Summer House

Thirty-year-old Charlotte Wheelwright seems to have at last found her niche, running an organic gardening business on the island of Nantucket, thanks in large part to her spry grandmother Nona, who donated a portion of land on the family’s seaside compound to get Charlotte started. Though Charlotte’s skill with plants is bringing her success, cultivating something deeper with people—particularly her handsome neighbor Coop—might be more of a challenge. Now the entire Wheelwright clan is making its annual summer pilgrimage to the homestead, including Charlotte’s mother, Helen, who brings a heavy heart as she confronts a betrayal that threatens her sense of place and her sense of self. Bringing together three generations of strong-willed women, each wrestling with life-changing decisions, Nancy Thayer’s luminous novel shows that no matter where life’s path may lead, love always finds a way back home.

When three generations of the Gilbert family gather for a reunion at their summer house, decades of family resentments, rivalries, and secrets emerge. Patriarch Ben has experienced chest pains, and is desperate to see his children again: TV talk-show host Julie, “golden boy” Michael, self-destructive Katy, and computer wiz Wes. Old alliances break and new bonds form as the family’s closeness is reconfirmed. Contemporary Women’s Fiction by Cynthia Baxter writing as Cynthia Blair; originally published by Ballantine

"Flossy Merrill has managed to--somewhat begrudgingly--gather her three ungrateful grown children from their dysfunctional lives for a summer reunion at the family's Rhode Island beach house ... With her family finally congregated under one seaside roof, Flossy is determined to steer her family back on course even as she prepares to reveal the fate of the summer house that everyone has thus far taken for granted: she's selling it. The Merrill children are both shocked and outraged and each returns to memories of their childhoods at their once beloved summer house--the house where they have not only grown up, but from which they have grown away"--

Includes a reading group guide with questions for discussion and a conversation with the author.

Why can't a house ever be just a house? Ellen, Sue, and Tanya can't wait to get away to a historic beachside house in Biloxi, Mississippi. But no sooner do they arrive when they are accosted by a supernatural presence with a grudge. As they uncover the mystery of this tethered, vengeful spirit, they are shocked by the secrets he carried with him to the grave. But when they try to make his secrets public, they are threatened by someone living--someone much more evil and more powerful than the dead. If you love haunted houses, ghosts, house renovations, and mysteries based on history, then the books in this series are you for you! ​​​​​​​The books in this paranormal mystery series can be read in any order.

A delicious, malicious comedy of marriage, motherhood, and scandal.

An emotional, atmospheric summer read about family secrets and loyalty from the author of Kindle bestseller A Bookshop Christmas. The secrets of Summer House are about to come out at last... 1976. Rushing out of the University Library, undergraduate Alice Kenzie bumps straight into PhD student Tristan Somers. There begins a whirlwind romance, and Alice falls pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. Then Tristan is killed in a car accident. Unable to cope, Alice takes her baby to Summer House, Tristan's family home in Suffolk, leaves her there and disappears. 2018. Olivia Somers has always been told that her mother died in the same accident as her father. But when she finds a bundle of old letters in Summer House, everything she ever believed about her mother is called into question. Can she find her – and even more importantly, forgive her? Praise for Rachel Burton: 'Enticing and atmospheric... Packed with love and mystery that will keep you wanting more from the first page to the last' Lauren North, author of Safe at Home 'A wonderful escape... I adored the characters, the headiness of their first loves, and vulnerabilities as they hoped for their own happily-ever-afters' Jenny Ashcroft 'With her signature nostalgia, swoon-worthy hero and wistful setting, this is a romance to whisk you away any time of the year' Victoria Cooke