Summertime Guests
Fiction
Graydon House Books
April 6, 2021
Advanced reader copy
384
Free from publisher
The Seafarer is the place to see and be seen in the summer…
With its rich history and famous guests, the glamorous Boston hotel is no stranger to drama. But the bustle at the iconic property reaches new heights one weekend in mid-June when someone falls tragically to her death, the event rippling through the lives of four very different people.
Bride-to-be Riley is at the hotel to plan her wedding. She would have preferred a smaller, more intimate celebration, but her bossy mother-in-law has taken charge and her fiancé hasn’t seemed to notice. Jean-Paul, the hotel’s manager, is struggling to keep his marriage and new family afloat, but now he must devote all his energy to this latest scandal at work. Claire, recently widowed, comes to town to connect with a long-lost love, but has too much changed in the last thirty years? And then there’s Jason, whose romantic getaway with his girlfriend has not exactly gone the way he'd hoped and instead has him facing questions he can't bring himself to answer.
Over three sun-drenched days, as the truth about the woman who died—and the secret she was hiding—is uncovered, these four strangers become linked in the most unexpected of ways. Together, they just might find the strength they need to turn their own lives around.
My review:
I so enjoyed this author's novel Best Behavior, that I graciously accepted the offer to read this latest story. These novels, while not without drama, are written in a way that I can sit for long periods of time and immerse myself in the storyline. In the case of this book, it sure was nice to imagine being at a luxury hotel at the height of summer! It was also fun to experience some of the places that I've actually been to in real life, having been to Boston many times. As I mentioned, this is not all sweetness and light. At the beginning of the book a woman falls to her death at the hotel. While we follow four main people up to and including the event, we as a reader are trying to put together not only how the fall happened (suicide? pushed? accidental?), but also who was the victim? While the mystery unfolds, we experience the heart of the story, which is that of relationships. Old love, new love, lost love, those people heading into marriage, parenthood, widowhood, and relationships that are ending in very different ways. The writing flows really well, there are not lots of superfluous extras that don't have a place in the ongoing plot. My only regret would be that I wish there was more followup for a few of the characters (particularly the two men last seen with the deceased woman).
This book accomplished exactly what I hoped it would. It gave me a few hours to check myself into a luxury hotel, and solve a mystery, all the while taking in the various relationships of the guests. This would make an excellent summer beach read!
