Just two weeks after moving from Atlanta to Foley, Alabama, Lily’s husband of just over a year, leaves her a note saying “he can’t do this anymore” and seemingly disappears.

Rose, owner is Safe Harbor Village, an “active lifestyle” community, has isolated herself from the social life of the village.

The Summer House is the story of how Lily and Rose help each other overcome past hurts and start new beginnings and find the safe harbor in their little village.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I found it to be the perfect light, easy Southern beach read with plenty of quirky characters and sweet moments.

Thank you The First Editions for the advanced copy; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Now and then, I feel the need to step back from the world, so to speak, and indulge myself with a book that I know is going to lift my spirits. Lauren K. Denton’s books always fit the bill and The Summer House is no exception. Ms. Denton can take a quite ordinary person and put her in circumstances that are troubling but not very different from what many of us experience and have that character reach a place of contentment without being overly sentimental. In this case, it’s two women, Lily and Rose, who develop a deep friendship based on warmth and trust and thereby move on to a new place in life.

Both of these women are in need of emotional sustenance and, while their difference in age would seem to be a barrier, things don’t work out that way. Each finds the connection that satisfies that need and Lily, in particular, learns that “family” is not always those people that you’re born into or marry into; Rose and the residents of Safe Harbor become her new home and Rose, in turn, begins to feel a softening, a breaking down of her walls.

There’s some romance here but it doesn’t take over the story and is a nice addition to this tale that, when all is said and done, is one of hope and happiness for these two very appealing women. Adding to the story is the ambience of a warm, gentle Southern setting that Ms. Denton always does so well. I can’t recommend this highly enough to anyone looking for a few hours of pure enjoyment.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, June 2020.

The story begins with Lily waking up and finding a note from her husband, Worth.. He’s leaving her.

She has already recently uprooted herself when they moved for a new job offer for Worth. They are still in the temporary rental house provided by his job. So, Lily needs to pull herself together and find a job and a place to live.

She ends up applying for a hair salon job in the sleepy retirement village of Safe Harbor. She meets the woman in charge of the village, Rose, who agrees to hire her for a probationary period. Rose seems a bit unpleasant and set in her ways, but she is nice enough to allow Lily to live in the apartment above the salon.

Raise your hand if you can see the end coming a mile away. Yes, it was highly predictable, but also highly enjoyable.

Lily has a lot of growing to do, learning to live on her own, become her own person and possibly learn to love again.

Rose, many years her senior, also has some growing to do, a shell to come out of and possibly learn to love again.

Perhaps it was because this was the exact book I needed to read right now, but I loved it. The sleepy town, the characters all sweet, but carrying their own baggage, the blossoming love of people who never thought they’d love again.

What an enjoyable read. A good story that is sweet and hopeful. Lily has to scramble when she wakes up one morning and finds divorce papers laying on the kitchen counter and her husband of just over a year gone. She sees an add for a hair dresser at a retirement community and agrees to a trail period. The residents love her and the owner of the community, Rose, sees her younger self in Lily. As they become friends they both grow and become aware of life around them. Rose's nephew Rawlin and his young daughter make life sweet for both. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A beautiful beach read that felt familiar in its plot line yet made me happy to read it.

Rose's husband had left her, Lily ran a retirement home. Both struck up friendship and furthered the story.

My first book by this author, I liked the steady pace of the book showing me their lives. The two ladies were sweet, ably supported by other characters who equally had gone through life. Friendships and second chance at life was well shown.

Overall, I would say this was perfect on a day when I didn't want to think but forget every problem in the world.

EXCERPT: Even though her mind still felt fuzzy with sleep, she rose from the bed and made her way down to the kitchen. That's when she realised what was wrong. She usually woke to the scent of strong Columbian roast coffee wafting from the kitchen into the bedroom, luring her with a warm, heady promise.

Their fancy Bonavita coffeemaker, a wedding gift from Worth's best man, was the first thing he had unpacked two weeks ago when they had arrived in Foley from Atlanta, and he'd made a steaming pot of extra-robust coffee every morning before he left for work. It was a small token, especially when everything felt so upside down and Lily had long grown used to feeling off-balance, and she took the daily gift of hot coffee for what it was - his way of offering sustenance, love, and maybe a little hope, all in her favourite mug.

This morning, however, the gleaming silver coffeepot was cold and quiet. She was still tying the belt on her thin robe around her waist when she saw the note propped up against it. A mechanical pencil lay next to it.

'Lily, I can't do this anymore. You deserve more than what I can give you. I'm so sorry.'

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Lily Bishop wakes up one morning to find a good-bye note and divorce papers from her husband on the kitchen counter. Having moved to Alabama for his job only weeks before, Lily is devastated, but a flyer at the grocery store for a hair stylist position in a local retirement community provides a refuge while she contemplates her next steps.

Rose Carrigan built the small retirement village of Safe Harbor years ago—just before her husband ran off with his assistant. Now she runs a tight ship, making sure the residents follow her strict rules. Rose keeps everyone at arm’s length, including her own family. But when Lily shows up asking for a job and a place to live, Rose’s cold exterior begins to thaw.

Lily and Rose form an unlikely friendship, and Lily’s salon soon becomes the place where residents share town gossip, as well as a few secrets. Lily soon finds herself drawn to Rose’s nephew, Rawlins—a single dad and shrimper who’s had some practice at starting over—and one of the residents may be carrying a torch for Rose as well.

Neither Lily nor Rose is where she expected to be, but the summer makes them both wonder if there’s more to life and love than what they’ve experienced so far.

MY THOUGHTS: Sweet, charming, enjoyable. But nothing memorable, and somewhat predictable.

The Summer House is my first book by Lauren K. Denton. It is a quick, easy read, pleasant, but lacking in that special something that leaves you longing for more.

The characters in the lifestyle village are a colourful bunch, with stories of pain, joy, and living their lives fully. They still wear brightly coloured bathing suits, dance, have tiny dogs on glittery leashes, drive golf carts decorated with leis and enjoy boozy Sunday afternoons.

This is a fun read, ideal for a day at the beach or by the pool.

😊😊😊

#TheSummerHouse #NetGalley

'Death is always unexpected, even when we know it's coming.'

THE AUTHOR: Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren K. Denton now lives with her husband and two daughters in Homewood, just outside Birmingham. In addition to her fiction, she writes a monthly newspaper column about life, faith, and how funny (and hard) it is to be a parent. On any given day, she’d rather be at the beach with her family and a stack of books.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Thomas Nelson via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Summer House by Lauren K. Denton for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

The Summer House is a beautiful story about overcoming life’s obstacles, healing and being able to start over. I found myself emotionally drawn to each and every character. The two main characters, Lily and Rose, were both so endearing and just pulled at my heartstrings.
Beautifully written and certainly well worth reading as you relax by the pool or beach. Great vacation read!
Lauren Denton is becoming my favorite author.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was an excellent read!

The emotions, settings, and situations were all realistic and well-written. I truly felt what the characters were feeling, saw the beautiful settings the author created, and believed in the situations the characters were living with.

Perhaps the best part, in my opinion, were the romances. They were realistic, with progress and steps that felt real. I would read about a character doing this or saying that and it would resonate, as I could recall a time when I'd been in that same situation with a new potential love and one of us had done or said that. And even if it wasn't something I'd experienced yet, it felt like something I could look forward to experiencing in life. Most romance are written in that over-the-top fairy tale way that reads well and gives satisfaction, but doesn't really hold true to how life itself is. But this one was a great read, satisfying, and realistic all at once.

The characters were well-developed without giving us more information than we needed. There were a few areas where I felt situations or characters could have been developed a bit more, but they weren't the focus of the story so it didn't really detract from it.

This was a great book and I look forward to reading more by this author.

This is my first book by Lauren K. Denton, which surprises me as I love southern fiction and this book did not disappoint! I love how Ms. Denton writes about relationships, the challenges and the satisfaction that they can bring. This book is told via two points of view...the elder Rose and the new resident and hairdresser Lily.

At first I thought Lily was going to be flaky but she sure turned into one strong, independent woman. The story made me feel like part of the neighbourhood. The characters were so interesting and the narrator's backstories were so intriguing.

This book is full of love, wit and southern charm. A great story to read during this quarantine. The characters’ personalities and resilience were well written. This unforgettable read is just what I needed to escape for a few hours and it left my heart full, happy and content. Visit Safe Harbor right away. You just might want to stay there forever. Highly recommend.

I absolutely adored this book! I read it in one day! The characters were all delightful and I loved the community! I seriously want to live there. The romance was sweet and not rushed. I am looking forward to this hopefully becoming a series! I would love to spend more time here.

New author for me. Charming, light read...perfect for summer. Lovable characters, easy plot to follow, descriptive writing. I want to retire to Safe Harbor! Definitely not a deep book, but it’s was a great diversion. Will definitely read this author again. Beautiful cover!

Divorce is hard, heartbreaking, gut wrenching. Then, you have no choice but to grieve and move on. Lily moves with her husband Worth to Alabama. She wakes up one morning and he’s gone, leaving only a note and divorce papers. She moves to a retirement community and meets adorable senior citizens, and opens her eyes to a whole new world.

Thanks to Ms. Denton, Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson for the free review copy. All opinions are my own.

This was another wonderful southern setting and novel by Denton. I loved the community in this story and how the characters were of all different ages – which I think the author does well. I could feel the southern heat, smell the southern cooking, and be absorbed in the women’s lives in this book.

Lily and Rose were the perfect characters to become friends – so similar and different. I also enjoyed Rawlins and Hazel and the depth they added to the story. Denton writes all sorts of relationships well, and I felt they were explored completely by the end of the novel.

I grabbed The Summer House by Lauren K. Denton because a couple of years ago I picked up The Hideaway basically on a whim, loved it, and then read Glory Road and pretty much loved that too. The only book by this author I haven’t read – YET – is Hurricane Season, but in this year where everyone seems to need all the comfort reads they can get I expect to pick it up in the not too distant future.

Like the author’s previous books, The Summer House is relationship fiction, which often gets labeled and more often than not denigrated, as “women’s fiction”, but the relationship fiction label is much nearer the mark. Because it’s always about the relationships between people, often but not always family or found family, and frequently including the relationships between people in a small town.

And if women are the only ones who care about all the different kinds of relationships that people can have, whether in families or groups or communities, doesn’t that explain a whole lot about what’s wrong with the world these days?

The relationships that are on display, or perhaps under the microscope, or a bit of both, in this particular story are centered around two people, Lily Bishop and Rose Carrigan. As the story opens, both are at crossroads in their lives, and the route they each take leads them directly into each other’s path.

A path that runs straight through the retirement village so aptly named Safe Harbor. The place where Rose has been pretty much standing still for the past 40 years or so. Rose is known around town as the “Ice Queen” because she freezes out anyone who tries to get close to her, except for her nephew Rawlins and his daughter Hazel. She’s certainly not looking to shelter anyone under her wing.

But, when Lily Bishop calls Rose asking for a job as the resident hairdresser of Safe Harbor, that’s exactly what she does. Not just because Lily desperately needs the harbor of Safe Harbor, but because Rose is finally starting to scrabble at the walls of her self-isolation. And because she sees in Lily’s lonely aloneness something of herself that she hasn’t let herself see in a long time.

In letting Safe Harbor shelter them both, Lily and Rose both find the space they need to stand up and live.

Escape Rating B+:The blurb makes it seem as if Lily and Rose form an instant, albeit unlikely, friendship, but that’s not exactly what happens. In fact, it seems like this one tries to build its relationships in all kinds of slightly unconventional ways, and that the book is the better for its off-beat notes.

Lily’s desperate straits have to do with the husband who moved her to a place where neither of them knew a soul and then woke up one morning and left her divorce papers on the kitchen table as he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. But Lily’s not desperately lovesick trying to get him back. She doesn’t even want him back after that – and who can blame her? (Besides her overbearing mother-in-law, that is.) Rather, she’s left with a mess and is just digging her way out, with no support network, no job and about to be evicted from a rental house that came with his job – which he has also fled.

It’s unusual for this kind of story that he wasn’t abusive, she’s not pregnant and she’s not a suddenly single mother. She’s just temporarily adrift and very much alone. She knows she can get back on her feet, she just needs a bit of time and space in which to do that, which is what makes her call Rose about the job doing the one thing she’s always loved, using the gift she inherited from her late mother – cutting hair and providing a place for people to set down their burdens for a bit and come out feeling better. (I’m not saying that a story like this one can’t be excellent with some of those usual starting points, but it is terrific to see one that does it just a bit differently for a change!)

But in giving Lily a chance to recover, Rose also manages to give herself a chance to take a new look at the world around her, and set down some of the burdens that she’s been carrying entirely too long. Since she was Lily’s age. And the story of Rose’s re-awakening is every bit as lovely as that of Lily’s awakening.

That both of them manage to find happiness, community and love in the place where they have found themselves planted is the icing on a very heartwarming cake, and makes for an absolutely delightful story.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary advance reader copy in exchange for my honest feedback. The Summer House by Lauren Denton was a feel good summer read I highly recommend. The story was uplifting, the characters were like able and her writing style enjoyable.

The highest compliment that I can give a book is to say that I wish it hadn't ended!! I loved Lily - but Rose was my favorite character - sometimes the limitations and chains that we put on ourselves are so much more stronger that those that anyone else could place on us. I loved watching the relationships develop - without spoilers - I'll just say that I approved of all of them lol ;) I adored little Hazel - a tiny little spitfire that is obviously one lucky little girl. I appreciate the "happy ending" because real life lately, kinda sucks so we take our happy wherever we can find it. OH! Coach was a gem as well - his past kinda surprised me, but explained a lot <3 Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

What a delightful unexpected gem! Lauren K. Denton has Spohn such a delightful feel good tale that warmed my heart and made me smile. It has been a rough heartbreaking emotional week and I’ve been so distracted. It was so nice to find a gorgeous story filled with kind characters to escape into. Lily has just moved from Atlanta to the Alabama Gulf when her husband up and leaves her. New to town and knowing nobody Lily finds herself in need of a job and a new place to live. While at the grocery store she runs across two older ladies and finds out there is a need for a hairdresser at their active living community. Rose is the owner and manager at the active living community on Safe Harbor. Rose is a little prickly, but when Lily interviews for the hairdressing job she has compassion for the girl. Lily now finds herself with a new job and living in a community where most of the residents are four decades older than her.

Loved every minute I spend with these charming characters. Loved the hairdresser setting, these characters were just like me and spilled all their secrets while sitting in that chair. Both Lily and Rose were wonderful characters and I love the friendship that grew between them. There was also a sweet dose of romance in the story that I loved. A lovely clean romance with a generous dose of hope and heart.

This book in emojis 🌹 ✂️ 💇🏻‍♀️ 🦐 🐊 🍋 🌊

*** Big thank you to Thomas Nelson for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

I enjoyed this very much. It was well written and held my attention all the way from beginning to end. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

I am not sure that the "Summer House" could completely qualify as a beach read since it is not completely lighthearted. But I did enjoy the premise - a young woman named Lilly Bishop getting a fresh start on an island that is primarily a retirement village. I did like the fact that not only did Lily learn to cope and to have a new life, but her presence also awakened Rose and helped her to right some wrongs and move forward as well. Having a little girl also be a key character was fun - she was precocious. My only disappointment was the fact that the importance of marriage being for life was dismissed rather easily. But I think this time that was the theme of the author - to start over with one that you are truly meant to be with. The characters are likable. This is an overall uplifting clean read - kind of a romance, kind of women's fiction. I would read more by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and to Thomas Nelson for letting me preview this book. All opinions are my own. Note: Thomas Nelson often publishes Christian fiction - I would not quantify this book under that category, but there was definitely not anything really objectionable about the plot. There just was not really a spiritual element found in the plot.

When Lily wakes up to find her husband has gone and left her with signed divorce papers she is devastated, they have just moved to Alabama living in a house that came with his job so she is to be homeless as well! Seeing a flyer in a local store for a hairdresser at a local retirement community she decides to go for it and stay in the area. Rose is the owner of the Safe Harbor village and runs it on her own since her husband left her for his assistant, making loads of rules and restrictions she runs a tight ship and keeps her distance from the residents, but when Lily turns up looking for a job and somewhere to live something starts to thaw inside her

A lovely warm book full of great characters in the residents and Rose and Lily and it's lovely to watch them both start to blossom and become part of the community...... with the help of a couple of gentlemen of course!

Wonderfully satisfying. Those were the first words to spring into my mind when I finished The Summer House by Lauren K. Denton. I loved her other books that I've read but, this one had a deliciously different flavor. It had angst of love gone wrong and the sorrow of long ago disagreements along with new hope and new beginnings. This book had it all and was delightfully fun to read.

Ms. Denton's development of her characters was spot on. Lily was a level headed young woman that had experienced a few sorrows in her life. I loved reading her story and how she wound up being the resident hair dresser at retirement village. There was the owner of the village who initially came off as stern and hard but, had a soft inside. Then there were several quirky characters you would expect to find in a retirement setting. I loved the relatable characters.

I like that the author's story had a lesson to learn without being in your face. She touches a lot on core values such a love for others, acceptance, respect, forgiveness and doing the right thing. She had a nice way of showing us those things and making us want to be a better person.

I think anyone who loves a good love story, doesn't mind older characters and likes a wholesome fun story will love this book. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book for an escape from the mundane. You'll be glad you did!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for a fair and honest review.