Pamela Kelley's The Nantucket Inn is the third and last of the books I won in the summer reading challenge. Like the others it's one I never would have picked on my own but really enjoyed. Those sneaky librarians--always trying to expand our reading genres. Don't tell them this--but it worked. I'm still much more interested in YA fiction. But I won't be as quick to skip over adult offerings.
Lisa, Kelley's protagonist, is experiencing a life crisis of the worst kind.
"They'd been married for just over thirty-three years when Brian learned he had stage four colon cancer. Six months later, he was gone. That was almost a year and a half ago and when she'd finally been able to push aside her grief long enough to look at the bills, she'd been shocked at the state of their account."
It turns out that Brian's gambling addiction was much worse than anyone knew. Before his death he stopped paying insurance premiums and drained the retirement savings account. There's very little in the savings account. Lisa lacks the job experience and skills to land anything that would pay enough to stay in Nantucket. She's reluctantly deciding to move off island...
...until a friend suggests that she turn her beautiful seaside home into a B & B. Her carpenter son, Chase, is willing to do the necessary renovations...
...only Lisa doesn't know the first thing about creating and running a B & B--not even if her neighborhood is zoned to allow one...
...Meanwhile her three daughters are experiencing crises of their own. Kate, a Boston based writer and the only one to leave the island, returns home after getting fired and catching her fiance in their bed with another woman the same day. Kristen, Kate's twin, kicks out her lover when she realizes he is not going to divorce his wife. And Abby, the youngest, leaves her workaholic husband, only to discover that she's pregnant with the baby they had tried so hard to conceive.
Although The Nantucket Inn is a good read as a stand alone, this slightly older book is the first in a series. The newer books will be real treats for fans of the Hodges family who want to know what happens next.
On a purrrsonal note, we've had yet another snow ❄️ storm. Eugene was called out to plow about midnight. He's still out there. It could have been worse. If it had hit earlier it could have really messed up the UMaine Winter Carnival, one of the BIG events of the semester. I'm sure I'm not the only one who breathed a sigh of relief at the optimal weather. My favorite part was riding around in a wagon drawn by two fine horses. There were also bumper cars, bonfires, and so much more. The free shirts were the 🐈's pajamas. I was paparazzi for that and a healthy snacks 😋 indoor event. Catherine gave me a ride home. We finally dropped off the huge card for the bus drivers. The guy we handed it to loved and said the drivers will too. Just goes to show how special Operation Valentine is.
A great big shout out goes out to winter carnival participants, Eugene and the other blizzard battlers, and the Bangor area's awesome bus 🚌 drivers.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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