Review: The Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer

Release date: July 2, 2019

Publisher: Ballantine

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Blurb:

Growing up, Keely always dreamed of leaving Nantucket to become a writer. Now that she’s a bestselling novelist living in New York City, she realizes that success isn’t what she thought it would be. Confused, and with a harrowing case of writer’s block, Keely misses the island way of life more than ever. But going back to Nantucket out of the blue isn’t so easy, as a deep rift with her childhood best friend, Isabelle, has kept the two from speaking for years.

When her mother is laid off from her job and becomes depressed, Keely reluctantly comes home, leaving a failed relationship and hopefully her other troubles behind. But facing her estranged best friend is harder than she expects. And falling for Isabelle’s brother, Sebastian–who was also Keely’s teenage crush–only complicates things. Keely soon realizes that she must remedy the mistakes of her past in order to find true happiness.

Review:

There is just something so appealing to me about books set in Nantucket, every summer I look forward to reading books set there and though this is only my third book by Thayer, it’s my favorite one so far! It had everything I look for in a beach read. It’s light and fun yet has plenty going on in the characters lives too, throw in a perfect summer location and some romantic drama and it’s the best possible combination for me for a summer read.

This is told solely from Keely’s perspective and begins when she’s a young girl and meets her future best friend, Isabelle. It follows both girls over the years until they’re almost thirty and you get to see them experience highs and lows, both in their separate lives and also in their friendship with each other. I’m really glad that Keely was the narrator as I liked her a lot more than I did Isabelle, she was just a genuinely good person trying to follow her dreams and maintain her relationship with her friend. Although Isabelle wasn’t my favorite kind of character both women were incredibly well developed and interesting.