(52) Driftwood Summer by Patti Callahan Henry

It has always been my dream to own a bookstore. Or at the very least to work in a bookstore. I even had the location picked out in my little hometown. At the time, my business knowledge of what it actually takes to run a bookstore was very limited. It would have been doomed for failure.

Instead almost four years ago (June 27th) I was hired by the number one bookseller in America. Since then, I have learned the ins and outs of the book business. I can usually spot bestsellers the minute I read the dust jacket. I have met more authors, some famous, some not so much, than I ever dreamed I would get to meet. And free books. Goodness, I should never have to buy another book ever again & never run out of reading material.

And yet I bought this book.

I couldn't resist. The synopsis looked so appealing. A family owned bookstore in a small beach resort town in the south. Three sisters gather to help save the family bookstore and celebrate their mother's milestone birthday.

Riley is the oldest & the responsible sister. She dropped out of college when she got pregnant with her son and has been running the bookstore ever since. Maisy is the middle sister, she left Palmetto Beach over twelve years ago and hasn't looked back. Finally, there is Adalee. Adalee is the baby & would much rather spend her last summer of "freedom" playing with her boyfriend than slaving away in the family bookstore, let alone sharing a house with her mother.

The sisters learn a lot about themselves, each other, and the past that they all remember a little bit differently. Can they put their differences aside in order to save the bookstore? Will they be able to repair the damaged relationships of their past?

I loved the little eccentricities mentioned in this book about customers at a bookstore. Even with a company the size of mine, we run into customers that treat us as a library to just mention one case, but trust me when I say there are more. Many, many more.

Even with the bookstore connection, I had a hard time getting through this book, to be honest. And here is why. The "milestone" birthday that the girls' mother is getting ready to celebrate is her 70th birthday. The oldest daughter is 32. The youngest daughter is 20 (maybe 22). Do the math. At the very least, Kitsy was 38 when giving birth to her first child & 48 or 50 when giving birth to her third child. Possible, maybe. Probable, not likely.

I know the book is fiction. I understand that. But that one particular detail just drove me nuts through out the whole book & it was hard for me to get past it. I am weird like that, though. You won't hurt my feelings if you say it.

If you can get past that detail and enjoy bookstore tales and sisterly relationships, then pick up Driftwood Summer, it will be right up your alley.