Summer of Love by Kerri Maher ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

 

In this moving novel about the transformative power of storytelling, three women make life-changing decisions set in motion by the 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco, shaping the legacy of their family’s Napa Valley winery forever.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.  A free book was provided for an honest review.

July 2026; Berkley; 978-0593816394
audio, ebook, print (368 pages); historical fiction

This well-written dual timeline novel about two sisters and a daughter is centered around the summer of love – 1967 in California.  The story is told by all three main characters and gives the reader an all-encompassing look at what is actually going on.

The Main Characters:

• Winnie is the younger sister who moves to San Francisco when she graduates from college to live a hippie lifestyle and become a poet.  She knows that she won’t be happy staying at the family vineyard in Napa. When she connects with an old boyfriend, she finally finds true happiness in her life.  She and Lincoln are each other’s muse – his songwriting and her poetry meld together and help her love her new life.
• Miranda is the older sister who wants to stay at the vineyard and work to create new flavors of wine that will compete with French wines. She worries about her sister, and there is always a strong bond between them.  The choices that each sister makes will lead them on totally different paths for their entire lives.
• Dawn is hiding secrets from her mother, Miranda. Her life is a mess due to alcoholism, and she is working on her recovery.  Her mother doesn’t know that she has a problem with alcohol, and Dawn wants to keep it a secret, mostly because her mom now runs a well-known winery.  As Dawn begins to unravel a big family secret, it will involve all three women.  Will the secret bring the three family members closer together or tear them apart?

Captured the time period

The author does a fantastic job of describing life and attitudes during this time period.  The importance of the music and the anti-war movement is the background to the story that’s being told.  On one side, we see the free thought and poetry of the time, while the other sister lives a totally different life, working hard to create a family legacy.  

All three of the main characters were well written, but my favorite was Miranda, who chose to work on the family vineyard but always loved and worried about her sister, who was definitely part of the counterculture in San Francisco.  

The Verdict

Even though the book deals with many difficult subjects – addiction, mental health and family issues – the feeling at the end is hopeful that family love can help people through difficult occurrences in life.  This was a great look at life in the 60s with results that echoed throughout later years.

Buy Summer of Love at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.

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