(44)Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer

It has been exactly one month since my last book review.  And since then I have traveled more than 18,000 miles around this planet of ours.  It has been a wild, once-in-a-lifetime month, but I am glad to be home.    I did get some reading done, so I am going to start spamming with posts.    

First up is this year's offering by Nancy Thayer, Surfside Sisters.   Isabelle and Keely have been best friends since grade school.  Their families come from two very different backgrounds, but that didn't stop them from doing everything together throughout the school year.  With the arrival of summer and the Nantucket tourism, Isabelle and her family would go off on global adventures, leaving Keely to go through summer alone.   The girls grew up tagging along after Isabelle's brother, Sebastian, making it natural for Keely to develop an unrequited crush on Sebastian.   Or was it?

As the girls grow up and make plans for their futures, their trajectories aren't that different.  They both want to be writers.  But it was Keely that had to drop out of college after her father died.  It was Keely who returned to Nantucket first, and it was Keely that got published first.     Will these Surfside Sisters be able to survive the ups and downs that come with true lifelong friendship?

As always, I loved Nancy Thayer's Nantucket world.  However, I struggled with the petty jealousy that was prevalent in the friendship between Keely and Isabelle.   At times Isabelle was completely unbearable.  And for Keely to go out with her best friend's ex-boyfriend is a recipe for disaster.   I guess wisdom comes with age and at nearly 44, I wanted to shake them both silly several times.    Of course, everything ended up like a fairy tale, but I don't think the author ever fully resolved a major source of conflict. I really do wonder if my irritation at that "situation" is because I am older than the characters.   And really, it doesn't matter how irritating I find the characters, I am always going to read a Nancy Thayer novel to the end. 

Bottom Line -  Surfside Sisters is a novel about all of the ups and downs that go along with a lifelong friendship. The Nantucket setting makes it the perfect summer read!

Details: 

• Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer
• On Instagram
• Pages: 320
• Publisher: Random House Publishing
• Publication Date: July 2, 2019
• Buy it Here!
• Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for a review.