If the summery title and perfect seaside cover don't make it clear, The Summer House is beach reading at its finest. Hannah McKinnon (The Lake Season, Mystic Summer) creates a hilarious clan in the Merrill family. Flossy Merrill, the matriarch, has summoned her grown children back to the family's summer house in Rhode Island for a week, to celebrate their father's 75th birthday. The occasion will also celebrate their last summer with the house--though the children don't know it--because Flossy and Richard have agreed to sell it to help fund their retirement.
Their three children are already tense. Paige, the eldest, is a veterinarian with a busy practice, two teenagers and a husband out of work. Sam, the only boy, and his husband have hit a snag in their adoption plans since the birth mother changed her mind. And Clem, the baby of the family, has suffered an unimaginable loss and is still grieving.
Paige, Sam, Clem and their respective spouses and offspring gather for a crazy week of party planning, swimming, family dinners and more than a few family arguments. For years, sibling rivalries have simmered beneath the surface, and as the end of the summer-house era nears, tensions finally boil over.
Poignant and funny, with well-crafted prose and charming characters, this novel is completely absorbing. Sure to appeal to readers of Elin Hilderbrand and Dorothea Benton Frank, The Summer House is an intriguing glimpse into a complicated yet still loving family. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm