I finished this book going "that's it?". I didn't know it was the first part of a trilogy - that makes more sense. I was bored with this book. It read like a TV series you watch weekly with no real dramatic 'catch' events and the Mamaw character being completely unrealistic. Monroe's descriptive narrative is where she excels. I could easily place myself on the island. This book could have been much shorter. This was supposed to be the story of 3 half sisters that reunite at their grandmother's beach house for her 80th birthday. We are given intricate back stories on all of the sisters at the start of the book-as it progresses we lose sight of oldest and youngest sisters' stories and focus only on the middle sister, Carson. That is fine, if the book were called Summer Girl. I felt as though I invested time into learning characters only to be left hanging as to what happened to them over the summer. However, Carson finds a job, meets a love interest, nearly gets attacked by a shark, befriends a dolphin, gets her autistic nephew to come out of his shell, discovers she's an alcoholic, loses her job, nearly loses her love interest, and loses her dolphin. What about the other sisters? The one that is the mother to the autistic child, getting a divorce, and losing her home-still don't know. What about the one that lived in NYC with her powerful mother and works for her publishing house only to quit so that she can spend the summer at Sea Breeze-still don't know. Does Mamaw sell the house and go to a nursing home? who gets the big diamond ring? We never find out! This leaves me knowing that I will not pay money to read a follow up or follow ups to this book -as it would take at least 2 more novels to accurately tie together all of the open story lines from this 1 book.
What do You think about The Summer Girls (2013)?
Real taste of life ... Loved the lowcountry feel to the book. Anxious for the next book
—Anna
Wonderful!! Became absorbed in the story and could not put it down! Perfect beach book.
—JSarje87
Heartwarming story. Mary Alice Monroe has always been a favorite of mine.
—nick
This is beyond ridiculous - even for a beach read.
—eliza
