This book was excellent! Totally kept my attention and I wanted to find out what would become of the main characters. Highly reccomended.

Two best friends from two different parts of Nantucket. Their lives have always been entangled and yet distinctly defined. As they grow from tweens into women, the relationships grow more complicated and entangled. I grew frustrated at the actions of the characters and found it hard to root for them at times based on their decisions. For that reason I didn't love this book. But if you are okay with more unlikable characters, and you enjoy reading about complex relationships, then you will probably enjoy this one.

It would not be summer without a Nantucket novel by Nancy Thayer. Always a great summer read, Thayer does not disappoint. If you are looking for a heavy, angst filled tome, look elsewhere, but if you want to enjoy reading every page, in which Keely’s and Isabelle’s friendship evolves from young best friends to grown women, this is for you. Keely’s relationship with Sebastian, although a bit annoying at times, was still one you wanted to see come to fruition. Take this one to the beach and enjoy!

An absolutely delightful read! Loved everything about it as well as the characters! It sucks you right in!!! Finding a way to move on from the past and open up to happiness is the key! Thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for my ARC copy in exchange for my honest review! A great beach read for sure and can't wait to share with all my BOOK friends! A feel good must read !!!

Thank you Nancy Thayer for writing another perfect beach read. This book screams summer must read. As usual I loved everything about Nancy Thayer’s fantastic novel.

Surfside Sisters follows Keely and Isabelle, best friends growing up on the island of Nantucket, uniquely connected by their shared love of writing. Told entirely in Keely’s voice, the story starts when they’re children and works it’s way through their adolescence and into adulthood. Their relationship is deeply complicated. They understand each other in ways that no one else ever has or will, but they’re deeply competitive with one another. Keely is envious of Isabelle’s wealth and seemingly easy life. Isabelle is in turn deeply resentful of Keely’s success with writing.

I actively despised Isabelle. I found her self-absorbed and incredibly selfish. I hated how she constantly let Keely down, and always acted like anything good that happened to Keely was Keely attacking her. And then I was frustrated with Keely for constantly putting up with that behavior. I found myself actively engaging in schadenfreude every time something unpleasant happened to Isabelle, I hated her that much.

In contrast, I loved Keely’s character. Despite everything Isabelle did or said to her, she still acted like the bigger person. She was also the best daughter, always putting her families needs before her own, coming back to the island whenever her mother needed her, taking on whatever job to help pay the bills. Her unique voice and authentic optimism carried the story.

While I did thoroughly enjoy this book, I had a hard time picking it up when I put it down. I read it in about 3 big spurts. Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. The relationship between Keely and Isabelle fascinated me. It would definitely be an excellent beach read.

I thought this was a great book - up until the last twenty pages. I really didn't enjoy the ending but it didn't keep me from loving the book.
It was the perfect beach read!

"Surfside Sisters" was the first book that I'd read by Nancy Thayer, and it was the perfect summer read! It is the story of best friends Keely Green and Isabella Maxwell, who grow up together on the island of Nantucket, brought together by their love of books, words, and dreams of becoming novelists. However, there is always a hint of jealousy and competition between the two girls, as Keely comes from a middle class family of two working parents, and Isabella's family is quite well off financially. "Surfside Sisters" takes the reader through the difficulties in the relationship among the two girls, as they clash over the years in men, and later, career-wise, when Keely becomes a published author while Isabella's career never seems to take off. The women eventually lose their friendship for awhile as their lives take different paths, and they feel betrayed by the other, though they eventually find a way to rebuild their relationship at the end. "Surfside Sisters" was a quick read that explores the relationship between Keely and Isabella from childhood through adulthood, and explores the difficulties that drive them apart, while also focusing on what brings the two women together. Looking forward to reading some of Nancy Thayer's other books after having an opportunity to read this one.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Ballantine Books for providing me with and advanced copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

Surfside Sisters is a perfect summer book. Romance, conflict, and a happy ending make Nancy Thayer's book a great read!

Growing up Keely and her friend Isabelle are inseparable. Growing up they both want to become writers but life leads them down different paths .Surfside Sisters was my first Nancy Thayer book and a perfect summer read. I will definitely be reading more of her books in the future.

3-ish stars, maybe 3.5 for Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer. I have always enjoyed this author's work and really looked forward to her latest book.

I enjoyed reading about Keely and Isabelle and their hopes of becoming authors one day. Their friendship was nice, but right from some of the earliest parts of the book, Keely is allowing Isabelle to walk over her, giving up things she wants for Isabelle.

Had the characters grown and changed somewhat, I'd have been thrilled, but as it is, they pretty much stayed the same throughout years and years. Near the end Keely was still letting Isabelle walk over her and letting everyone else's wishes come before hers.

I have LOVED Nancy Thayer's beachy books, but this one trends more to YA to me or NA. It wasn't nearly as well developed as I hoped and I was somewhat disappointed. What saved it for me was the beach scenes ~ the sights, the smells and the sounds that Ms. Thayer does so very well. There were times when I could picture myself there, whiling away time and letting my cares float away on the surf.

If you have enjoyed this author in the past, give the book a try. Not every book is for every person and this might just not have been for me. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC at my request. All thoughts in this review are my own and freely given.

Keely and her best friend Isabelle do everything together. But when they get to high school and boys come into the picture things change between the girls. College years bring more challenges. Both want to become writers but who will succeed?
An interesting story of rich and poor come together but environment makes a difference. I would recommend anyone to read this fiction.

When I'm laying out, enjoying the sound of the waves or sipping a sweet drink poolside, I love a good frivolous read. I like books that make me zone out, that let me be a lazy reader, that don't require a lot of involvement from my brain and emotions. Surfside Sisters is exactly that sort of novel, it meanders on at an easy pace with simple drama and a rather meaningless story line. We don't get too deep into Keely's brain, rather we see her go out about her day to day and fret over boys and friends. It's a one side read about a woman and her future, the one she's dreamed about and the one she's successfully created.

I'll admit that when you pick up a true beach read you know you aren't going to get a lot from it, but this was even more mindless than I was prepared for. Keely, our main character, has a very selfish mindset and she latches onto people with very little thought. She often reads as though she's never actually grown up from the young girl we first meet. She worries about boys, she holds onto a long crush, and she has the strangest arguments with her best friend. Yes, she's massively successful, but we have very little understanding as to how she's successful. You see, she comes across as very socially awkward and our interactions with those outside her circle are so limited we don't quite know her as an individual. It's almost like Keely can't exhist without being in Nantucket and that took away from the story from me. I suppose you could say I wanted a bit more, I think this story had more potential than the beach read it became.

I'll always be an easy, breezy beach read kind of gal and I'll always reach for Nancy Thayer's books, but Surfside Sisters is one I'll have to call a one-time read.

There is just something so appealing to me about books set in Nantucket, every summer I look forward to reading books set there and though this is only my third book by Thayer, it’s my favorite one so far! It had everything I look for in a beach read. It’s light and fun yet has plenty going on in the characters lives too, throw in a perfect summer location and some romantic drama and it’s the best possible combination for me for a summer read

Keely and Isabelle always thought they would be best friends for the long haul, through thick and thin. Jealousy and envy divide them, each having accomplishments the other wants. They are drawn further apart by life and its unfair or petty turns. Isabelle is raised rich and her upbringing shows through in her jealousy, anger and inability to move on. Keely moves forward each day wishing things were back to where they once were with Isabelle.
It is a moving novel of friendship on the edges of turmoil, strife and underlying love for each other that somehow must burst through to make the world right again.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Surfside Sisters is a story of friendship, family, and dreams fulfilled. Overall, I enjoyed it- the setting is great for a summer read- but the main character, Keely, wore me out! We read about Keely as a child, teen, then adult, and honestly, I didn’t feel she made a great deal of growth emotionally as she grew physically. I would be interested in reading another book by this author, but not one centered around Keely Green.

Nancy Thayer has joined the cast of my MUST read authors for summer. She joins Mary Alice Monroe, Elin Hildebrand, and Dorothea Benton Frank. It doesn't feel like summer until I read these authors. Thayer has written another hit. I found myself ignoring everything around me as I read. The heartache Keely felt many times throughout the book tugged at my heartstrings and I wanted to jump into the book and try to fix it for her.

The descriptions of Nantucket make the reader feel as if they are there playing in ocean waves, eating yummy food in the summer sunshine and listening to families excitement on vacation. You will be wishing you could hop on the next flight out.

If you haven't read Nancy Thayer then start with Surfside Sisters. You will thank me when you are finished.

I received a complimentary copy from Random House Publishing - Ballantine through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.

I really wanted to like "Surfside Sisters" by Nancy Thayer, but most of the characters not only weren't likeable, in a lot of cases I found them to be incredibly annoying and juvenile. I also found myself rolling my eyes at the book's ending. (That in and of itself made me reduce my rating from 3 stars to 2.) However, I did find myself wanting to keep turning the pages, hoping that something would happen to make Keely, the main character, wake up and choose a better path for herself. Unfortunately, that never happened.

There were so many things that frustrated me about this book. First, we only got Keely's side of the story, and frankly she came across as kind of whiny and pathetic a lot of the time. She was so desperate to be accepted by the Maxwell family that she put up with - even encouraged! - what seemed like very poor treatment from both Isabelle and Sebastian. That said, my perception of events might have been different if we had heard Isabelle's side of the story too.

From Keely's perspective, Isabelle came across as an incredibly selfish, entitled person who was never truly a friend to Keely, and yet, no matter what, Keely still wanted to be her friend to the end. There were a few times I wanted to reach into the book and slap Keely for not recognizing that their "friendship" had become toxic and it was time to move on. It's not like Keely didn't have any friends besides Isabelle! Why she kept clinging to Isabelle and the rest of the Maxwells was puzzling to me because they really didn't seem that great. Keely didn't seem to appreciate how great her own parents were, either. So what if the Greens didn't have as big of a house as the Maxwells, or if they never had any pets because her parents were allergic? Those were such stupidly petty things to complain about that, again, I wanted to slap Keely for complaining about them.

As for Sebastian, he seemed to keep Keely dangling on a string for years and she just kept coming back for more. Except for one time when he was a freshman in college, he never went out of his way to contact her. Basically, unless she was standing right in front of him, it didn't seem like he even thought about her, despite his protestations to the contrary. Sebastian only decided to pursue a romantic relationship with Keely when it was finally convenient for him, after he broke up with his Swedish girlfriend and moved back to the island full-time. That was fine with Keely, apparently, since she was still so desperate to be a part of the "wonderful" Maxwell family.

Then there was the Keely-Tommy-Isabelle love triangle. What a ridiculous saga that was! I couldn't figure out why Keely even wanted Tommy in the first place - maybe just because Isabelle wanted him and had him first? How much could Keely really have wanted to be friends with Isabelle by that point anyway if her idea of "friendship" allowed her to start dating her supposed BFF's ex the day after they broke up? I'm not saying that what Isabelle and Tommy did was right, but Keely's behavior wasn't exactly perfect either.

There were plenty of other things that annoyed me about this book, but this review is already way too long. Bottom line: I was really disappointed with "Surfside Sisters," though the writing itself was decent and I was interested enough in what would happen next to keep reading to the end. I would give another one of Nancy Thayer's books a shot in the future. Hopefully the characters and storyline will be less frustrating!

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Perfect chick lit! I loved the premise and the characters were well developed! I recommend this for anyone looking for a light and fun read!

I was in the mood for a light read and this book was perfect for that. I got caught up in the characters and the story though I can't say I especially liked many of the characters. Actually, I found it rather hard to believe why Keely was so besotted by her "best friend" Isabelle who seemed flighty, entitled, and perhaps was only friends with Keely because she felt so superior to her. I felt sorry for Keely's hardworking and stable parents who most assuredly could tell Keely was envious of the Maxwells and thought she would have preferred to be in their family.

It seemed sort of pathetic to me that Keely kept trying so hard to renew her friendship with Isabelle while getting basically nothing back from her for several years. I also felt sorry later in the story for Gray who was dropped like a hot potato when Keely had someone 'better'. It also seemed strange how the narrative dropped him so suddenly too after he'd been a seemingly important character then poof, he was gone.

I did enjoy the book most of the way through although the ending seemed rushed and thrown together. Of course the ending was predictable, I expected that - - but it felt like the author just ran out of time and quickly wrapped everything up with a neat bow.

This is a good beach read and enjoyable for this genre.