Author: Nancy Thayer

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publication Date: April 23, 2024

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐(4/5)

The Summer We Started Over is set on the island of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts. It is summertime, and Eddie Grant heads home from New York City to help her younger sister Barrtt as she opens her new business, and to figure out how she can help her father start to help himself. Eddie left Nantucket to take a job as an assistant to a famous romance writer, both because she is interested in the publishing world, and as a way to escape from a romance she was not ready to commit to.

The introduction of Eddie’s former boyfriend at the beginning of the book made me wonder where this storyline was headed. Some of the things he said to her before she left the island were horrible, and I hoped that there would be some sort of redemption arc for him as the story evolved. His earlier words and actions were never explained or apologized for, which made it really hard for me to root for him to end up with Eddie after all. 

Barrett is an interesting character; a young woman who is fiercely independent and focused on achieving the goals she set for herself when she moved to Nantucket. I found her story arc more interesting than her sister’s, but thought her endgame romance felt really rushed at the end, which was a disservice to a character who had worked so hard to get what she wanted without the help of a man. 

The surprise return of a childhood friend was a great addition to the book, as was Eddie’s boss coming to the island and inserting herself in the lives of the Grant’s. While I had issues with the very beginning and a bit of the end of the story, overall, I really enjoyed it and it gave me serious summertime vibes. Nancy Thayer does a wonderful job capturing the feeling of being on Nantucket, a place that is truly a world unto itself.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, and Ballantine Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.