Four Come Sail Away Stars to Sailing Lessons!

I am coming to rely on this author for summer, beachy reads centered around family and with lots of heart. Every year, I am looking for her newest, and I was thrilled to be approved for an early copy of Sailing Lessons, which publishes on Tuesday!

Cape Cod is the beatific setting, and Wrenn Bailey has lived there her entire life, along with her sisters, Shannon and Piper, and her mother, Lindy.

Wrenn’s father, Caleb, was absent from her life, and he would drift in and out of it like the sea. After a long period of being absent, Caleb returns to Cape Cod and his daughters, now diagnosed with terminal cancer and looking for forgiveness. With three women, there are different responses to Caleb, various ways of seeking healing. I especially loved the focus on the father/daughter relationship, and the exploration of Caleb’s dynamics with each daughter.

Sailing Lessons packs an emotional punch. Keep your tissues handy. But it’s not all sadness and strife with Caleb’s return. There is plenty of hope, forgiveness, and altruistic love. If you enjoy summer reads with emotional depth, I highly recommend Sailing Lessons.

Thank you to Hannah McKinnon (I’m already looking forward to next summer’s book!), Atria/Emily Bestler Books, and Netgalley for the ARC. Sailing Lessons will be published on June 5, 2018.

Focusing on family, love, and forgiveness, Sailing Lessons shows us that love can heal all wounds. We get to know three sisters Wrenn, Bailey, and Shannon all who are dealing with their issues unknown to other members of the family, come together when they realize their father who hasn’t been around in decades wants to come and visit them for reasons that are later revealed.

Shannon, the oldest, is the protector of them all. She doesn’t want anything to do with their father who left after a terrible accident years ago and she is the most like him for many reasons. She presents everything as perfect, her life, her family and herself. She wants to be the “fixer” yet beneath it all everything is less than perfect. With the news of her father coming back she must confront her demons and deal with her past or risk losing it all.

Wrenn is going to open her own business which she has worked hard for. She has a beautiful daughter and has tried to make their lives better but the one thing her daughter wants, to know her father, is the one thing Wrenn doesn’t need in her life right now. Not to mention her long-lost dad coming back into the picture is another thing she doesn’t need. She finds herself in the middle between him and her sisters.

Bailey the youngest, she just trying to find her way in life. She is constantly in school getting degrees after degrees but never settling down and truly starting her life. She is scared to enter the real world and has found herself in a relationship that isn’t the best, to say the least. She’s in love with someone who can't give her want she wants and when she realizes her father is back in the picture she couldn’t be happier. She's the one sister that doesn’t remember him or exactly what happened that day.

I enjoyed this wonderful relatable tale especially the relationship between the sisters and their mother. The way their mother never put her feelings about their father on them was good, she let them make up their own minds about him. I also liked how each sister had their own time with him and each came to terms with him on their own time. This is a true story of forgiveness. I felt that while each sister was going through things in their lives some of it does stem from the past, maybe more than others but it was there. In seeing their father I felt it wasn’t so much for him but for them. They’ve had to come to terms with the past and let go in order to let that negativity free them. This is great read and one that has multi-layers that is a gift to unwrap. This is one book that is well worth the read.

This story centers around three sisters and their father who returns to their lives after leaving them 24 years earlier. Their father wants to see them but each has very different feelings about letting him back into their lives. The hurt that his leaving caused has manifested very differently in each of them. This book is heart warming and heart breaking and does a decent job tying together a fractured family through understanding, perseverance and forgiveness. This story was relatable to me and I truly enjoyed it. Thank you netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this in return for an honest review.

Sailing Lessons by Hannah McKinnon is a beautiful story of family differences, forgiveness and saying goodbye.
Wrenn is ill and her mother, Lindy, has told her to stay in bed while she goes shopping. Their father, Caleb, wakes up shortly after and decides to take his daughters, Shannon and Piper, fishing even though it is a stormy day. Shannon tells him it is too windy and the water will be too rough for their small boat but he insists and off they go. Wrenn, of course follows and sees them in trouble; they are caught in rough waters and almost drown. Fast forward twenty-four years; the girls are adults and Lindy has remarried. Caleb who has been absent since the accident contacts Wrenn and wants to come back to see the girls. Will the girls and Lindy want to see him again? Is there a hidden reason he wants to see them after all this time?
This was at times a tearjerker and very emotional read. At other times it is warm, inviting and funny. I couldn’t put it down. I really like the writing style of telling a chapter from the perspective of a different character. Since Caleb had been absent for so long it was very effective in sharing the past feelings and perspective on the situation that the character had at that time. Hannah shares personal relationships in a very realistic way; you can feel the struggles of each character in their personal life as well as in the family dynamic. All of the characters experience a summer on Cape Cod that involves change and a major transformation. I give this book 5 of 5 stars and will definitely read more by Hannah McKinnon.
I received an advance copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is a wonderful summer read, filled with family and mystery! You find yourself wondering what you would do in the sisters situation after all these years if your father came back, would you want to see him? Can he be trusted or will he leave again?!
Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy for an honest review.

The Bailey sisters are in Cape Cod - their father who disappeared almost 20 years ago when they were young has contacted them and wants to see them. Very mixed emotions from his ex-wife, her new husband who raised the girls, and the 3 sisters range from wanting to see him to no way. Wanting to know why he just up and left and they never heard from him to acting like they didn’t care.
Will they get the answers they need from him, or will he just disappear again?

Being that her husband Caleb Bailey left town when their three daughters were young, Lindy had to pull herself up by her bootstraps and raise her daughters on her own. Luckily for Lindy, she found an amazing partner, Hank, who eventually became her husband as well as a fantastic dad to her girls. Without any word at all from Caleb, the girls grew up and internalized their father’s abandonment in different ways. Now 15+ years later, Caleb has returned! Everyone had moved on and accepted that Caleb would never be apart of their lives...so what happens now?!?

From the time I read the description for Sailing Lessons, I knew this was a book that I would enjoy. Hannah McKinnon does a fantastic job in laying down the foundation in the prologue and I was hooked from that point for the entire novel! I started reading early in the morning and I literally read the entire book by the time I went to sleep! I found all of the characters relatable and completely endearing which is the reason I couldn’t put my kindle down. Hannah McKinnon always does such a great job with tackling the complexities of family dynamics— boy was that ever true with the Bailey clan! Sailing Lessons is a 4.5 star book that you definitely need to put on your summer reading list! I am already looking forward to Hannah’s next novel!!

Anyone who's a fan of Nancy Thayer, Elin Hilderbrand, Karen White or Mary Alice Monroe will enjoy Hannah McKinnon's "Sailing Lessons." The Bailey women are women I'd like to know and hang out with in their perfect beach community. They're realistic and believable - they have dreams and ups and downs just like we do. I'm adding Ms. McKinnon's name to a group of women writers I love and look forward to reading.