She Treads Softly: The Summer Getaway

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

The Summer Getaway

The Summer Getaway by Susan Mallery
3/15/22; 416 pages
Harlequin

The Summer Getaway by Susan Mallery is a highly recommended family drama.

Robyn Caldwell lives in Naples, Florida. She's been divorced from her ex for four years and now her daughter, Harlow, is 22 and her son, Austin, is18, so she is ready to sell the house. The house is way to big and expensive for her to maintain and trying to live the same lifestyle has been foolish. But Harlow wants to get married in the backyard, so she is upset about the house being sold. Austin is easy going, however with no plans for college he is planning to live with her after a summer in an apartment. When her ex makes yet another bad decision, Robyn needs a vacation. After being invited again, she decides now is the perfect time to go see her great-aunt Lillian in Santa Barbara for the summer.

Lillian was a second mother to Robyn, but is now in her mid-nineties and needs help putting her affairs in order. She has a 40,000-square-foot mansion that will be willed to her deceased husband's relative, Mason Bishop, while the contents will be inherited by Robyn. Mason has already agreed to go stay with Lillian and is currently there, so when Robyn arrives the two will meet, much to the delight of Lillian.

This is a well-written entertaining novel full of drama, humor, romance, family, relationships, and lots of advice as seemingly everyone Follows Robyn and travels to Santa Barbara. Although this is a romance novel, it is also much more. The plot contains many elements beyond romantic entanglements, which makes it a richer novel. Much of the well-paced plot involves a wide variety of situations with family and friends, just like in real life. The characters are realistic and interesting as we see both their strengths and weaknesses. They all encounter some tough decisions that they have to make.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Harlequin.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.