Customer Reviews

Driftwood Summer

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Part of my beach reading selection this summer - lighthearted, quick and easy read. Everything ties up too neatly in the end, however, and the resolution to the novel feels rushed. Good for a summer day of reading when the kids are making noise at the beach/pool and you have to interupt your reading several times throughout the course of the day. Probably not a good book club selection or for those who are looking for a deep, profound read.

Patti Callahan Henry has truly created a beautifully-written, engaging novel that is rich with emotion. Set in a Georgia beach community, it tells the story of the three estranged Sheffield sisters who reunite to save their family's beloved bookstore. As they host a week of bookstore events, all three are forced to confront the conflicts that tore them apart. In the end, their family loyalty and love for each other draws them together again. Magnificently told in alternating narratives, each sister's unique and relatable story is told. As a sister myself, I really, truly loved this heartwarming tale of the loving and imperfect bond between sisters. I highly recommend this wonderful, touching book!!

Earphones award winner Julia Whelan is a former child actress who first appeared on screen at the age of eleven. She returned to acting following completion of her college degree. Television appearances soon followed, and she is seen in the 2010 fantasy thriller film Fading of the Cries. In great demand for various roles she has narrated romance and supernatural thrillers as well as both young adult and adult fiction. It's not easy to narrate a story in which the prominent characters are three sisters, but Whelan handles this with aplomb clearing defining each of the trio.

Popular author of The Art Of Keeping Secrets, Patti Callahan Henry now gives us a story a touching story of love and forgiveness. It is June when the Sheffield sisters are together once again in Georgia, Palmetto Beach to be exact, their small seaside hometown to celebrate their mother's birthday and attempt to save the family business, Driftwood Cottage Bookstore. After all, the cottage itself is said to be 200 years old, and has been a bookstore for a dozen of those years.

Riley, the eldest sister and a single mother, co-owns the shop with Kitsy, her mother. Maisy, the middle sister, is now a very successful interior designer based in California, and youngest sibling, Adalee, is in college. Each, of course, brings with them past feelings, unforgotten injustices (both real and imagined), and a bevy of other memories from days long gone by. Neither Maisy or Adalee are happy to be called upon to save Riley's book store - Maisy well remembers the summer handsome Mack Logan took a shine to her when he was Riley's best friend, and Adalee would much rather be spending the summer with her boyfriend, Chad.

Nonetheless, here they all are, including Mack whose appearance causes the sisters not only to remember but also to try to resolve some long kept feelings. DRIFTWOOD SUMMER is a story of love, family, and forgiveness.

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

This was the first book I have ever read by this author, and probably the last. Although I read it to the end, I thought the entire storyline was much too contrived. There was something about the characters and their issues that intrigued me, but the conversations and interactions between the family members were awkward and shallow.

The plot revolves around a 70 year old woman with 3 daughters, ranging in age from 22 to 34. For a 70 year old woman to have a 22 year old daughter got me started on the wrong foot. And the idea that a daughter who has only been home once in 12 years, to attend her father's funeral, and who had very little contact with her family, would come home and immediately -- like the very first morning -- be able to assume responsibility in the family bookstore seemed absurd. The responsibilities of the three girls during the course of the "birthday celebration week" were ridiculous and out of touch with reality. And with the amount of time they spent flirting with their various love interests it seemed there were about 36 hours in each day.

The mutual "love interest" of the two oldest daughters, Riley and Maisey, was also way overplayed. Along with taking care of his elderly father, Mack was playing up to both sisters. I just don't think that would happen. They weren't 16! And why would he and his father attend the "book club night" at the store? That made no sense at all.

My gut instinct was that this was the first book written by this author, and that she was very young. I was surprised to discover that was not the case. There are much better "summer reads" out there.

Driftwood Cottage Bookstore, like so many independent bookstores these days, is in dire straits. Riley Sheffield and her mother, Kitsy, run the business together. In a last-ditch hope-filled attempt to save their beloved shop, they plan a week-long extravaganza of events such as a cooking demonstration by the cookbook club, a local author night, and a poetry night. The week will be capped off by "the biggest party Palmetto Beach has seen in two centuries."

Things get complicated, though, when Kitsy (who is a bit of a tippler) falls down the stairs at home, landing in the hospital with assorted injuries. Riley has been reading through her pile of party RSVP envelopes when she is stunned to spy the acceptance of a familiar name: Mack Logan. For a long and emotional moment, she is whirled into reminiscences. As a child and teen, Mack was a summer visitor to Palmetto Beach. He and Riley had been inseparable best friends and fishing partners. As the two grew older, she hid a budding romantic love for him. Just as he appeared to begin to return those feelings, Riley's younger sister, the gorgeous Maisy, made a successful play for him. Riley then retaliated in the worst way possible. Her actions resulted in a tremendous and permanent rift between the siblings. Although Maisy now plans to fly in from California to briefly attend the bookstore's celebration, Riley hasn't seen her in 12 years.

Riley's musing is interrupted by the news of her mother's accident. She rushes to the hospital where she finds Kitsy as sassy as ever, but confined to bed by her injuries. She also discovers some potentially devastating news about her mother, which she must put aside to concentrate on the bookstore festivities. Kitsy informs Riley that Maisy and younger sister Adalee, who had planned to return for just a few days, will simply have to stay to help her. Riley shrinks from the very idea. There's the estrangement between her and Maisy, of course. And young Adalee lives to party; she surely will not be any kind of help. But when Kitsy pulls the "we're family" card, Riley can't argue.

Riley's life is already complicated. She not only runs the bookstore, she lives above it. Both her living and her home may be gone soon. As the single mom of 12-year-old Brayden, she is a dedicated parent and guards the secret of who his father is. Now her life is about to become even more problematical.

We hear Maisy's story, too, beginning as she flies home to the Georgia beach town. Maisy lives with a terrible secret that once propelled her away from Palmetto Beach. She has had a successful career as a Laguna Beach interior decorator, but her romantic life has been dismal. She is currently unsatisfactorily entangled with a married man (and not for the first time) and dreads being home again. Can she avoid being confronted with repercussions from her long-ago terrible mistake? Will she and Riley be able to at least tolerate each other for a short period of time? Little does Maisy suspect that she may be coerced into working with Riley over a longer period --- or that Mack will also appear, further complicating her relationship with her estranged sister.

How does Patti Callahan Henry so skillfully reel her readers into her engrossing page-turners? First, she baits her hook with the characters; even though they are so often imperfect (refreshing in itself), they are definitely original and relatable. Readers simply must find out what happens to them as they seek healing and redemption. The family dynamics power the plot: the mother and her daughters have a dysfunctional relationship (certainly not "Jerry Springer" crazy-dysfunctional, but a fascinating and realistic discombobulation) that is offset by genuine connection and love. Romance and intrigue are subtly woven into the story to good effect, while the depiction of the Southern beach town adds atmosphere to this latest irresistible Patti Callahan Henry read.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon

I just didn't like the characters in this book. I tried..and kept reading..but when I noticed that I kept checking to see how many pages I had left to read..not a good sign. Too many tears and too much stomping of the feet. My first book by this author. Will try again though.

Speaking before a packed auditorium at the Decatur Library Auditorium at the Georgia Center for the Book on the launch celebration of her latest book on June 1, Patti Callahan Henry ponders how she writes. Using the Socratic Method, Henry has always asked "what if?" Then she mixes this curiosity with her loves. In Driftwood Summer, she blends her love of beaches, sisters, and bookstores coupled with love itself in masterfully tale of making choices. While always having a love of reading and blending her skills as a writer.



Professionally she majored in nursing at Auburn University; she always came back to her love of reading and writing. In her thirties she finally broke and became a writer following her passion. Her books are masterfully crafted processes that will enable the reader enter the lives of her colorful characters.



As a mother of three, she juggles her duties as super mom, car pool queen, and devoted wife to carve out time to write. "Her people", which include a staff of herself carries the duties of research, story telling, and completing her works.



Henry allows her books to organically involve and she gets to know her character as friends. What are their likes dislikes and taste is all part of her creative process. What is the common thread to her six novels are that she puts her characters at a "Y" crossroads in their lives. They have to make a life choice and deal with the change. These books are a perfect escape as we begin the dog days of summer.

I can't say my expectations were extremely high but I did wind up liking Driftwood Summer. It's a simple enough story, with three sisters spread out over the country coming together to try to save the bookstore owned by their mother.

Riley the oldest lives at the second floor of the bookstore with her son. Maisy lives all the way in California for her own reasons, and Adalee is off at college, and failing most of her classes while partying it up.

Their mother falls and the three girls are reunited at home to help with her birthday and the bookstore's week-long events, including its 200th anniversary. There's a good deal of bitterness, especially between Maisy and Riley. As the book moves along Maisy starts to leave the bitterness behind. She really grows as a character, a lot more than the other two. She comes to realize Mack Logan, a boy both she and Riley fought over when they were teens, does not love her like he used to and she accepts that. She also admits to her past misdeed to a friend.

The ending of the book wraps up well, with the bookstore saved, their mother healthy after a cancer scare, and the three sisters together again and loving each other. For me a lot of the story seemed to move very quickly, but everything wrapped up. The happy ending countered a lot of sad points in the story, including when Riley finds out about the father of her son. I don't know when or if I would read it again but it was a very decent story.

Natalie ordered this book for her book club's selection of the month. Everyone loved it because the character development was realistic and in depth. The book title does not do it justice.

A wonderful book about family love, sibling loyalty, first loves and summer friendships. A page turner, read it in one day.