This is definitely my definition of a grand beach read. The Hempstead family was the poster family for dysfunction yet their underlying love and loyalty is unquestionable. Of the six girl cousins one is dying of cancer, one is fresh from prison, one is covering up her mental illness and the last is deal with a failing relationship and don't even get me started on their mothers. Both families used to spend the summer at their family lake home but something happened that splintered this family into tiny little pieces. The mystery interwoven with the rest of the story makes this the type of book that is very, very hard to put down and while a great beach read it's also one that you will enjoy this winter while bundled up on the couch with a fire and cup of hot chocolate.
The Summer that Made Us by Robyn Carr. One of my favorite authors- I've read every book she's written. This had to have been my favorite of all! Two sisters, each with three daughters all a year apart, spend each summer at the lake house of their grandparents. Each daughter with so much baggage, and the two moms at odds with each other since a horrible tragedy when the girls were so young. Each character was fully explored, and my heart went out to each of their problems. Amazing story!!
Good story of family relationships, love, forgiveness, and letting go. Two sisters, Louise and Jo, married two brothers, Carl and Roy. Each couple had three daughters. The families were very close and spent each summer at their lake house. Then the youngest daughter, Bunny, drowned, and in the aftermath, the lake house was closed, and the previously close family fractured. Louise and Jo stopped speaking to each other, and the girls grew apart. Twenty-seven years later, one daughter decided it was time to bring the family together again, and opening the lake house was the only way to do it. I enjoyed each woman's story, the events, and feelings that made them who they are today.
Louise - the oldest of the two sisters, married Carl, the oldest brother. Louise is strong-willed and rules her roost with an iron hand. After the death of her youngest child, she was lost in grief, neglecting her other two daughters. She later became very bitter and hard to get along with. Her relationship with her daughter Charley is especially contentious. She is the one who decided to close the lake house. She was very much against reopening the house.
Jo - married Carl, the younger brother. She is soft-spoken, content to be in her sister's shadow, and seems to be something of a doormat. Her life wasn't an easy one. Roy was charismatic, but lazy and always looking for the easy way. He had trouble keeping a job and was frequently bailed out by his brother Carl.
Charley - oldest of the daughters. She has deep-seated resentment toward her mother, who failed her at the time she needed her the most. Recently laid off from her job as a talk show host, she feels like she has lost herself. To add to the stress, her long-time committed love is suddenly talking marriage, which freaks her out. Also, her younger sister, Meg, is battling Stage 4 breast cancer and wants to spend time at the lake house. With unexpected free time, Charley takes on the responsibility of making it happen. She does not expect to come face-to-face with her past while there.
Meg - hopeful that the latest treatment will be successful, Meg wants the peace and tranquility of the lake house to recover and regain her strength. She also has the ulterior motive of trying to bring her family back together. She wrote to all of her cousins, inviting them to the lake house for the summer, hoping that her invitation will be accepted. Of all the daughters, she has weathered the storms the best. Her relationship with her doctor husband is strong and loving, and she is the only one who has maintained contact with her cousins.
Krista - her grief led to her getting involved with a bad group of kids and progressed to further bad decisions. She landed in prison for twenty-five years and was recently released. She showed up at the lake, unsure of her welcome, and determined to make better decisions for her future. She is both naïve and worldly, hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. She finds acceptance and love in unexpected ways.
Hope - dealt with the loss and family upheaval by going to live with her grandparents. Hope handled things she didn't like by ignoring them and pretending that what she wants is real. This practice has developed to the point where she has almost completely lost her grip on reality. Everything comes out when there is a near tragedy, and the extent of her mental breakdown becomes clear.
Beverly - the cousin who was with Bunny at the time of the drowning, Beverly blocked everything out for a year. She ended up in foster care, with foster parents who were able to help her, but she never returned to her own family. She has maintained some contact.
Bunny - the youngest of the family and the one who drowned.
I enjoyed the progression of the book, with parts from each character's point of view, both past and present. Though the relationships had been fractured, there were still solid foundations that enabled them to be rebuilt. Each one had challenges to face, especially when it came to reconciling their pasts. I loved seeing the changes that each one went through as they finally looked at and talked about the events of that summer and how it shaped the women they became. I liked some characters better than others, but all of them had moments when they moved me.
I hurt for Charley, whose life was turned upside down by the loss of her job, and the knowledge that she was probably going to lose her only remaining sister. Her relationship with Michael was a good one. I liked Michael's patience with Charley's fears. Charley's feud with her mother was understandable as the events of that summer unfolded. I liked that Charley made peace with the decisions she made. I was not surprised by the blast from her past and enjoyed the mature way that she handled it.
I liked following the story of Jo and Louise and everything that led up to their estrangement. That was an unexpected development and added a bit of mystery to the book. I loved that it was Jo who made the first move toward healing their rift. She turned out to be much stronger than I expected from the early descriptions of her. Louise was pretty obnoxious throughout most of the book and only began to redeem herself toward the end.
Hope frustrated me with her refusal to face the truth. I especially disliked the way she treated her daughters, forcing them to go along with her deception, and the way she cut her mother entirely out of her life. I thought that her ex-husband was a really nice guy and didn't deserve the trouble that she caused him. I hated the way that she treated Krista, which reinforced my opinion of her as an entitled snob.
I liked Beverly's courage in coming to the lake house. She still had large blank spots in her memory about the events of that summer and the following year. I liked seeing her reconnect with her sisters and cousins, and eventually insist on hearing the truth of what happened. I also liked how it was her childhood relationship with Charley that helped her fill in many of those blank spots.
My favorite character was Krista. She could have come out of prison hardened and cynical, but instead, she was determined to make the right decisions for her future. I ached for her fear that her family would reject her, and cheered at her immediate acceptance by Charley and Meg. I loved seeing her take those first steps toward her new life by applying for a job at the resort. She was fortunate to encounter the manager, Jake, who saw something special in her. His confidence in her went a long way to building her self-esteem. I liked the development of the friendship between them and how that friendship grew into something stronger. I thought she handled the surprise revelation about his past very well, and her support of him was pretty sweet.
The ending of the book was both happy and sad. I liked seeing how Meg's efforts were successful in bringing her family back together. This time, grief brought them all closer instead of driving them apart, and I closed the book hopeful that they would remain so.
Louise - the oldest of the two sisters, married Carl, the oldest brother. Louise is strong-willed and rules her roost with an iron hand. After the death of her youngest child, she was lost in grief, neglecting her other two daughters. She later became very bitter and hard to get along with. Her relationship with her daughter Charley is especially contentious. She is the one who decided to close the lake house. She was very much against reopening the house.
Jo - married Carl, the younger brother. She is soft-spoken, content to be in her sister's shadow, and seems to be something of a doormat. Her life wasn't an easy one. Roy was charismatic, but lazy and always looking for the easy way. He had trouble keeping a job and was frequently bailed out by his brother Carl.
Charley - oldest of the daughters. She has deep-seated resentment toward her mother, who failed her at the time she needed her the most. Recently laid off from her job as a talk show host, she feels like she has lost herself. To add to the stress, her long-time committed love is suddenly talking marriage, which freaks her out. Also, her younger sister, Meg, is battling Stage 4 breast cancer and wants to spend time at the lake house. With unexpected free time, Charley takes on the responsibility of making it happen. She does not expect to come face-to-face with her past while there.
Meg - hopeful that the latest treatment will be successful, Meg wants the peace and tranquility of the lake house to recover and regain her strength. She also has the ulterior motive of trying to bring her family back together. She wrote to all of her cousins, inviting them to the lake house for the summer, hoping that her invitation will be accepted. Of all the daughters, she has weathered the storms the best. Her relationship with her doctor husband is strong and loving, and she is the only one who has maintained contact with her cousins.
Krista - her grief led to her getting involved with a bad group of kids and progressed to further bad decisions. She landed in prison for twenty-five years and was recently released. She showed up at the lake, unsure of her welcome, and determined to make better decisions for her future. She is both naïve and worldly, hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. She finds acceptance and love in unexpected ways.
Hope - dealt with the loss and family upheaval by going to live with her grandparents. Hope handled things she didn't like by ignoring them and pretending that what she wants is real. This practice has developed to the point where she has almost completely lost her grip on reality. Everything comes out when there is a near tragedy, and the extent of her mental breakdown becomes clear.
Beverly - the cousin who was with Bunny at the time of the drowning, Beverly blocked everything out for a year. She ended up in foster care, with foster parents who were able to help her, but she never returned to her own family. She has maintained some contact.
Bunny - the youngest of the family and the one who drowned.
I enjoyed the progression of the book, with parts from each character's point of view, both past and present. Though the relationships had been fractured, there were still solid foundations that enabled them to be rebuilt. Each one had challenges to face, especially when it came to reconciling their pasts. I loved seeing the changes that each one went through as they finally looked at and talked about the events of that summer and how it shaped the women they became. I liked some characters better than others, but all of them had moments when they moved me.
I hurt for Charley, whose life was turned upside down by the loss of her job, and the knowledge that she was probably going to lose her only remaining sister. Her relationship with Michael was a good one. I liked Michael's patience with Charley's fears. Charley's feud with her mother was understandable as the events of that summer unfolded. I liked that Charley made peace with the decisions she made. I was not surprised by the blast from her past and enjoyed the mature way that she handled it.
I liked following the story of Jo and Louise and everything that led up to their estrangement. That was an unexpected development and added a bit of mystery to the book. I loved that it was Jo who made the first move toward healing their rift. She turned out to be much stronger than I expected from the early descriptions of her. Louise was pretty obnoxious throughout most of the book and only began to redeem herself toward the end.
Hope frustrated me with her refusal to face the truth. I especially disliked the way she treated her daughters, forcing them to go along with her deception, and the way she cut her mother entirely out of her life. I thought that her ex-husband was a really nice guy and didn't deserve the trouble that she caused him. I hated the way that she treated Krista, which reinforced my opinion of her as an entitled snob.
I liked Beverly's courage in coming to the lake house. She still had large blank spots in her memory about the events of that summer and the following year. I liked seeing her reconnect with her sisters and cousins, and eventually insist on hearing the truth of what happened. I also liked how it was her childhood relationship with Charley that helped her fill in many of those blank spots.
My favorite character was Krista. She could have come out of prison hardened and cynical, but instead, she was determined to make the right decisions for her future. I ached for her fear that her family would reject her, and cheered at her immediate acceptance by Charley and Meg. I loved seeing her take those first steps toward her new life by applying for a job at the resort. She was fortunate to encounter the manager, Jake, who saw something special in her. His confidence in her went a long way to building her self-esteem. I liked the development of the friendship between them and how that friendship grew into something stronger. I thought she handled the surprise revelation about his past very well, and her support of him was pretty sweet.
The ending of the book was both happy and sad. I liked seeing how Meg's efforts were successful in bringing her family back together. This time, grief brought them all closer instead of driving them apart, and I closed the book hopeful that they would remain so.
