Summer on the Island by Brenda Novak
Published by MIRA on April 5, 2022
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 389
Goodreads

 

FINAL DECISION: With plenty of drama but little real angst, this book follows three (or perhaps five) women visiting a beach island as they confront their lives and the men who have played a part in those lives. I really enjoyed the bonding between the women and the actual romance in the story.

THE STORY: Marlow Madsen, a divorce attorney, returns to the island where she spent her summers in her youth. Returning to visit her mother, Marlow is accompanied by two women friends. The three women are all at crossroads in their lives. For Marlow, her return to the island results in her finding out that much of what she believed about her family and childhood was untrue. As she questions her life, Marlow and her friends are all struggling with life, romance, and their futures.

OPINION: This is a book filled with “family” drama — although not everyone is officially part of the family. All of the main characters have dramatic turns in their stories. I enjoyed the interwoven stories. The book has a lot of drama, but isn’t really angsty and thus is a good candidate for a beach read — a page-turner that is definitely binge-able.

Marlow’s story was my favorite and definitely the dominant story in the book. Her return to the island explores her professional life, her friend relationships, her family relationships, her past, and her romantic relationships. She has determination, but I also liked her humor and her ability to recognize her own faults. Her relationship just worked for me in this book and kept me reading the book as the other stories unfold. While I didn’t take the story too seriously, I thought that Marlow’s story grounded the book and because I really liked her character, I accepted all the other stories on their face.

There are plenty of twists here that keeps the pages turning and the romance here worked for me. The characters have difficult intertwined lives and problems so everything seemed really complicated until the knot becomes untied at the end.

WORTH MENTIONING: This is a great beach read.

CONNECTED BOOKS: SUMMER ON THE ISLAND is a standalone book.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4 stars.