The Narrowboat summer was a lovely book; I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and was sad to see it end. The setting was so interesting...aboard a narrowboat plying the canals of England. I learned so much about narrowboats and navigating the locks of the canals that were constructed throughout England during the Industrial Revolution to transport goods. The real story is the characters that inhabit two of these boats. Two woman, Eve and Sally meet on a canal towpath just as they are at a pivotal crossroads in their respective lives. Suddenly, these two woman find new experiences and friendships when they least expect it. I look forward to reading future books by Anne Youngson.

A pleasant and slow journey through the English canals. This was an enjoyable enough read with a few insights, especially for older women. Not sure of anyone under the age of 50 would relate, however. It is good to see books written and published featuring older, female characters and their perspectives.

An accidental meeting of three characters leads to a lovely story of friendship and hope. Sally is contemplating leaving her husband when she meets Eve, who just lost her job. Both women are at loose ends as to their direction when they meet Anastasia. Anastasia owns a narrowboat and needs someone to take it to a boat yard while she has surgery. Although totally inexperienced, Eve and Sally set out and meet some quirky characters along the way. The story, the characters and the setting were unique, a departure from many of the books I have read lately. I enjoyed the book and recommend, thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I so enjoyed this book. It was a great escape.
The characters and the writing were so enjoyable. I am looking forward to reading other works by this author.

A slow, gentle read
Fans of Meet Me at the Museum, Youngson's first novel, will not find the same epistolary structure or poignant philosophical musings in this second outing. Narrowboat Summer has its own pleasures, though, as we witness two very ordinary middle age women, Eve and Sally, step out of their humdrum lives and agree on the spur of the moment to pilot a narrow boat through the canals of England while the boat's owner seeks medical treatment. How much a reader enjoys Narrowboat Summer will depend on how closely they identify with Eve and Sally.

A slow-burner -- charming and moving

No sooner do Sally, Eve, and ailing Anastasia haphazardly meet for the first time over a howling dog than readers are treated to a leisurely contemplative tale centered around the unlikeliest of sisterhoods. During the time the women spend getting to know one another on their journey, they encounter a kaleidoscope of memorable eccentric – often funny, at times dubious - boat dwellers whose experiences and stories force the two middle-aged women into rethinking their own life choices.

If there’s one thing that Youngson excels in it is her mastery in depicting the whole range of individual varieties of human interactions, emotions and eccentricities rendering her characters – both primary and peripheral - relatable, grounded in reality and redeemable despite their many flaws. As the characters’ histories slowly unravel, we better understand not only the motives behind their interactions with each other, but also their personal struggles, past regrets and future longings as we are simultaneously treated to the challenges as well as the serenity and simplicity of a life lived on the water.

That said, the novel’s themes, around friendship, love, kindness, hope and forgiveness, makes “The Narrowboat Summer” a perfect bookclub choice.

Three women meet on a towpath along a canal near London, strangers brought together by a howling dog in a narrowboat, all three at crossroads in their life. Anastasia, the boat owner, teaches Eve and Sally how to operate the narrowboat and trusts them to deliver it to the repair facility in Chester, over 200 miles north, a trip that would take more than six weeks. Six weeks that would change their lives.

The story reads like a narrowboat trip – slow, meandering, graceful & enriching. Along the way, Eve & Sally meet a variety of people, some of whom will become dear friends and some who will remain just people they met.

A perfect book club read – so many episodes ripe for discussion and consideration. I took a long time reading this book, not because it was difficult, but because I wanted to savor every chapter. This is a book I will reread next summer and dream of my own narrowboat trip.

I was thrilled to get an ARC of The Narrowboat Summer! Thank you so much to Book Browse, Net Galley, and Macmillan for the opportunity to read it early. Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson is one of my favorite books, so I’ve been anxiously awaiting a new book from Ms. Youngson. I was especially excited when reading the description of the book - what better way to escape this terrible year of 2020 than by drifting along the canals of the English countryside getting to know three older female characters?

Unfortunately I didn’t love this book as much as I hoped I would. The problem is likely mainly due to my own expectations, which isn’t fair to the author. I finished the book about a week ago and have been trying to puzzle out why it didn’t click for me, before I wrote my review. I think the first reason is because I was expecting a charming, idyllic escape. While Ms. Youngson does an excellent job of pacing the novel to reflect the slow drift of a Narrowboat making its way through the canals, she also does a good job of reflecting the reality of such a journey, including some of the grittier landscapes and characters, the sometimes boring stretches of time, and the often repetitive tasks (I probably don’t need to ever read about going through locks again, ever).

The other thing that didn’t click for me was the character of Anastasia. I’m not a fan of the “crotchety-yet-wise old person” trope generally, and I felt like the great affection the two main characters had for Anastasia wasn’t well-founded enough to be believable.

I did enjoy getting to know the two main characters and taking a virtual trip during these Covid times. As I mentioned earlier, I think the pacing fit the story well, and I think Ms. Youngson is talented at capturing the feeling of a journey, whether by boat, train, or road trip - that sense of being outside of time, letting the journey dictate the rhythm of your days, until the journey is almost at an end and you realize there’s so much else you could have noticed or done as you need to start adhering to a schedule again.

Even though I didn’t enjoy this as much as I expected or as much as Meet Me at the Museum, I still hope Ms. Youngson has already started her next book. I’ll be right there in line to buy it.

The Narrowboat Summer
By Anne Youngson

An agreeable addition to the Aga Saga shelf, with appealing characters – whimsical, eccentric, a little lost – that’s today’s world on the English canals, where tourists have replaced trade. Anastasia is elderly, fiercely independent – and at a loss for what to do with her narrowboat while she makes a life-saving visit to hospital. Eve has been fired from her high-level job, Sally has walked out of her boring married life. Torn between delight and caution (not so much delight from Anastasia), they trade places, and Eve and Sally learn a whole new world.

I knew nothing about narrowboats before I started reading The Narrowboat Summer by Anne Youngson. I never knew it was an option for an English holiday, much less a way of life for the denizens who live on them full- or part-time. And there are tunnels and bridges and locks (!) to navigate with at least a modicum of skill, though apparently one can pick up the necessary skills relatively quickly.

I was enchanted with the book, not just because of the pastoral setting (not always!), but also because of the strong development of main characters and some assorted family members and friends. For the three main characters, two middle-aged women and one who is elderly, the narrowboat journey serves as a subtle metaphor for a re-evaluation of their lives, a “time-out” for them to make some decisions for which fork in the stream they will take. I think of this book as a bit of a “coming-of-age” novel, though in this case our heroines aren’t bridging to adulthood but to a new chapter in their lives.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of The Narrowboat Summer. I had eagerly awaited this book as I had so enjoyed Anne Youngson’s Meet me At The Museum. Fans of that book may be disappointed, as this book did not meet my expectations. In her new novel Ms. Youngson offers a view of life traveling the canals of England. The story revolves around the accidental meeting and blossoming friendship of three women who are all faced with pivotal moments in their lives offering a chance for introspection and growth. There are some lovely telling scenes and some notable quotes but the most fully developed character in the book is the canal and while its descriptions are lyrical and detailed the characters while initially interesting often come across as inauthentic, flat and difficult to know. For example, a woman who worked in a male dominated field and is the only woman on the top floor laments that she feels sorry for men. She criticizes “ the idea of diversity, the constant challenges to the notion that being a man required and even mandated certain patterns of behavior, they were instead of liberated, cast into a darkness where the rules were not yet clear enough for them to be sure they had read and interpreted them correctly .” This did not mesh with the image of a woman who has worked hard to be successful in a male dominated profession, and it seemed too forced and weirdly placed. Other characters while perhaps more believable were unfortunately, not fully developed and this coupled with an abrupt ending left me unsatisfied. I wanted to know more about Sally than just a few cliché revelations, there seemed to be so much more to her than just the glimpses we were given. The Narrowboat Summer offered such an interesting setting and premise but the lovely, lingering and vivid, details were all about the setting- the canal , the boats, the landscape while the characters remained in the background as fuzzy objects in black and white.

A well written relaxing read. It would be wonderful to spend a summer on the water and plan a new life. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I loved Meet Me at the Museum and I was so excited for this new release. It was a great disappointment. I didn't like any of the characters and will not be recommending this one.