The Summer's End

The Summer's End is the last of Mary Alice Monroe's Lowcountry Summer trilogy. Last year I read The Summer Girls and, after the plot veered toward the utterly absurd, had no intention of reading the next book, The Summer Wind. Long story short, though, is that I did read it, liked it better than the first book, and decided to see the trilogy through.

To recap : Dora, Carson, and Harper are half-sisters (same mister, different mothers) in their late-20s to late-30s who have fallen out of touch with one another, and also mostly with their grandmother. Seeking to rectify the situation, the grandmother summons them to her lowcountry house, Sea Breeze, to celebrate her 80th birthday. On her birthday, she insists they remain the entire summer, or forfeit their soon-to-be (considerable) inheritance.

Although the stories are intertwined and all characters feature in all books, each book primarily focuses on a different sister and her drama. The Summer Girls stars Carson, who has broken up with her boyfriend, lost her job, and seems to have a bit of a drinking problem. She is also obsessed with a dolphin. Perhaps not surprisingly, she is my least favorite sister. The Summer Wind is Dora's story. The eldest sister, Dora, is in the midst of a divorce and uncertain, at best, how to handle her autistic son.

The last of the trilogy, The Summer's End, focuses on youngest sister Harper. Harper is a would-be writer who is instead spinning her wheels as her ice-queen-mother's personal assistant at a New York City publishing house.She is probably the least happy to find herself stuck at Sea Breeze, at least initially. Also, the fact that her mother comes from piles and piles of money is a bone of contention between the sisters, especially (big surprise) Carson.

Harper's story veers between being relateable and likeable, and being a little too unlikely to pass muster. Nevertheless, The Summer's End is a quick and enjoyable read of the completely-non-serious variety. That said, the books are written in a way that makes it, I think, difficult to pick up one in isolation, which means that anyone who wants to read this one should probably start at the beginning - perhaps more of a commitment than most readers might care to make for 2.5-to-3 star books.