BOOK REVIEW: The Summer House by Lauren K. Denton @laurenkdenton @tlcbooktours @thomasnelson #thesummerhouse #bookreview

Heart-warming! The type of book that will leave you feeling uplifted with a full-heart!

About the Book

Lily Bishop wakes up one morning to find a good-bye note and divorce papers from her husband on the kitchen counter. Having moved to Alabama for his job only weeks before, Lily is devastated, but a flyer at the grocery store for a hair stylist position in a local retirement community provides a refuge while she contemplates her next steps.

Rose Carrigan built the small retirement village of Safe Harbor years ago—just before her husband ran off with his assistant. Now she runs a tight ship, making sure the residents follow her strict rules. Rose keeps everyone at arm’s length, including her own family. But when Lily shows up asking for a job and a place to live, Rose’s cold exterior begins to thaw.

Lily and Rose form an unlikely friendship, and Lily’s salon soon becomes the place where residents share town gossip, as well as a few secrets. Lily soon finds herself drawn to Rose’s nephew, Rawlins—a single dad and shrimper who’s had some practice at starting over—and one of the residents may be carrying a torch for Rose as well.

Neither Lily nor Rose is where she expected to be, but the summer makes them both wonder if there’s more to life and love than what they’ve experienced so far. The Summer House weaves Lauren K. Denton’s inviting Southern charm around a woman’s journey to find herself.

Reflection

This book is one of those warm, cathartic reads where I felt that I experienced all of the ups and downs with the characters as I read. By the end, I had the warm-fuzzies. A truly great feel-good read that is perfect to escape life for a bit and unwind, whether on vacation or a staycation!

The opening chapters are full of quiet heartbreak. Lily Bishop wakes up one morning to find a note from her husband and divorce papers. In some ways, she feels like she always knew this is how they’d end. And yet, that doesn’t fix the shock, the sadness, and the memory that their final embrace was in retrospect, a goodbye. She just didn’t know it yet.

But despite the hard moments, this is also a book that felt fully like a story about healing. I found it so cathartic to read, from watching Rose and Lily form a friendship, and watching Lily find her way through a new life now that she had been suddenly released from the life she thought she knew and wanted. Through the hard times, I felt that Lily found something much more valuable and fulfilling, even if it wasn’t the life she imagined for herself.

Both Rose and Lily are compelling characters, and their stories are so seamlessly intertwined. Rose is more reserved and distant than Lily, but they compliment one another in an unexpected way. They felt like the exact person that the other needed to pull them through the trials they are facing.

And of course, there is a romance. It is the sweet kind of butterflies-in-your-stomach romance that just made me happy to read about. It felt like it was happening to me! This is the sort of story that could be called predictable, but also carried the lesson that when love is right, it can be easy. It can just simply make sense. The contrast between Lily’s relationships were so striking and that made the love story so satisfying!

A beautiful story with characters you will not want to leave behind, and uplifting themes of forgiveness, healing, and second chances. A lovely book that lifted my spirits!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for my copy. Opinions are my own.