The Summer Girls by Mary Alice Monroe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Marietta Muir is celebrating her 80th birthday and wants her three grandaughters to celebrate with her at Sea Breeze, the beloved family beach house located on Sullivan's Island in South Carolina. The three women haven't been back to the beach house together for a very long time and their Mamaw Marietta would like to see the girls become close again as they were when they were young.
Dora, Carson and Harper are the daughters of Marietta's late son, Parker. Each of the girls have a different mother, making them half-sisters.
This is the first book in Mary Alice Monroe's LowCountry Summer trilogy. This book focuses on Carson, however, Monroe does a great job keeping the other two sisters heavily involved in the storyline. The back story of Carson's upbringing with her irresponsible and immature father was not my favorite part of this book. I also found myself being disgusted at the grandparents for allowing their son Parker, to be so self indulgent and for their part in supporting him all his life. At some points in the book I greatly disliked Marietta because of things she could've prevented from happening had she not been such and enabler to her son. This is mainly the reason I gave this book three stars.
Just as in Monroe's Beach House and Swimming Lesson books, we learn a bit about marine life. In those two books sea turtles were the main focus, while in this book, bottle nosed dolphins are the environmental lesson for reader. I love the fact that you always seem to learn something new in her books! It is also a given that you will be transported to the beaches of South Carolina and feel like you are on vacation there.
I'm looking forward to reading the second book in this series, The Summer Wind, which will focus on Dora. Although I did not like her character much in this book, I'm looking forward to learning more about these half-sisters and where the continuation of this series leads.
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