I was captivated by this book. The story is set in Nantucket where you will be introduced to Cliff House and the generations of women who have run this home. Beth, Cissy, Ruby, and Sarah give you a glimpse into their family secrets. They each have experienced loss and yet found the strength and love to push forward. Now Cissy faces a difficult moment where the bluff has given way to erosion and Cliff House is in danger of being destroyed. She doesn’t want to leave her home and is fighting tooth and nail to save it and the other homes affected by the erosion. Yet that might not be enough. Her daughter Beth comes to try to convince Cissy it is to time to leave the house before she does down with the house. While helping her mother pack up she comes across the Book of Summer. It is a type of journal where the visitors to the Cliff House write in. The book will take you back and forth between the present and the 1940’s where you will get to know Ruby and Sarah and grow to love Cliff House.
A beautifully written book you will enjoy reading. I was sad to see it end. I highly recommend you add this book to your TBR pile.

I enjoyed this book although it did take me a bit to get into it. I wasn't sure I was going to end up connection with Bess, but it turns out I did. I loved picturing the area and Cliff House. But overall well written.
I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

Could not get into past the first few chapters. Slow and the Kindle version had many typos and weird errors

The beauty of Nantucket, the nostalgia of the Cliff House, the alternating dual story lines and the characters of Bess, Cissy, Ruby and Sarah tell an evocative tale that is poignant and beautiful. The threat of the lovely Cliff House falling into the sea has Bess hurrying back home after four years to help her mother Cissy move to safety. The story alternates between the 40's of WWII years to 2013 with generations of the women of Cliff House, keeping you in suspense and seeing how their history repeats itself in many ways. There are strong personalities that make you laugh and cringe with their keeping years of secrets, and regrets, yet filled with love and determination. Cissy's idea of installing geotubes to combat the erosion and save the Cliff House is a central theme, with Bess demanding her Mom just leave before it is too late. The finding of the Journal, The Book of Summer brings Bess to a new perspective as she reads about the generations of women who lived in the Cliff House before her, and she has many of her own secrets to add to them. This book is filled with romance and suspense and is a perfect beach book read!

What an awesome beach read! I thoroughly enjoyed The Book of Summer and will recommend it!

I was sent this book but have no interest in reading it.

This is one of my favorite summer reads for 2017! This is the second book I have read by the author and I enjoy all her work. This book is a outstanding summer based novel.
It is summer on beautiful Nantucket . The setting is a generations family owned stunning Cliff House, perched atop a bluff in Sconset, Nantucket. Bess Codman is a physician and granddaughter who has returned to the the home to pack up her Mother and move her out before the eroding house falls into the sea. her Mother is quite difficult and does not want to go.
While packing Bess finds the family guest book called A Book of Summer and unearths secrets of her Grandmother and of the women of Cliff House. The mystery deepens and the story weaves masterfully between the 1940's WWII and current day with Bess finding out the deepest secrets of the women long gone.
I loved the premise and how the author wrote the present day connecting with the past. Its a story we can all relate to as we seek information on our ancestors. The description of Nantucket is sublime as you can smell the sea air and feel the tug of the ocean as you read it through the authors eyes.
Beautifully done, the writing of this author is always pleasing and flows from story to story taking the reader on many journeys within the story. I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it as the perfect summer read !
Thank you for the ARC which did not influence my review. A excellent summer read. I look forward to the next book by this wonderful author.

http://girlsjustreading.blogspot.com/2017/06/julies-review-book-of-summer.html

I have decided that i will not be publishing a review for this book after reading it since i did not get along with this book. but since i felt like it was mostly for my own personal reasons why i didn't enjoy the book it wouldn't be fair towards the author and the book itself if i would publicise a negative review simply because this book didn't fit into my personal reading preferences.
thank you for the opportunity to read this book even if it did not work out as we all had hoped.

From beginning to end, I was hooked! I could not put it down.

I have been trying to read this one for several days, and I am just not clicking with the story or the characters. One thing that is bothering me is the third person narrative, it is hard to connect with the characters. I do like the Book of Summer and reading the entries, especially since they are written in first person. I am not liking the switch back and forth in time from 1941 to present day. I wanted this book to be light and fun, and it isn't. After slogging through fifty percent of the book, I feel it is best to part ways.
I will not be rating or reviewing this book. Thank you.

This book was fantastic! I enjoyed the way the characters’ lives were depicted so vividly. And I enjoyed the descriptions of the war events. The book is the story of four generations of families starting with Philip and Sarah Young, and centering around the Cliff House in Nantucket and the Book of Summer. The story is primarily about the 1940s during the war and events from 2013. Each generation has its own challenges and losses. They must remain strong and accept the changes that are forced on them. The story is told in the third person point of view of Philip and Sarah’s daughter Ruby and her granddaughter Bess. The story is also told through entries written in the Book of Summer. The book alternates between the present time in 2013 and the past in the 1940s. Throughout the book you will find family secrets and unexpected events. This book would make a great selection for a book group!

It's summer so time for me to read all things east coast and The Book of Summer was a great place to start.

Bess running away from a crumbling marriage, finds herself in Nantucket trying to talk her mom out of attempting to save the family home from crumbling into the sea.

As she begins the long chore of packing the house, she finds the Book of Summer, where her relatives have entered their thoughts into the family guestbook all they way back before the second World War.

I normally like books that jump back and forth in time, and I did really enjoy that about this book. However, the current timeline was a lot less interesting than the past. I never really felt that strongly about Bess or her story - her storyline with her ex was kind of vague, but awful.

Her grandmother's story was much more interesting but equally awful. Living with the secrets of their times, you never really got an idea that Ruby really understood what was happening to her husband - did she not get it or did she just make peace with it? I was confused.

It's getting great reviews on Goodreads!

Who doesn't enjoy a book about a grand old beach home and the lives of its residents, both past and current. The Book of Summer is just such a novel.

Cliff House is a grand home that unfortunately appears to be collapsing into the sea due to erosion. Its current resident Cissy Codman is doing everything in her power to stop the home's impending demise, but her daughter Bess believes it is time to move out and move on. Cliff House has been in their family for generations and Cissy believes it is her duty to save it.

The Book of Summer also gives the reader the opportunity to step back in time and meet Ruby Packard, grandmother to Bess, as she navigates life in Cliff House during World War II and after. Ruby's wide-eyed naivety is perfectly captured by the author and then her character develops and changes throughout the course of the novel, in much the same way as Bess's character does as well. There is a rich cast of characters in this novel from the quirky Cissy Codman to the glamorous Hattie Rutter to the charming Topper Packard. The author does an excellent job providing us a glimpse into society at that time.

For me, The Book of Summer was a tribute to the bond of families and also the strength of women during difficult times. Ruby, Cissy and Bess have each encountered their own challenges, but stay strong and positive.

I found it interesting that the author based this book upon the homes in Sankaty Bluff in Sconset, the easternmost spot on Nantucket Island. It did inspire me to learn more about the erosion occurring there and I can only imagine how difficult it would be to potentially lose a family home in that way.

The Book of Summer was a 4 star read for me. I received this book courtesy of St. Martin's Press, Thomas Dunne Books, through Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was looking for a good beach read, and this book did not disappoint. The story follows the lives of the Young family, or perhaps Cliff House itself, over 100 summer seasons on Nantucket Island. From the parties, parades, and golf tournaments of pre-WWII, the activism during the war, and finally to current day, when the house is on the verge of falling over the ever eroding bluff, the author puts the reader right in the middle of the action. I found myself researching Nantucket, only to learn the book is based on actual homes that are being lost to erosion. How I would have loved to see them during those glorious summer seasons.

I love Michelle Gable, her books speak to the soul. If walls could talk, Cliff House would have so many interesting and beautiful tales to tell. Perfect book for the summer!

I was definitely intrigued by the setting (Nantucket, big house near the ocean) and multi-generational aspect of THE BOOK OF SUMMER by Michelle Gable. The cover, too, suggested the possibility of a great beach read and wonderful summer escape. Sadly, I gave up on this book because after reading a fair bit I could not think of anyone for whom I would recommend it. The characters seem contrived and artificial. The language was unnecessary and this was not the pleasant, relaxing read I had anticipated.

New England family saga set in a beach town – my cup of tea! Author Michelle Gable puts the reader on Cissy’s bicycle for a Nantucket journey through time. The Cliff House holds memories and secrets – and Gable does a phenomenal job weaving them together. With flashbacks to the 1940s, we find out what the Cliff House meant to Cissy’s mother … then fast forward to find out what makes it so hard for Cissy to leave.

My favorites parts were the Bess parts. Love that Cissy’s daughter came to “save” her from herself -and Mother Nature. Bess is a woman I can identify with – good head on her shoulders, self-reliant, smart. When she’s dealt a raw deal, Bess puts it aside to help her mom. And when high school ex boyfriend Evan comes into the picture, Bess lets herself lean on him just a little bit.

I’m not a flashback kinda reader, so I wish this was actually two separate books. I loved the Ruby-Hattie friendship and the marriage issues described in the ’40s and could’ve read about that all day long. I also totally enjoyed some of the contemporary romance going on in the 2010s – as well as the mother-daughter dynamic and the environmental issues that arose on the island cliffs. But mostly the romance.

https://randombookmuses.com/2017/06/04/review-the-book-of-summer-by-michelle-gable/

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2019605778

The Book of Summer by Michelle Gable published by St. Martin's Press is called in this way because the owners of the house kept at Cliff House a book where the various guests could write their impressions during their staying.
So this one will be a story where past will be strongly connected with present.
The story starts when Bess who lives in San Francisco, she is a doctor, returns to Nantucket with a special sad mission: convincing her mother to leave Nantucket and their beloved Cliff House, the family house forever. The house is very old and built by Bess's grandparents.
The risks too many because of an erosion that in Nantucket, realistically destroyed various houses of the exclusive locality.

Bess thought that her staying would have been relatively short but her mom Cissy doesn't want to go away from her past, her memories, her land, her people, and her past.

Slowly Bess understand that their Cliff House has always been a special place with a lot of secrets as well.
She understands it discovering and reading the famous Book of Summer of their Cliff House: a house of women and a house where a lot of destinies and facts as it happen with old houses converged there for creating a special place populated by iconic characters.
The book spaces between present and past giving the portrait of three generation of women and as theater of these stories a locality, Nantucket that it is simply enchanting.

I love so badly the sunny cover of this book!

Highly recommended for sure!

I thank NetGalley and St.Martin's Press for this eBook.