany is so happy the cottage will stay in the family and grateful to Peter for giving them a chance to have a better amicable relationship.

The Seahorse Cottage continues to have surprises and twists in each part, leaving the reader wondering what will happen next. The descriptions of the cottage evoke the many small cottages nestled in with the intricate Victorian architecture throughout Cape May.

The series of short books provides an intriguing method of storytelling with so many unexpected situations. The entire six-part series is 345 pages, making it a full-length novel.

The Seahorse Cottage also delves into the Wellington family’s life outside Cape May in an unnamed city a few hours away. The family returns after their tumultuous vacation to prepare for the school year and for Bethany to return to her full-time job running a bakery. This unidentified location is a deliberate choice on the author’s part and will allow readers to imagine another setting for part of the series.

Harper also covers the realistic aspects of a family struggling with the loss of a parent. Hudson, James, and Reese all have different ways of dealing with their grief, which is a significant focus of this story. In addition, readers uncover how Bethany adjusts to being a single mother while trying to run her bakery and keep her kids happy. The readers will also watch her foray into dating again, which leads to even more surprises on the family’s first vacation to Cape May without Benjamin.

The Seahorse Cottage closes with a third summer trip to Cape May, and it is just as shocking as the previous two years of vacations, if not more. It seems wherever the Wellington family goes, bombshells follow. Yet, through it all, the family stays close and supports each other through difficult times. Throughout the series, family drama and sticking together through thick and thin is a heavily relied-on theme. The Seahorse Cottage tackles very relatable family topics in a soap opera-like manner. Each of the six parts adds up to be one book that can easily be read while on vacation in Cape May. ■