Summerland: A Novel

I honestly only chose this book because I constantly saw commercials about it. To my surprise, I became more and more intriqued throughout the first half of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it for a good summer's read.

I've read about everything the author has written, and this is one of her best (Castaways is my favorite). The story is just so well constructed, it's always a pleasure when Hilderbrand has a new book out.

Hilderbrand takes on framing the difficulties of teens in relationship to the not so perfect world of adults. Extremely well articulated. The story line was excellent. The ending of the story was very realistic, as in life, it always turns out... just not exactly as our expectations .

This book was really wonderful. Kept me interested by bouncing seamlessly between the characters. Great, great book. Performance was great as well!

I can't say I loved anything about this book.

I have nothing to compare this book to.

I must compliment Ms. Bennett's performance of a masterful Australian accent.
Otherwise, I found her voice completely flat.

I think Lynn was the most memorable character for me as she had her eyes opened to the fact that her daughter was secretly battling alcoholism. She had to, in the end, become the mother she had never really been throughout her daughter's troubled life.

The story was engaging overall but I could not give it more than 3 stars because though the characters all went through trauma, there was a superficial aspect to the writing that failed to cause me to really emote during the reading of this book.

A wonderful setting was watered down by too many backstories. Just as the story was over there was yet another backstory. It made we want to sccream. All the characters did not enhance the story.

Enjoyable portraits of the characters involved, but overall not a story that went much of anywhere. Yearned to hear more about each character's background and the intricacies of their relationships with each other. A mildly entertaining summer listen, but not in a huge hurry to find another Hilderbrand anytime soon.

I really like this author but did not like this book at all. The story was depressing and went no where. Very slow staying in the same place without moving on to the next phase. I could not wait to finish this book and move on to something more exciting and that had a better story line. Terrible!