THE ISLAND HOUSE - Nancy Thayer
Ballantine
ISBN-13: 978-1-101-976704-1
June 2016
Women's Fiction

Nantucket Island - Present Day

Courtney Hendricks wants to spend one more summer on Nantucket Island with her friend Robin Vickerey and Robin's family, which includes a host of so called "Summer Children," friends of the Vickerey children who have spent the last ten summers at the huge island house.  Courtney is a college professor in Kansas, and before she settles down to whatever her life will be, she wants one more chance to explore her feelings for Robin's brother James, and see if he also has feelings for her.  A longtime friend of Courtney's, Monty Blackhorse, has asked Courtney to marry him, but she can't accept his proposal until she puts her feelings for James to rest.

Robin Vickerey is looking forward to spending the summer with Courtney.  And like her best friend, Robin has secrets she is keeping under wraps, and problems she has to work out for herself.  Robin has long suspected that James and Courtney have feelings for each other, but James has been enamored of late with the daughter of a family friend, Christobel Quinn. Adding to Robin's worries is her brother Henry, who suffers from bipolar mania and depression.

THE ISLAND HOUSE is a story of family, friendship, and devotion.  There is a full house of characters in this novel, Susanna and Dr. Alastair Vickerey, their four children, Robin, James, Henry and Iris.  Courtney and a host of others have all come to spend the summer and celebrate Susanna's sixtieth birthday.  Courtney is not sure if her love for James is real; Monty is waiting in the wings back in Kansas, and James appears to be in love with Christobel.  Henry's fiancé, Valerie, is managing to keeps him calm while the family worries, and Robin is worried about the fate of her secret love affair.  Ms. Thayer supplies the reader with a list of characters that populate the pages of this dramatic novel, and the story is told in present day, with alternating flashbacks that provide the back-story of Courtney and Robin's countless summers at THE ISLAND HOUSE.

A remarkable story full of love, passion and angst, THE ISLAND HOUSE is a great summer read.

Diana Risso