UNDER THE GULF COAST SUN

By SKIP RHUDY

Romance / Coming of Age / Surfing

Publisher: Stoney Creek Publishing

Pages: 266

Publication Date: April 22, 2025

SYNOPSIS

This coming-of-age tale set against the sun-soaked beaches of 1970s Port Aransas, Texas, is a love letter to the people and culture of the Texas coast and the enduring allure of the Gulf of Mexico.

Eighteen-year-old Connor O’Reilly isn’t ready to leave his beloved hometown until the tourist girl he met the previous summer, Kassie Hernandez, returns to Port Aransas for one final vacation before college. Their tumultuous summer fling is wrecked by a freak accident in which Connor is lost at sea. His long years of surfing and fishing in the Gulf, as well as Kassie’s desperation to reunite with him, are pitted against the enormity and utter indifference of the sea.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Skip Rhudy grew up surfing in Port Aransas, Texas. He has translated poetry and prose from German to English, and translated Wolfgang Hilbig’s novella Die Weiber for his master’s thesis in 1990 at the University of Texas. His short stories were published in numerous small press magazines in the mid-1990s, and his novella One Punk Summer was published in 1993 and reprinted in 2021.

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REVIEW

What an entertaining read! A true destination romance, Under The Gulf Coast Sun took me to Port Aransas, a place I haven’t been, and to the nineteen seventies, a time not-too-far gone yet a whole lifetime ago. I am equally delighted and aghast that this book is considered a historical romance. I was already alive during the time setting of the story, so I’m feeling old. But I’m also not old enough to say I could relate to the characters in this coming-of-age love story.

Skip Rhudy did a wonderful job of infusing his characters with a balance of confidence, confusion, and insecurity that typifies teenagers of every generation yet placing them in distinct situations that could only have been experienced by the youth in the seventies and early eighties. The younger drinking age, the loose parental controls, and the existing media and technological selections are some examples that place this book in the past. Connor and Kassie are fully fleshed-out characters who acted true to their ages. They are sympathetic and easy to root for, having virtues and flaws that make them real.

Usually, I don’t like the main conflict in romance caused by a misunderstanding and lack of communication, but I understood why it happened here. I appreciate how Mr. Rhudy laid it out, so it came out organic and a natural offshoot of Connor and Kassie’s backgrounds.

The surfing scenes and the locations are described incredibly well, a testament to the author’s talent and lived experience. The dialogues flowed naturally. The language was plain, easily understood, and true to the time. My only critique is the head-hopping and unnecessary points of view from a couple of secondary characters.

Overall, a quick and enjoyable read.