Family Reunion

During the summer of her 70th year, Eleanor Sunderland faces familial challenges: infidelity in her daughter’s marriage; her granddaughter’s unexpected pregnancy; and pressure from the family to sell her Nantucket house. Granddaughter Ari comes to stay the summer in Nantucket, and Eleanor cherishes the house and the ocean view as always, yet she begins to realize that she can’t maintain it by herself anymore. Ari and Eleanor, both down-to-earth, share a loving relationship, which gives this story a good feeling. The narration alternates between Eleanor’s and Ari’s points of view, as each faces a new chapter and finds new love in her life. Thayer (Summer House; Girls of Summer) provides plenty of summer fun, sailing, and dancing in a moneyed, affluent Nantucket for readers’ vicarious enjoyment. The characters are interesting and fully fleshed out, and the story has several surprises at the end, tossing predictability to the wind.