All the Days of Summer by Nancy Thayer ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

Heather Willette has a good life in Concord, Massachusetts--complete with a husband who runs his own business and a son to take up his mantle one day. But now that her marriage has fizzled out and Ross, her only child, is graduating from college and getting serious with his girlfriend, Heather wonders if that life is the one she really wants. Ready to seek out her own happiness and discover herself again, Heather decides to leave her husband and rent a cottage on Nantucket. And her plan is going perfectly--until Ross announces he's moving to Nantucket to work at his girlfriend's family's construction business instead of going back home to work with his own father, like he'd promised. Worst of all for Heather, this means having to get along with her.

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

May 2023; Ballantine Books; 978-0593358450
audio, ebook, print (352 pages); women's fiction

There are always so many summer beach reads that it is difficult to get to them all during the summer months. And sometimes in the dark, cold months of winter, it is fun to visit the warm seaside even if it is just in the pages of a book. And I love reading about Nantucket. If you also ran out of time this summer to read All the Days of Summer by Nancy Thayer, now would be a great time to pick it up.

I like Thayer's books as they usually feature a multi-generational cast of characters. In this book, we have two college graduates who are in love and then we have their parents. So we have a couple who are just starting out, a couple whose daughter has returned to learn the family business, and then there is Heather who has just decided to divorce her husband. With all these characters in different phases of their lives, it adds layers to the story.

I really liked the characters. Kailee and Ross, the young couple, have a pretty typical romance novel plot and I didn't care as much for their storyline. But I did like how they felt realistic. So many college graduates think they are going to start their lives at the level that their parents are living. I almost laughed out loud that Kailee just assumed her parents would gift her a house on the island when she got married. Thankfully her mother set her straight.

Speaking of Kailee's mother. She was a pretty complex character. She is kind of in the background for a lot of story but I could see that there was something beneath the surface - my guess as to what was going on with her was wrong which made her an even more interesting character.

Heather was a much bigger part of the book.  She is starting life over, and in many ways, she is like the young couple but with the maturity that comes with life experiences. 

There is warmth and all the feel goods with this story.

Buy All the Days of Summer at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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