Two women. One summer. One very special house.

Two women from different generations are bound together by a beloved beach house. Cara Rutledge, 50, rents her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Wyatt, 26, for the summer. Heather’s anxiety keeps her indoors with her caged canaries until the shorebirds–and a man who rescues them–lure her out to the beach. As the summer progresses and Heather’s heart opens to the rhythms of the island, Cara’s life reels with sudden tragedy. When their worlds shift like the sand under their feet these two very different women come together to discover their common bonds and unique strengths. So at summer’s end they, like the migrating shorebirds that come to the island every summer, too, can take flight.

“Reading this novel feels like a long, luxurious trip to the beach. Mary Alice Monroe writes gorgeously, with authority and tenderness, about the natural world and its power to inspire, transport, and to heal. Readers will love this story of two unforgettable women–one reeling from an unexpected tragedy, the other drawn into a daring and passionate new love.”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs

“Readers interested in environmental fiction highlighting endangered birds, turtles, and lands will delight in this latest novel featuring women who need the healing power of nature.”
—Library Journal, starred review

“…a skilled storyteller who never lets her readers down…she makes Isle of Palms come enticingly alive, calling all readers to this garden of paradise which is just ripe for a visit. Mary Alice Monroe creates characters that you wish/hope could be real people so that they could become your friends. And you feel if you could visit the Lowcountry they would be there waiting.”
—Jackie K Cooper, The Huffington Post

“Mary Alice Monroe understands that a house is never just a house. As we revisit The Beach House we are immersed in the heartbeat and pulse of her South Carolina Lowcountry as never before. Monroe’s singular ability to blend the natural world with the emotional world allows for a gorgeous novel, wondrously both bittersweet and also life-affirming. The story reveals its secrets with shorebirds and human hearts at the center of its graceful axis. No one else tells an insightful and powerful story quite like Mary Alice Monroe—and in BEACH HOUSE FOR RENT, you won’t be able to stop reading – for even that glass of sweet tea.”
— New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry