I was expecting Nantucket, often Nancy Thayer's locale of choice, but Summer Breeze takes place near Amherst, MA in a wonderful lake community populated by interesting characters at various decision points in their lives. Slim, elegant Natalie Reynolds is an artist, house sitting for her Aunt Eleanor for a year while trying to figure out if she can really make a living with her talent. Her brother Slade, an antiques dealer, is based in Boston and irresistible to women. Bella Barnaby, a teacher, has returned to Dragonfly Lake to temporarily run the outdated family gift shop, Barnaby's Barn, while her Louise, her mother, recovers from a broken leg. Bella is on the verge of engagement to handsome architect Aaron, but is resistant to his dream of a career in San Fransisco. Bella's brother Ben is an attractive scientist and professor living in Amherst who may have Asperger's (my conclusion, not part of the story!). Married couple Joel and Morgan O'Keefe live in an impressive lake-front home, with a life-style designed to impress potential investors in Joel's company, but Morgan, despite loving many aspects of stay-at-home motherhood, misses her career in bio-safety and is lonely in the too-big, too fancy house.
As usual, Thayer does a superb job of building friendships and allowing her characters to naturally evolve in terms of relationships. They make mistakes, they jump to conclusions, they think that they desperately want things that turn out to be temporarily satisfying. Natalie, Bella, and Morgan form a strong relationship and work together to mutually support each others' goal and dreams. If you enjoy first class women's fiction with appealing characters and a plot that keeps you interested, try taking this book on vacation. You won't regret it!
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