It has been five years since Sandra Pennington's husband passed away, and she is, quite frankly, lonely. Sandra's best friend has had to be put into a care facility because of Alzheimer's, and both of Sandra's children are married and living elsewhere. Sandra decides to open her home up and rent out her three extra bedrooms for the summer. She chooses three women to rent to - Mary, a recently retired lawyer, Patty -she is living with her sister because she can no longer afford her own apartment and she is dealing with her problems the same way she always has.... hiding her head in the sand, and then there is High-school teacher Amanda, who is taking a sabbatical from her stagnant relationship, This will be a summer of reflection, reinvention, and friendship for all four women.

I usually enjoy this author's books, but this one was a miss for me. The story seemed to just meander along, without really progressing. I didn't care for the writing style either. I felt like the conversations were too stilted and unnatural, and I did not enjoy all of the inane reflections on everything. I can not recommend this one.

Sandra has a beautiful home in Maine, but after her husband has passed, it feels very empty. In thinking about the way people leave and the idea of community, Sandra decides to take on three women "boarders" for the summer. The women come from all different walks of life and have their own baggage, but through living together, they become a supportive community.

Know that this is very character driven and that there's a lot of discussion between the four women who spend a summer together in Sandra's house in Maine. She's decided to open her home for the summer because she's lonely. And so Mary, Amanda and Patty move in. They're very different personalities and come from different backgrounds but they share the same sort of concerns about their futures. This isn't as sharp as it could be and it does sag a bit in spots but readers of a certain age will recognize them. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

I enjoyed this book because Sandra and the three women who rented a room for the summer, did it with an open mind. The women came from different walks of life, but they got to know each other, and find things they have in common.
They are all over 50 and all seem to be at a crossroad, and this time helps them learn things about themselves and the other women. They reflect on the past, and see how they have changed. The summer in Maine has helped them grow, do something different, and lets them see there is still a lot of life left to live.
Life is what you make it, and they chose to take a chance and try something different.
As I read the book, I thought everyone has crossroads, and if you reflect on the past, you can see who you used to be compared to who you are now. As I have many times just seem to coast through life and not really paid attention, this book showed me I should pay attention to see the changes, the growth, and the person I am today.
I received an ARC from Kensington through NetGalley.

Widow Sandra Pennington is feeling restless, so she decides to open her home to summer roommates and Mary, Patty, and Amanda arrive, each with their own baggage.

I don't think I was the target audience for this book, because it did not hold my interest and I found it quite dull. It was painfully slow, the characters felt flat, and the writing was unnecessarily verbose (see what I did there?).

Thank you to Kensington via NetGalley for gifting me with an ARC to review. I wish I enjoyed it more.

Thank you NetGalley, Holly Chamberlin and Kensington Books for the ARC of Summer Roommates. This is my personal review.
I needed a light easy book to read and this one seemed to be it. But for me it missed the mark for me. It was slow and just did not grab enough to care about any of the characters in the story. It took me longer than normal to read.
The location of the story- Maine was good. I love that part of the country and could picture it my mind the area.

This book is a little to detailed for me. I barely got through the first few pages.




***********************I received an ARC for my honest opinion from NetGalley***********************************

This book was boring. I was excited to read another book set in Maine, but this one was too blah.
It is about a widow in Maine who is facing loneliness and sees an article regarding “home sharing” and decides to have three women boarders over the summer to try it out.
Sounds interesting, but none of the characters were interesting enough for me to want to continue to read.
Unfortunately, I read 40% skipped to the epilogue and quit.

I enjoy stumbling upon books about the older generations and how life is different for them. Holly Chamberlin has created a heartwarming beach read that will appeal to many generations.

Sandra has been a widow for five years, her children don’t live nearby, and she’s lonely. Her best friend has dementia and she decides that for the summer, she’s going to create a retirement community of her own in her house by renting her extra bedrooms to three women. She uses a real estate agent and carefully vets most of the applicants, and soon Mary, Amanda, and Patty comes to live for the summer.

Each woman brings her own personal baggage and ways of doing things. Surprisingly, despite the fact that the women have very distinct personalities, they work well together and are for the most part respectful of others. There are a few instances early in the book where there is a clash, but the women in question discuss the difference of opinion calmly and judiciously. This was very refreshing to read after so many romances where there’s always some big fight or misunderstanding. It shows that with maturity can come wisdom and patience.

Indeed, each of the women has a lot of self-reflection during their summer in Yorktide, Maine. Mary retired early after a hard-working life as a corporate attorney and the death of her best friend, but now she’s questioning her decision to hang it up. Amanda left her boyfriend of eight years behind for the summer as she contemplates their relationship and all the ones she’s had before. Patty is just scraping by after a lifetime of bad choices with men and spending frivolously and caring more about her appearance than applying to better herself. She has to take a job in a local store in order to pay for her summer rental and will have to live with a very judgmental sister when she returns home because she’s so broke.

The women share a Wednesday dinner and discuss a great many things, and while I found them interesting, I realized that this could be off-putting to younger readers as all the topics center around aging. The conversations brought up made me contemplate how I plan to live my best life as I age, and the choices I’ve made and will make in order to make that happen.

I found this a great beach read for Gen X or Boomers, but the pace may be too slow for a younger reader.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Kensington Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The story about 4 woman (over 50)with different story spend time together in summer as roommates. I like the detail in this book make me easy imagine each character. When reading this book i dont feel they are old people, feel like on their 30 no sign of someone in retire time. I love their friendship, build slowly with open up, understanding and conflict that make them become closer. Each of them deserve happiness and happy ending.

Thank you to NetGalley for provide this book, it is pleasure to review this book.

#SummerRoommates #HollyChamberlin #KensingtonBooks #NetGalley #ARC

I wanted to love it, I did! There was so much potential for this to work out, but the story was just very slow for me.

It’s about a group of four women who come to live together as “summer roommates.” Each has their own history and they become friends as they learn more about themselves through this new period of their lives.

There are a lot of side stories happening in the book and a lot of inner monologue of the characters that can make it really hard to keep going. I really like the concept of the storyline, but this was a hard one for me.

I usually really enjoy this authors books but this one was too slow for me. The main characters were likeable and relatable but too many other side stories that were distracting.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. I found the language to be extraordinarily common, and the story uninteresting. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. I was looking forward to a fun summer read - the cover is just divine! However this book was just too slow paced for me, too 'wordy' in that it lost my interest in too much detail with each character and I got sidetracked with all the sub-plots.

Absolutely LOVED this one! Book of the summer for sure. Highly recommend. Could see it being book club picks.

Unfortunately this is a DNF at 20% + the epilogue for me. I was so excited about the premise of one woman opening her house up to 3 other ladies as a summer rental. I was looking forward to seeing what fun they could get up to together. Instead, I found the backstories of the ladies' lives very mundane. There wasn't anything that made me want to learn more about what would happen to them during this summer of potential adventure. After reading the epilogue, it looks like not much did happen but maybe someone found love in the end. Sad this one didn't work for me.

I love a good book that is more about the characters than the plot, but this book felt a little flat to me. It was slow-moving, and the characters were not all that engaging. Still, it held a peacefulness and was so stress-free that I found it appealing enough to finish.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

This was a sweet plot idea but I found the book a bit slow. I've read and enjoyed a few books by this author and did like that the book discussed a lot of self introspect for the characters. It just fell a bit short for me.

A semi-engaging book about roommates. This book had the potential to be captivating but for me, it was just "meh".

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book felt so long and plotless. While things did pick up some in the second half, I felt like most of this book was just Chamberlin describing the appearance of characters and setting rather than making anything happen. The only one of the "summer roommates" I liked was Sandra, so I really only enjoyed when she was involved because she wasn't as obnoxious as the others. I wish I had enjoyed this one more, but there was not enough to the story for me to get into it, and the whole time I just wanted it to end. I did like the development of the relationships between the women and thought that the novel wrapped up nicely. Each woman seemed to have grown over the course of the summer and learned something new about herself, which was rewarding to read in the end. However, I just did not think there was enough going on in this one, so it wasn't for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!