Secrets in Summer

Available: May 16, 2017

Thank you for NetGalley.com and the publisher for an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for my fair and honest review.

For someone who talks again and again about not becoming involved with “summer people” on Nantucket, Darcy seems to let them in with extreme pleasure and ease. From the sickly neighbor to the downtrodden, possibly abused wife, to the ex-hubby and his new family, Darcy sure seems to make a mess of her life in just 2 months. And then magically, once all the summer people are gone, life goes back to normal and everything seems to happen in months in the last 20% of the book.

What I Liked: I like summer stories about Nantucket, but this one was boring. Could Darcy have whined any more about her life? Think about it sweetheart. You are a single woman living on an island with 15,999 other people year-round who are mostly families. Of course its going to be difficult to find someone but are you really going to whine about it to your cat all of the time? Nothing really went on in Darcy’s life – it was everyone who had entered it. The secrets were only about one of the summer families and not really any business of Darcy’s to begin with.

What I Didn’t Like: Quite a few things, unfortunately. From “Perfect Darcy” which was setting an unrealistic expectation for a woman, to the entire creepy situation with Clive for starters. But I think what bothered me most about this novel was how all of her true friends, the year-round friends, seemed to be abandoned by Darcy for her summer neighbors. The entire last quarter of the book is Darcy complaining that she didn’t see this person or that person. What was the point of bringing up all these local characters at the end of the story? They had no purpose being there.

What I learned: Nantucket is becoming so 2015 (or earlier). Time to find a new summer destination.

Overall Grade: C