“It's not a house to us. It's a home. And it's not a home, it's s way of life. Our summertime happens here. This house is part of our past, it's our present, it'll be our future. It's who we are.”

This is going to sound negative, so let me be clear and say this upfront - I enjoyed this book. 

I discovered Elin Hilderbrand only a couple of years ago, so most of what I've read by her has been published fairly recently. This is an older one, so I'm going to chalk it up to just that. She's clearly grown as an author since. I will say that it has dissuaded me from reading more of her earlier titles, but it certainly hasn't put me off of reading anything new she comes out with.

The characters and tropes in this one were a little too stereotypical for me, and while the effort to dig deeper into these ultra-flawed characters in order to make you root for them was clearly there, it didn't quite succeed. However, it's still the light, pleasant, beach read you want from Elin, so while it didn't knock my socks off like some her newer works, it didn't exactly disappoint either. This book stayed in its lane and knew its role; I just know Elin can do better, and thankfully, she has.