Review: Summer Breeze by Nancy Thayer

Summer Breeze
Author: Nancy Thayer
Published: June 5, 2012
Genre: chick lit
Hardcover: 320 pages
Source: borrowed from the library


My Rating: 2.5 stars


Synopsis (from GoodReads): Morgan O’Keefe feels trapped in a gilded cage. True, the thirty-year-old mother agreed to put her science career on hold to raise her young son while her husband  pursued his high-powered job. But though Morgan loves many things about staying home with her child, she misses the thrill of working with her colleagues in the lab. She’s restless and in dire need of a change.
 
Fed up with New York City’s hectic pace, Natalie Reynolds takes up her aunt’s offer to move to the Berkshires and house-sit her fabulous lakeside house for a year. Passionate about applying brush to canvas, Natalie is poised to become the artist she has forever longed to be. But life on Dragonfly Lake is never without surprises, and for a novice swimmer like Natalie, the most welcome surprise proves to be the arms of a handsome neighbor pulling her up from the water for a gulp of air.
 
When her mother breaks her leg, Bella Barnaby quits her job in Austin and returns home to help out her large, boisterous family. Among her new duties: manning the counter at the family business, Barnaby’s Barn, an outdated shop sorely in need of a makeover. While attractive architect Aaron has designs on her, Bella harbors long held secret dreams of her own.  
 
Summer on Dragonfly Lake is ripe for romance, temptation, and self-discovery as the lives of these three women unexpectedly intertwine.Summer Breeze illustrates how the best of friends can offer comfort, infuriate, or even—sometimes—open one’s eyes to the astonishing possibilities of life lived in a different way. This captivating novel displays a prestigiously gifted writer at the height of her storytelling powers.

My Thoughts: So, I read a Nancy Thayer book last summer (Heat Wave) and didn't like it at all. But, I have seen so many people rave about her books that I thought, "Maybe I just picked up one of her bad ones. I'm gonna give her another try." Let me just say that I was just as disappointed with this book as I was with the last one. While I don't expect chick lit to make me look at the world differently or question my understanding of the universe, I do look for something that could be real, or at least is so hilarious that I can forget the world for a little bit. Nancy Thayer's books do neither for me. They feel so forced that there is no possible way that they could be real. It's all so fake and the dialogue between the characters so jilted that I have to shake my head at how unreal it is.

The premise behind the book is interesting. That's the only saving grace of this novel. Each woman's storyline has something to offer, but Thayer doesn't really develop any of them. There aren't any real struggles. The one who comes a bit close to this, Bella, just decides to give up and follow her boyfriend across the country, seemingly just giving up her life so that she can tag along with him. The other two, Morgan and Natalie, are written so simply. And everything works out perfectly for them, which makes the novel even harder to stomach.

I would compare Nancy Thayer's work to an overly sweet dessert. It's so sickeningly sweet that it hurts your teeth and you hope that the pain subsides quickly. While I was looking for a light summer read, I found something that was so bad that not even the beautiful sunshine could save it. I have decided that Thayer's work is not for me and will not be reading any of her novels in the future.

Review: Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer

Heat Wave
Author: Nancy Thayer
Published: June 21, 2011
Genre: chick lit
Hardcover: 304 pages
Source: borrowed from the library


My Rating: 2 stars


Synopsis (from GoodReads): Making the startling discovery that her family finances are in dire straits is only the latest shock endured by Carley Winsted after her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack. Resisting her in-laws’ well-meaning overtures to take in Carley and her two daughters, the young widow instead devises a plan to keep her family in their beloved home, a grand historic house on the island of Nantucket. The solution is right at Carley’s front door: transforming her expensive, expansive house into a bed-and-breakfast. Not everyone, however, thinks this plan prudent or quite respectable—especially not Carley’s mother-in-law. Further complicating a myriad of challenges, a friend forces Carley to keep a secret that, if revealed, will undo families and friendships. When her late husband’s former law partner keeps showing up at the most unexpected times, Carley must cope with an array of mixed feelings. And then, during a late-summer heat wave, the lives of Carley and her friends and family will be forever changed in entirely unexpected ways. 


My Thoughts: I was so anxious for summer to start (since it's March and we've had several days in a row where the temperature was 70+), I decided to get my summer reading started early. I wanted to read this book last summer but never got around to it, so when I saw this on my library's shelf, I thought it would be the perfect pre-summer read. Unfortunately, this book fell far short of my expectations and left me shaking my head through much of it. 


Following Carley, a woman who is recently widowed and discovering that her husband squandered their savings and his life insurance policy, she has to come up with a way to make money for her and her two daughters. Now, instead of focusing on the difficulties of opening up a bed and breakfast and how her daughter's cope with the loss of their father, Nancy Thayer breezes through this as if it was mastering a new recipe in the kitchen. It was so unrealistic how easy it was for Carley to renovate her home and start having guests. She made it seem as if opening a business were so simple! Then, there were the characters. Carley was unlikeable as a main character. I didn't feel any of the grief of losing her husband or desperation to find a way to support her family. She just bobbed along like everything was hunky-dorey! Seriously, it was so cliche that she was able to cope with everything so well. On top of this, there was little to no mention of how her daughters dealt with the death of their father. The girls seemed fine and adjusted within a few weeks of the funeral. I know that life goes on, but everything was just smooth sailing in this book.


Also, I found Thayer's writing to be subpar with other authors. The way the characters spoke reminded me of how a seventh grader would write a story. Whenever there were three characters in a scene and one was speaking, they would address the other two multiple times in conversation. It wasn't authentic and felt so forced that it was hard to read at times.


I finished the book quickly, which is one of the few positives that I had with this book. The other positive was the setting. I enjoyed reading about Nantucket and felt that it was portrayed beautifully. It was an easy read but I'm not sure that I will ever read anything by Nancy Thayer again.

Waiting On Wednesday (4-11-12)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Each week, you highlight an upcoming release that you are eagerly awaiting. This week, my pick is: Summer Breeze by Nancy Thayer (expected publication date: June 5, 2012).

Synopsis (from BN.com): Morgan O’Keefe feels trapped in a gilded cage. True, the thirty-year-old mother agreed to put her science career on hold to raise her young son while her husband  pursued his high-powered job. But though Morgan loves many things about staying home with her child, she misses the thrill of working with her colleagues in the lab. She’s restless and in dire need of a change. Fed up with New York City’s hectic pace, Natalie Reynolds takes up her aunt’s offer to move to the Berkshires and house-sit her fabulous lakeside house for a year. Passionate about applying brush to canvas, Natalie is poised to become the artist she has forever longed to be. But life on Dragonfly Lake is never without surprises, and for a novice swimmer like Natalie, the most welcome surprise proves to be the arms of a handsome neighbor pulling her up from the water for a gulp of air. When her mother breaks her leg, Bella Barnaby quits her job in Austin and returns home to help out her large, boisterous family. Among her new duties: manning the counter at the family business, Barnaby’s Barn, an outdated shop sorely in need of a makeover. While attractive architect Aaron has designs on her, Bella harbors long held secret dreams of her own. Summer on Dragonfly Lake is ripe for romance, temptation, and self-discovery as the lives of these three women unexpectedly intertwine. Summer Breeze illustrates how the best of friends can offer comfort, infuriate, or even—sometimes—open one’s eyes to the astonishing possibilities of life lived in a different way. This captivating novel displays a prestigiously gifted writer at the height of her storytelling powers.

So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Waiting On Wednesday (3-28-12)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Each week, you highlight an upcoming release that you are eagerly awaiting. This week, my pick is: Summer Breeze by Nancy Thayer (expected publication date: June 5, 2012).

Synopsis (from BN.com): Morgan O’Keefe feels trapped in a gilded cage. True, the thirty-year-old mother agreed to put her science career on hold to raise her young son while her husband  pursued his high-powered job. But though Morgan loves many things about staying home with her child, she misses the thrill of working with her colleagues in the lab. She’s restless and in dire need of a change. 

Fed up with New York City’s hectic pace, Natalie Reynolds takes up her aunt’s offer to move to the Berkshires and house-sit her fabulous lakeside house for a year. Passionate about applying brush to canvas, Natalie is poised to become the artist she has forever longed to be. But life on Dragonfly Lake is never without surprises, and for a novice swimmer like Natalie, the most welcome surprise proves to be the arms of a handsome neighbor pulling her up from the water for a gulp of air. 

When her mother breaks her leg, Bella Barnaby quits her job in Austin and returns home to help out her large, boisterous family. Among her new duties: manning the counter at the family business, Barnaby’s Barn, an outdated shop sorely in need of a makeover. While attractive architect Aaron has designs on her, Bella harbors long held secret dreams of her own. 

Summer on Dragonfly Lake is ripe for romance, temptation, and self-discovery as the lives of these three women unexpectedly intertwine. Summer Breeze illustrates how the best of friends can offer comfort, infuriate, or even—sometimes—open one’s eyes to the astonishing possibilities of life lived in a different way. This captivating novel displays a prestigiously gifted writer at the height of her storytelling powers.

With summer right around the corner, I'm looking forward to reading those great beach reads! What are you waiting on this Wednesday?