Review: Summer People

Summer People by Elin Hilderbrand

Pages: 352
Published: 2004
Genre: Fiction

My Rating: 4/5

Summary (from chapters.ca):

It was the summer that would change their lives forever...

Every summer the Newton family retreats to their beloved home on Nantucket for three months of sunshine, cookouts, and bonfires on the beach. But this summer will not be like any other.

When Arch Newton, a prominent New York attorney, dies in a aplane crash on his home from a business trip, his beautiful widow, Beth, can barely keep things together. Above all, though, she decided that she must continue the family tradition of going to Nantucket, and at the same time fulfill a promise that Arch made before he died.

Beth invites Marcus, the son of Arch's final and most challenging client, to spend the summer with her and her teenage twins, Winnie and Garrett, who have mixed reactions to sharing their special summer place with this stranger.

Always a place of peace before, Nantucket becomes the scene of roiling emotions and turbulent passions as Marcus, Winnie, and Garrett learn about loss, first love, and betrayal. And when they stumble upon a shocking secret from Beth's past, they must keep it from destroying the family they've been trying so hard to heal.

Review:

FINALLY, a review from the May Book of the Month... only a few days late and really, not my fault... I was waiting patiently for the person ahead of me to return it to the library!

As always, Elin Hilderbrand describes the beaches/summers of Nantucket so well. Having never been there, it is now a place that I dream, one day, of vacationing with the family. Oh how wonderful it would be to have our very OWN summer house! The descriptive powers allowed for me to sit back and see the blue/black of the ocean, smell the suntan lotion and hear the seagulls. It truly is magical.

The story, however, was much darker/sadder than I was expecting. With Marcus' mother, Constance, having commited murder and Arch dying in a place crash on the way home from a business meeting about her trial, it really set up some dynamic ties between the two families. It was easy to feel the underlying current of the whole situation throughout the entire book... hard to imagine, but easy to feel.

Add to that, as secrets on the island, from a long ago past, are revealed, it only adds to the stress levels of everyone and leads Winnie and Garrett to get revenge on their mother in the best way they know how.

Overall, a book that deals with the end of one life and the beginning of another... a family that is changed forever. It was a great read!