Summer Rental - Review

Title:  Summer Rental
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press

Goodreads Summary:

Sometimes, when you need a change in your life, the tide just happens to pull you in the right direction….

Ellis, Julia, and Dorie. Best friends since Catholic grade school, they now find themselves, in their mid-thirties, at the crossroads of life and love. Ellis, recently fired from a job she gave everything to, is rudderless and now beginning to question the choices she's made over the past decade of her life. Julia—whose caustic wit covers up her wounds--has a man who loves her and is offering her the world, but she can't hide from how deeply insecure she feels about her looks, her brains, her life.  And Dorie has just been shockingly betrayed by the man she loved and trusted the most in the world…though this is just the tip of the iceberg of her problems and secrets. A month in North Carolina's Outer Banks is just what they each of them needs.

Ty Bazemore is their landlord, though he's hanging on to the rambling old beach house by a thin thread. After an inauspicious first meeting with Ellis, the two find themselves disturbingly attracted to one another, even as Ty is about to lose everything he's ever cared about.

Maryn Shackleford is a stranger, and a woman on the run. Maryn needs just a few things in life: no questions, a good hiding place, and a new identity.  Ellis, Julia, and Dorie can provide what Maryn wants; can they also provide what she needs? 

Five people questioning everything they ever thought they knew about life. Five people on a journey that will uncover their secrets and point them on the path to forgiveness.   Five people who each need a sea change, and one month in a summer rental that might just give it to them.

My thoughts:

I actually read this book on vacation, while at my family's summer rental in northern Michigan.  I figured it was the perfect book for the occasion.  I was right! It is a great, lighthearted summer read.  

I liked all the characters, although Julia did get on my nerves a little- she seemed kind of abrupt and I wouldn't like if my friends talked to me so sharply.  She did mellow out and grow on me though.  Ellis was uptight, but that was ok.  I felt her character really grew and changed as the novel progressed, which I like.   Dorie was my favorite of the friends, I hope we get a book about her soon! I just liked her go with it demeanor and silliness, but she was practical and down to earth when she needed to be.  I am not usually about books about women friend groups, they are usually so saccharine my teeth rot out of my head just reading them or the friends are really jerks to each other and sleep with each other's husbands and stuff.  This book was a nice blend of good friends and reality- they admitted after a month they were starting to get on each others nerves. I felt too, that some of the language was realistic - I am the same age as the characters, and they talked to each other alot like I do with my friends.

One thing that bothered me and made me anxious the whole book, was the dog Biggie.  The character Maryn left her husband and her beloved dog, and worried that perhaps her husband would do something horrid to Biggie in retaliation.  This made me nervous the entire book!!! I didn't like Maryn for doing that, who leaves an animal they love behind if they think there is a chance they might be injured, and I was kind of irritated at Andrews for saying that and then never mentioning Biggie again.  At one point while Maryn is reminiscing, she thinks about how Biggie was her husband's real best friend, and I kind of relaxed a bit after that, but I was a little on edge the whole book.  

This was a really fun read - I usually always enjoy Andrew's books, and this was no exception.  Looking forward to the next read by her!