Review by Booklist Review
Lousia McLean and her kids are spending the whole summer at Ship's View, her parents' vacation house on the coast of Maine. Her husband, Steven, in staying in New York to try to get his podcast company off the ground, while Louisa needs help from Annie, her mother, if she's going to get any writing done on the book that is due at the end of the summer. Louisa's father, Martin, a retired Maine Supreme Court judge, is suffering from Alzheimer's, and Annie is facing the reality of putting him in a home. To do that, though, they'd have to sell Ship's View. Meanwhile, Kristie Turner takes a bus from Pennsylvania to Maine, on a mission. She gets a job waiting tables and meets a handsome gardener who works at Ship's View, and things seem to be looking up until she discovers that she's pregnant. Moore's latest (after Two Truths and a Lie, 2020) captures the breezy feel of a summer in Maine while addressing a variety of problems, from work/life balance to paternity, that will resonate with readers.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Moore (The Islanders) follows a family's tribulations while summering in Maine in her delectable latest. NYU history professor Louisa McLean brings her three children to her parents' summer home in Rockland without her husband, Steven, who stays behind and continues putting in long hours in chasing his dream of selling his podcast company. Louisa, resentful at having to deal with the kids herself, also hopes the time away will help her stop procrastinating on writing her book. Tensions mount as her mother reveals that paying to care for Louisa's father, Martin, a judge who now has Alzheimer's, might require them to sell the family house as soon as the following year. Then a young woman named Kristie Turner arrives by Greyhound after her mother's death, determined for reasons that are only revealed later to gain an audience with Martin. She decides to stay a while, gets a job as a waitress, and worries about money after learning she's pregnant. Kristie's life is detailed in sharp contrast to Louisa's leisurely days, as Louisa weighs a desire to help Kristie with her parents' needs. Steven's lack of understanding over how much the house means to Louisa, meanwhile, causes tensions to flare. Moore details the dicey situation with nuance and grace. Readers are in for a treat. (June)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Two half sisters who have never met--a New York University professor and a waitress--spend the summer in the small town of Rockland, Maine. Louisa Fitzgerald McLean, a tenured NYU history professor, is almost done with her sabbatical and feels like a complete mess. She hasn't been working on her planned book, her three children are taking up all her energy, and her husband, Steven, is so consumed with getting his new podcast company up and running that he has no time for her or the family. A decision is made: She and the children will spend the summer in Maine with her mother, Annie, and father, Martin--retired chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine--at her family's vacation house while Steven stays in Brooklyn and works. Over the course of the summer, Mattie, 12, falls in love; Abigail, 10, writes letters to her father and loses herself in Bridge to Terabithia, board games, and the water; and Claire, 7, listens, watches, bosses people around, and has a tremendous time learning secrets and suffering the tragedies that only a youngest sibling can suffer. Everything looks--and is--wonderful, but Louisa and Steven's marriage is under strain, her book isn't coming along, her father's Alzheimer's is getting worse, her mother's endless reservoir of money is drying up, and she discovers that her father is not perfect. Kristie, a half sister Louisa never knew about, arrives in Maine, three years sober and looking for her own closure after her mother's recent death. Author Moore has expertly woven together first-person narratives from Louisa; Kristie; Martin; the family's housekeeper Pauline; and the children to create an engrossing story of one summer, many summers, multiple lives. A truly lovely tale of families, love, mistakes, forgiveness, and, yes, happiness. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
