It was nice to read a stand alone romance/women's fiction book. Although it took place on Thayer's Nantucket world, it was very much contained to the characters introduced in the beginning of the book and no other tie in with another Nantucket book.This was a fluffy beach read and it was fun to read, but nothing sticks out as especially good or bad. The women featured are pretty wealthy (or at least well-off) so there is a bit of "richy rich" syndrome going on here. The women worked hard, but they partied just as hard. The men were less drawn and were more like another accessory for the women.

This weekend is the big base clean up, so the son and his cub scout pack are cleaning up their school which means my butt has to wake up early on a Saturday and go pick up trash. We are having a heatwave with temps in the 70s and 80s, so I got out the pool for the kids to cool off in. So trash detail first, then lunch, then pool - all while mom sits to the side with one eye on the kids and one eye on my books.

First goal is to get through the last of my library borrows: The Miner's Lady by Tracie Peterson, One Wish by Robyn Carr, and Island Girls by Nancy Thayer. I am hoping to get a couple chapters of To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild in this weekend as well. 

Next week we will be having rain and temps in the 50s, so I am taking advantage of all the sun-induced Vitamin D production this weekend. I hope you all got some good reading ahead of you as well!

This was my second book by this author. Again, entertaining and a great beach read. Nothing that really blew me away, but I do have a couple of comments on some of the annoying characters.

Poppy - What a beatch!
Alison - Please, please, please take a chill pill. Her whining was really starting to irk me.
Ingrid - Sorry, but what a BORING name especially for someone who seems to be the "bad girl" at first.

As I said, a decent read. Not as good as the first one I read, but still good.

Thanks to Random House/Ballantine and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

This weekend I downloaded three contemporary romances from OverDrive. Two I read in about 24 hours each; the third I DNF at the 9% mark. I think I got my reading mojo back. Today I went to volunteer at the library (something I haven't done all March because of adult taskings); after, I decided to browse the fiction side for a change. 

I came home with 12 books (8 adult fiction titles, 1 middle grade that will fill a PS prompt, 1 graphic novel) plus I still have four books coming to me via ILL. In my defense, I was left unsupervised in a library.

Here's what I brought home:

1. George by Alex Gino (the MG for PS prompt)

2. Paper Girls (Book One) by Brian K. Vaughn et al (collects the first 10 issues)

3. Death on Tap (Sloan Krause Mystery #1) by Ellie Alexander

4. Once Upon a Spine (A Bibliophile Mystery) by Kate Carlisle

5. A Perfect Proposal by Katie Ffjorde

6. Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

7. Dark Harbor (Stone Barrington Novel) by Stuart Woods

8. The Miner's Lady (Land of Shining Water #3) by Tracie Peterson

9. One Wish (A Thunder Point Novel) by Robyn Carr

10. Island Girls by Nancy Thayer

11. Family Tree by Susan Wiggs

12. Night Road by Kristin Hannah

This was one of the recommended books for the "beach reads" week in my library's summer-reading program.  This is one of those books I probably wouldn't have chosen of my own volition, though I'm glad to have experienced it.  Its setting in Nantucket was nice, because I honeymooned there in addition to having other special vacations there.

The book is set in the summer of 2009; many characters are having financial problems because of the economy.  Fifteen years before, Danielle Fox drowned; whether the drowning was accidental or intentional,  no one knows for sure.  She left behind her husband Jim, a contractor, and three daughters--Abbie, who was 15 at the time; Emma, who was 13; and Lily, who was only seven.  As the oldest daughter, Abbie, stepped up as caretaker to her younger sisters.

As the book opens on its present-tense narrative, Abbie rushes home at Lily's urging, after having spent two years in London working as an au pair.  Lily's worried about Emma, whose fiance Duncan dumped her for another woman right around the time she lost her finance job in Boston.  Emma returned to the family home and took to her bed.  Lily's also worried about their father's business, as contracting jobs are becoming less plentiful.  He has rented out the guest cottage, aka "the playhouse," to Marina--whom she characterizes in an email to Abbie as a sexy woman who is after their father.  Six months earlier, Marina's husband Gerry and good friend Dara threw her a surprise party to celebrate her 40th birthday--only to reveal the next morning that they'd fallen in love and were expecting a baby.  Gerry wanted a divorce so he could marry Dara.  Gerry bought out Marina's half of their ad agency and their condo, in Kansas City, MO.  Marina has rented out the cottage for a six-month term, to give herself the chance for a new start.

So there are multiple romances in this book, and I'm not usually a romance kind of girl.  But there was enough other drama going on to make this generally a fun, frothy read for me.  Sometimes, I became irritated with certain characters.  Okay, mostly Lily.  At times, she acted more like a toddler than a 22-year-old, but this was somewhat explained by her sisters having babied her--and she does go through a trajectory.  There's some insta-love here, and I'm not generally a fan of that.  But fortunately, things weren't 100% wrapped up with a neat bow.  More like 85%.