Ocean Beach by Wendy Wax – Spotlight and Giveaway

Wendy Wax introduced Madeline Singer, Avery Lawford and Nicole Grant and their story of friendship, family and triumph in her book Ten Beach Road, which USA Today cited as one of “six that belong in your beach bag.” Now, these three head to Miami in OCEAN BEACH, on sale June 26. There they hope to use the skills they mastered renovating Bella Flora, a dilapidated historic home, to spin straw into gold once again, this time with the cameras rolling for the first season of their reality show, Do Over.

Wax, born and raised in St. Pete Beach, Florida is no stranger to Miami, but hadn’t visited there for years when she began researching OCEAN BEACH. Her first memories of it are from childhood. “When I was little, we stayed at the Fontainebleau Hotel and ate at Wolfie’s,” she says, admitting to a touch of nostalgia for the now closed landmark deli. Today, she knows much more about the city, especially South Beach’s legendary Art Deco structures, one of which inspired the home at the center of the novel.

The Millicent, a once fabulous Art Deco Streamline, and the reality show Do Over have Madeline, Avery and Nicole again donning their tool belts. Madeline’s daughter, Kyra, who created the pilot and sold the program, is at the helm for the first season, and she’s brought her six-month old, Dustin. Avery’s runaway mother, Deirdre, an interior designer, is there, too, as is The Millicent’s owner, show business legend and nonagenarian Max Golden.

Arriving in South Beach, they discover The Millicent in far worse shape than they expected and that the network has added a second camera crew with orders to film not just the renovation, but them, warts and all. With money running low, their private lives in limbo, and their only other source of income, Bella Flora, still unsold, no one is walking away—despite Do Over’s miniscule budget, their tiny salaries, saboteurs in their midst, and their concern that Max has much more riding on the project than reclaiming his home.

Then Dustin’s uber-celebrity father shows up, superstar wife, kids, body guards and entourage in tow and The Millicent becomes the focal point for paparazzi from around the world.

It’s make or break time for their careers—and possibly their friendship.  All in all, not the perfect circumstances for a major renovation.

As she has in the past, Wendy Wax focuses on women and relationships, telling a story of adversity, friendships, family ties, joy and heartbreak, sharing her distinctive voice and leavening the struggles of her protagonists with her trademark honesty, wit and tenderness.

♦  ♦  ♦

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One lucky reader will win a copy of Ocean Beach

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