Summer on Lilac Island by Lindsay MacMillan ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

A witty and heartwarming escape about mothers and daughters, small-town dating, and the surprising ways we find our way home.

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July 2025; Harper Muse; 978-1400348077
audio, ebook, print (400 pages); women's fiction

Summer on Lilac Island has all the requirements of a great beach read - the setting was beautiful, the characters were likable, and there were happily ever after endings for all of the main characters.  

The Setting - This book took place on beautiful Mackinac Island in Michigan.  Mackinac Island is mostly a tourist destination and a real throwback to the past.  It is only accessible by ferry, and there are no cars allowed on the island.  I have been to the island, and reading this book made me want to pack a suitcase and go back for another fun-filled week at this beautiful location.

The Characters - There are three main characters:  Alice, the grandmother;  Eloise, the mother; and Gigi, the prodigal daughter who is returning to her family home for the summer.

• Alice had lost the love of her life and was dealing with grief.  But her first love has started paying attention to her again -- does he just want to be friends, or is he interested in more than friendship?  He and Alice are hiding a secret that may end any chance of them being more than friends.
• Eloise loved her island home.  She grew up there and raised her two daughters on the island.  Her husband left when the girls were young to try to find adventure because he thought life on the island was boring, but he returned occasionally and always left Eloise to hope that this time he would stay.  A visitor starts paying attention to Eloise.  Is this the summer that she'll learn she can love someone else?
• Gigi had run away from the island almost ten years earlier and had traveled and tried out many professions and many boyfriends.  She's going home to spend the summer on the island (but only the summer!) because she basically has no place else to go.  Mother and daughter are immediately at odds with each other, but end up playing matchmaker for each other, which starts out like a good idea but ends up causing more problems in their relationship with each other.  Can Eloise and Gigi learn how to be a family by the end of the summer?

This book highlights small-town life at its best - pickleball tournaments, festivals, friends, and at its worst - gossip and jealousy.  It's also about three women who make major changes in their attitudes towards romance and love.  But the most important part of the book is grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter learning to accept each other for who they are and celebrate their love for each other, and just as important is the three women learning to love themselves for who they are - flaws and all!

' "That's the trick to a happy life, isn't it?", Gigi said.  "Letting go of how we think people should be, how we think we  should be, and embracing what is." ' (p 289)

Buy Summer on Lilac Island 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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