All the Days of Summer

A delightful read, evoking long-ago memories of Nantucket

I haven’t read a Nancy Thayer book for some time and All the Days of Summer reminded me that I should do so more often. This book is about two women, Heather and Kailee. They met when Heather and her husband go to visit their son, Ross, at his University and have dinner with Ross and his new girlfriend, Kailee. The first line in the book is “It was Heather who hated Kailee first. Well, she didn’t hate Kailee. But she wasn’t sure she liked her.” The first line in the second paragraph is “Kailee didn’t hate Heather right away. At first, she just thought she was a little tiresome….” Heather is an unhappily married woman who makes the decision to divorce Ross’s father. With the help of a friend, she rents a cottage on Nantucket for the summer while the dust settles and she can make decisions about what she wants to do with her future. Although Kailee is from the island, Heather believes that she will stay on the mainland with Ross, who is expected to start working at his father’s hardware store. Kailee is a young woman in love. She and Ross have decided that they will both be spending the summer on the island working for her father’s construction company. Their plan is that Ross will have the summer to make sure he would be happy living on Nantucket while learning the ropes of the family construction company. They plan to get engaged in the fall and, in time, take over the company from her father when he retires. So Heather and Kailee find themselves both living on Nantucket. This book is the story of each of them navigating the many changes in their individual lives and how all of those changes impact the relationship they have with each other.. As usual, Nancy Thayer’s books are well written with well rounded characters who have strengths and weaknesses and flaws. The journey her characters had to walk did not all follow along a predictable path. There were twists and turns that kept the story interesting and the emotion real. The story explores the relationship between a mother and the woman that he chooses to marry, which is a complicated one which can be fraught with difficulties. Reading the story of Heather and Kailee is one that will stick with me for a long time. I strongly recommend this book as an highly worthwhile reading experience. I am voluntarily submitting this review after reading an advanced complementary copy of this book.