Unhappily married Lisa Hawley returned to her childhood home of Nantucket to raise her two children, Juliet and Theo, on the island she loves. Now long divorced, her children grown, Lisa is a successful shop owner and enjoys her single life. That is, she enjoys it until three unrelated events lead to a life changing summer.

Juliet, an MIT educated computer whiz, discovers that her boyfriend, who is also her boss, has been promoted and is leaving her office. He’s also leaving her so she returns to Nantucket to work from home. Theo, in California, has broken his arm in a surfing accident and is realizing that the surfing world has lost its glamour. He comes home to Nantucket to think about his future. Meanwhile, while Lisa works in her dining room, a piece of the ceiling falls on her head. She calls a contractor and so meets handsome, single father Mack Whitney. Add to the mix Ryder Hastings, a wealthy businessman who has come to Nantucket to launch an environmental nonprofit. And there is Beth, Mack’s daughter, who has a complicated past with Theo.

Girls of Summer is part romance and part Nantucket travelogue. It’s full of details about restoring old houses and building websites. As I read, Lisa, Juliet and Beth became my friends. This is a 5 star summer read!

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House and Nancy Thayer for this ARC.

I do love stories set in Nantucket and this one did not disappoint. I enjoyed the stories of these wonderful characters. I say stories because it takes all the individual stories to make up the overall story. This story is about relationships, heartache, disappointment, and determination. I hope you enjoy hanging with Lisa, Mack, Juliet, Ryder, Beth, Theo and friends as much as I did. I would love to visit with them again soon. I received this book from NetGalley, but my opinion is my own.

When you crack open a Nancy Thayer book, you're always going to find a truly charming beach read. Her novels are light, easy and quick enough that you could finish in one sitting - while sipping a margarita (or two!).

I really enjoyed that Thayer's main characters, Lisa and Mack, were a bit older (age 56 and 46). I also loved that she wrote Lisa to be the more mature character in the relationship, because we often see the reverse. This was a unique and charming aspect to the story - and helped solidify that love can be found at whatever age with anyone at any age. Both Lisa and Mack had difficult pasts -infidelity and loss, but they overcame their grief and sadness to form a really sweet partnership.

The other 2 "girls of summer" were also charming, but I found myself having a difficult time relating to the characters. If I had to choose, I preferred Juliet and Ryder's love story, but it was very predictable. Beth and Theo's relationship, while they reconnected after many years of being apart, was a little flat for me.

My one biggest critique of this book was how FAST everything happened. The characters fell in love and got engaged within pages of the chapter! It just didnt feel real to me. I also think if this was a bit shorter, it may have held my attention more. This was 100% a predictable and sometimes that is OK in a book. You wont be blown away by any large twists, but this was still a super enjoyable, fun read!

It is always a pleasure to read a Nancy Thayer summer Nantucket story, and this one is definitely appealing. Lisa’s husband left her and her two kids, leaving her alone to figure out her next steps. Her daughter, Juliet, returns home after a failed romance, even though she is a successful career woman. Theo, her surfer son, also returns to Nantucket, complicating a new relationship Lisa formed with Mack. The setting of Nantucket and the lives of these protagonists combine for another great summer beach read; don’t miss it. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Since her divorce almost 20 years ago, Lisa has gotten used to living on her own, and has come to enjoy it – until she hires a younger, widowed contractor to give her old Nantucket home some of the attention the house deserves. As they grow closer, despite tongues wagging around the island, Lisa's children, Juliet and Theo, face crises of their own. The two twenty-somethings return home for the summer, hoping that time away from their routines will give them some clarity about their futures. They navigate some rocky paths and are starting to work things out when a storm ravages the island and forces all three of the Hawleys to make potentially life-changing decisions.

Every summer, I look forward to this author's new Nantucket-based book, anticipating my annual visit to a place I've never been. The descriptions in the books draw mental pictures of various points on the island, and I can almost hear the waves and smell the ocean. While I will never be part of the crowd that will plunk down $400 for a dress and consider it "a great deal," the characters seem friendly and approachable, and I would enjoy a day of watching the "beautiful people" from a distance. Unlike most of Ms. Thayer's other books, this one has a very obvious agenda, and while I totally agree with the cause, I found it's continuous repetition heavy-handed and rather annoying. That said, I look forward to reading the author's next book when it is released.

This was another fun Nantucket-based summer read!
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Years after her divorce from her jerk-of-a-husband, Lisa is finally content with her life. She’s living on Nantucket; her children, Juliet and Theo, are grown; and she’s running her own successful business. The only thing that’s missing, is — yep, you guessed it — love 💙. But Lisa is in no rush, as she’s definitely still reeling from the pain of her first marriage.

As luck would have it, Lisa’s house is in need of some repairs, and the island’s most eligible bachelor offers to help. Mack is a widower who’s daughter, Beth, was friends with Theo back in high school. The only catch? Mack is ten years younger than Lisa.

To complicate things even further, Juliet, Theo, AND Beth make their way back to the island to stay for a bit after encountering some obstacles of their own. And they have some thoughts on their parents’ relationship.

To add even more drama to the pot, Theo had a crush on Beth in high school.
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I thought that this was another fun, summertime family drama! I really enjoyed the love square (is that what you call it if there are 4 people involved?), maybe even love hexagon if you add Juliet and her crush into the mix. While mostly focused on the relationships and family dynamics, there was even a little bit of action at the end. An enjoyable book to get me in the mood for summertime.


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Run date for when the review will be posted/published: Tuesday 5/26

You can always count on Nancy Thayer for a great feel good read.. We have heartbreak and new found love. Set on Nantucket Lisa is raising her two children on her own after her husband leaves. She devotes her life to providing a happy life for her children. When they are grown and on their own Lisa finally feels the need for a companion. Although when her new romance starts her kids decide to come home. Now she has a full house which she always treasured, but she is wanting it empty to explore the new love.

This book was a great read. If you are looking for something light for the summer pick this up.

3.5 stars!

Dealing with dating in a small town at an older age is tough, not to mention being 10 years older! This total beach read is a great escape from what’s going on today. Lovable characters, fast moving story line set on Nantucket Island. So much happens during this summer.

Single mom, Lisa, is a the owner of a dress shop on Nantucket. Born and raised there, she returned and bought a house, she retains the house and children, Juliet and Theo, after the divorce. Mack, raised daughter Betsy by himself after the death of his wife, is a sought after carpenter. Betsy and Theo share a past, from HS .. along with a mutual secret crush. Juliet is a web designer who flees home after being dumped and meets a rich activist setting off immediate sparks.

Love is at the center of this book, and it happens fast, I mean really fast. It seems that everyone falls in love or says ‘I Love You’ after the first date, and they spend time figuring out how to navigate the awkward situation they find themselves in. Lots of situations that are easy to follow and fun to read. I loved having an older protagonist but the author hinted at more of an age difference struggle that I wish she would have explored more.

Thanks to Ms. Thayer, Random House/Ballantine Books and NetGalleyFor this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

Nancy Thayer has once again knocked it out of the park with Girls of Summer. It was so utterly relaxing to escape to Nantucket and live for a while with Lisa and her growing romance with hunky contractor, Mack, and his daughter, Beth, who also happens to have a thing for Lisa’s surfer-boy son Theo. Then Lisa’s daughter, Juliet, strikes up a romance with cute-boy environmentalist, Ryder. Throw in a few dramatic scenes and a wild storm that ultimately cements everyone’s growing relationships, and you’ve got a summer read that begs to be thrown into your beach bag and devoured.

Oh the joy of my annual trip to Nantucket with Nancy Thayer! If you haven't read her before, know that she writes a good romantic, pretty clean story set in Nantucket (duh) complete with references to real places (so fun to look up the restaurants!). This is the tale of two families: Lisa and her children Juliet and Theo, and Mack and his daughter Beth. Lisa's 56 and she's living alone, having divorced years ago and both kids are on their own. When her ceiling crumbles, she gets in touch with Mack, whose daughter Beth is newly back on the island. They start a relationship but every time they get close to physicality, one of their kids turns up! You'll also read each of the children's story (Juliet's been unlucky in love, Theo has broken his humerus, Beth is still dealing with the death of her high school boyfriend who was also Theo's friend). It's a shiny world in many ways, even as darkness touches it. There are some awkward turns of phrase or oddities (how did she cook two omelets in one pan at one time?) but this will still keep you reading because it will take you out of the present unpleasantness for a while. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. No spoilers but know that all will be well in this good read.

GIRLS OF SUMMER
BY NANCY THAYER

What initially attracted me to read this book were two things. It is a romance between a 56 year old woman with a 46 year old man. It intrigued me to see how and if that could work out. The second item of interest was the setting taking place on Nantucket Island. The Nantucket Island part delivered as I vicariously got swept up by the lush descriptions of the scents of the wild roses and the beautiful ocean views from the many homes that had them. I also enjoyed Ryder Hastings passion for saving the sea creatures that inhabit the ocean environment such as when him and two others saved a seal that was needed to be cut free from the plastic that was strangling it and its life was saved. Also the compassion given to the white shark that was dead that washed up on the beach having digested too much plastic in the ocean. Ryder Hasting's role in bringing awareness to saving our Ocean's from the coasts of Maine all the way down south to Florida was meaningful in his business he directed called, OCEAN MATTERS. Saving our Ocean's and the sea creatures that live and depend on our attention to our environment was the redeeming theme that caught my attention and made this a worthwhile reading experience for me.

The romance between divorced Lisa Hawley a 56 year old woman and 46 year old widowed Mack Whitney did not deliver as the major theme and the reason this book piqued my interest. There were too many younger romances going on which I was afraid of would happen to take the focus off from Lisa and Mack thereby diminishing the dynamics of the age differences of this couple and I felt it wasn't explored enough.

Lisa Hawley is a 56 year old woman who had gone through a brutal divorce from her husband Erich. Due to a thoughtful and rarely a generous divorce financial settlement Lisa is able to keep the gorgeous home in Nantucket and raise their two children Theo and Juliet on her own. Erich has zero involvement in his two children's lives. Juliet is a graduate of MIT and is a successful Website builder in a company called Kazaam and lives in an apartment in Cambridge. After she is heartbroken by getting dumped without warning from her boss she decides to move back in with Lisa in her childhood home in Nantucket.

Theo who is kind but a free spirit has graduated from the University of California San Diego who works as a bartender at night so his days are free to surf the Pacific waves gets injured while surfing and fractures his arm. This sends Theo back home to live in the family nest also.

Lisa is sitting in her dining room when her ceiling falls down and she is at the realization that she needs to invest some money into her home getting it repaired. Mack Whitney comes highly recommended to her as a carpenter who restores old houses. Lisa and Mack meet and romantic sparks fly. I really wanted to see more of their relationship and less of their interfering children's romances. Henceforth my 3.5 star rating.

Thank you to Net Galley, Nancy Thayer and Random House Publishing Group--Ballantine for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Publication Date: May 26, 2020

#GirlsofSummer #NancyThayer #RandomHousePublishingGroup-Ballantine #NetGalley

GIRLS OF SUMMER
BY NANCY THAYER

What initially attracted me to read this book were two things. It is a romance between a 56 year old woman with a 46 year old man. It intrigued me to see how and if that could work out. The second item of interest was the setting taking place on Nantucket Island. The Nantucket Island part delivered as I vicariously got swept up by the lush descriptions of the scents of the wild roses and the beautiful ocean views from the many homes that had them. I also enjoyed Ryder Hastings passion for saving the sea creatures that inhabit the ocean environment such as when him and two others saved a seal that was needed to be cut free from the plastic that was strangling it and its life was saved. Also the compassion given to the white shark that was dead that washed up on the beach having digested too much plastic in the ocean. Ryder Hasting's role in bringing awareness to saving our Ocean's from the coasts of Maine all the way down south to Florida was meaningful in his business he directed called, OCEAN MATTERS. Saving our Ocean's and the sea creatures that live and depend on our attention to our environment was the redeeming theme that caught my attention and made this a worthwhile reading experience for me.

The romance between divorced Lisa Hawley a 56 year old woman and 46 year old widowed Mack Whitney did not deliver as the major theme and the reason this book piqued my interest. There were too many younger romances going on which I was afraid of would happen to take the focus off from Lisa and Mack thereby diminishing the dynamics of the age differences of this couple and I felt it wasn't explored enough.

Lisa Hawley is a 56 year old woman who had gone through a brutal divorce from her husband Erich. Due to a thoughtful and rarely a generous divorce financial settlement Lisa is able to keep the gorgeous home in Nantucket and raise their two children Theo and Juliet on her own. Erich has zero involvement in his two children's lives. Juliet is a graduate of MIT and is a successful Website builder in a company called Kazaam and lives in an apartment in Cambridge. After she is heartbroken by getting dumped without warning from her boss she decides to move back in with Lisa in her childhood home in Nantucket.

Theo who is kind but a free spirit has graduated from the University of California San Diego who works as a bartender at night so his days are free to surf the Pacific waves gets injured while surfing and fractures his arm. This sends Theo back home to live in the family nest also.

Lisa is sitting in her dining room when her ceiling falls down and she is at the realization that she needs to invest some money into her home getting it repaired. Mack Whitney comes highly recommended to her as a carpenter who restores old houses. Lisa and Mack meet and romantic sparks fly. I really wanted to see more of their relationship and less of their interfering children's romances. Henceforth my 3.5 star rating.

Thank you to Net Galley, Nancy Thayer and Random House Publishing Group--Ballantine for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Publication Date: May 26, 2020

#GirlsofSummer #NancyThayer #RandomHousePublishingGroup-Ballantine #NetGalley

GIRLS OF SUMMER
BY NANCY THAYER

What initially attracted me to read this book were two things. It is a romance between a 56 year old woman with a 46 year old man. It intrigued me to see how and if that could work out. The second item of interest was the setting taking place on Nantucket Island. The Nantucket Island part delivered as I vicariously got swept up by the lush descriptions of the scents of the wild roses and the beautiful ocean views from the many homes that had them. I also enjoyed Ryder Hastings passion for saving the sea creatures that inhabit the ocean environment such as when him and two others saved a seal that was needed to be cut free from the plastic that was strangling it and its life was saved. Also the compassion given to the white shark that was dead that washed up on the beach having digested too much plastic in the ocean. Ryder Hasting's role in bringing awareness to saving our Ocean's from the coasts of Maine all the way down south to Florida was meaningful in his business he directed called, OCEAN MATTERS. Saving our Ocean's and the sea creatures that live and depend on our attention to our environment was the redeeming theme that caught my attention and made this a worthwhile reading experience for me.

The romance between divorced Lisa Hawley a 56 year old woman and 46 year old widowed Mack Whitney did not deliver as the major theme and the reason this book piqued my interest. There were too many younger romances going on which I was afraid of would happen to take the focus off from Lisa and Mack thereby diminishing the dynamics of the age differences of this couple and I felt it wasn't explored enough.

Lisa Hawley is a 56 year old woman who had gone through a brutal divorce from her husband Erich. Due to a thoughtful and rarely a generous divorce financial settlement Lisa is able to keep the gorgeous home in Nantucket and raise their two children Theo and Juliet on her own. Erich has zero involvement in his two children's lives. Juliet is a graduate of MIT and is a successful Website builder in a company called Kazaam and lives in an apartment in Cambridge. After she is heartbroken by getting dumped without warning from her boss she decides to move back in with Lisa in her childhood home in Nantucket.

Theo who is kind but a free spirit has graduated from the University of California San Diego who works as a bartender at night so his days are free to surf the Pacific waves gets injured while surfing and fractures his arm. This sends Theo back home to live in the family nest also.

Lisa is sitting in her dining room when her ceiling falls down and she is at the realization that she needs to invest some money into her home getting it repaired. Mack Whitney comes highly recommended to her as a carpenter who restores old houses. Lisa and Mack meet and romantic sparks fly. I really wanted to see more of their relationship and less of their interfering children's romances. Henceforth my 3.5 star rating.

Thank you to Net Galley, Nancy Thayer and Random House Publishing Group--Ballantine for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Publication Date: May 26, 2020

#GirlsofSummer #NancyThayer #RandomHousePublishingGroup-Ballantine #NetGalley

A few weeks ago Susan mentioned which book signals the start of summer. For me, summer starts when I have in my hands Nancy Thayer's latest beach read. As this weekend is the unofficial start of summer in the U.S., it is fitting that Girls of Summer hits shelves on Tuesday.

As I read Girls of Summer, all I wanted to do was slip on a sundress and a pair of sandals. Unfortunately, Georgia was experiencing an unseasonable cold snap so I was wrapped up in sweatshirts and fuzzy blankets instead. But that didn't keep me from enjoying the book.

I felt that Girls of Summer was a little different than other books by Thayer I've read. One, the main female character is a older than the other female protagonist. She's in her fifties, and though she is older than me, I did identify with some of the feelings she had in regards to dating a younger man. There are two other prominent females who are in their mid- to late-twenties. I liked Juliet, Lisa's daughter. While younger than me, the need to stay close in case her mother needed her and trying to figure out what she really wants career-wise resonated with me. Mack's daughter Beth, on the other hand, got on my nerves. She played the "poor me" card a bit too much. It is sad that her mother died when she was a toddler and her highschool boyfriend, who she stayed with more out of obligation, committed suicide. Sure these circumstances shaped her life, but part of me wanted to shake her and tell her to grow up. Her reaction to seeing Mack and Lisa together had me almost putting the book down because it was just too much.

Another difference about this book was its emphasis on the environment. Plastic in the oceans has been in the news a lot, so it is a timely topic for Thayer's new book and totally made sense for the coastal town of Nantucket. As someone who cares about the environment and at one point had hoped to work for an environmental non-profit, I enjoyed this aspect of the story.

As always when reading one of Thayer's novels, my desire to one day visit Nantucket intensified. Even the freak storm with serious storm surge didn't dampen my desire. Ironically, I was experiencing my own deluge of rain and risk of flooding while reading Girls of Summer.

Whether you are headed to the beach, lake, pool, or just your back porch this summer, you will want to make sure you have Nancy Thayer's Girls of Summer with you.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Sunday, May 24 at 11:30 am - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2020/05/girls-of-summer-by-nancy-thayer-review.html

It’s not summer without Nancy Thayer! This was enjoyable albeit predictable fun read. It always makes me want to visit Nantucket. I will say I’m disappointed in how ageist the book was and it kept repeating over and over.

Thank being said, I did really enjoy it.

It’s not summer without Nancy Thayer! This was enjoyable albeit predictable fun read. It always makes me want to visit Nantucket. I will say I’m disappointed in how ageist the book was and it kept repeating over and over.

Thank being said, I did really enjoy it.

I could hardly put this book down it was so good. We start with Lisa that falls in love with Erich but he is from a rich family and doesn't think she is good enough for him. She is left with their two children Juliet and Theo to live on Nantucket. Years later the children go their own way and Lisa is left with a ceiling that is going to collapse and a bathroom that needs sprucing up. She calls Mack a carpenter on the island. He has been a widow for years with his daughter Beth.
Then all at once all the children come back to live with parents on the island. Love is in the air for everyone, except its a weird situation.
This is definitely a summer read for the beach.

You can always count on Nancy Thayer for a great read! Her books always have a beautiful setting with interesting characters, and Girls of Summer is no exception. I loved how the environment was a big part of the story and the future of each character. Nancy was able to tell a beautiful story of family, coming into your own, and romance while giving the reader an important lesson on how we can take better care of our world.

This is a pleasant enough chick lit book. Lots of unusual (if unlikely) situations that are predictably resolved by the end of the book. There were a few inconsistencies in time jumps that were rather jarring but that can be overlooked. One thing that drove me absolutely crazy, however, was the fact that every paragraph seemed to say something about Lisa being ten years older than Mack until I wanted to scream. Enough already, we get it!!!

It's an easy read that doesn't require your thinking cap and allows one to escape real life for awhile.

There's nothing like a good summer read. For me its so nostaglic and there's something about the setting and the atmosphere. I enjoyed this book a lot and I thought it was a lot of fun. The setting of Nantucket is so perfect and I was completly immersed it in. I don't even want to critize the book too much because I think it was fun and light. I think the characters and really likeable and I think the romance complimented the story nicely. I couldn't put it down and I finished it within two days. Now more than ever, I think that books are a great form of escape and this was no exception. I loved it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the review copy!

I absolutely loved this story- or stories, I should say. The characters were fully developed, raw and real. Heartache is fully exposed, life disappointments lived and dreams revealed all as the characters of Lisa, Juliet and Theo learn to live their lives to the fullest potential regardless of what others think. And when that happens, love prevails.

Nancy Thayer has a knack for writing great "beach reads." When Girls of Summer showed up on NetGalley, I added it to my to-read list. The story is about the love stories between 6 people: Lisa and Mack, Theo (Lisa's son) and Beth (Mack's daughter), and Juliet (Lisa's daughter) and Ryder (Beth's boss). While there wasn't a lot of depth in the characters, this was just what I needed to finish off the school year and welcome in the summer away from elearning!