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    Summer Breeze: A Novel
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    Summer Breeze: A Novel
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    Summer Breeze: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    Summer Breeze: A Novel

    Written by Nancy Thayer

    Narrated by Kimberly Farr

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer never fails to imbue her novels with warmth and wisdom. In Summer Breeze, the author of Beachcombers and Heat Wave tells the wonderfully moving story of three women who forge a unique bond one sun-drenched summer on New England's Dragonfly Lake.

    Morgan O'Keefe feels trapped in a gilded cage. True, the thirty-year-old mother agreed to put her science career on hold to raise her young son while her husband  pursued his high-powered job. But though Morgan loves many things about staying home with her child, she misses the thrill of working with her colleagues in the lab. She's restless and in dire need of a change.

    Fed up with New York City's hectic pace, Natalie Reynolds takes up her aunt's offer to move to the Berkshires and house-sit her fabulous lakeside house for a year. Passionate about applying brush to canvas, Natalie is poised to become the artist she has forever longed to be. But life on Dragonfly Lake is never without surprises, and for a novice swimmer like Natalie, the most welcome surprise proves to be the arms of a handsome neighbor pulling her up from the water for a gulp of air.

    When her mother breaks her leg, Bella Barnaby quits her job in Austin and returns home to help out her large, boisterous family. Among her new duties: manning the counter at the family business, Barnaby's Barn, an outdated shop sorely in need of a makeover. While attractive architect Aaron has designs on her, Bella harbors long held secret dreams of her own.

    Summer on Dragonfly Lake is ripe for romance, temptation, and self-discovery as the lives of these three women unexpectedly intertwine. Summer Breeze illustrates how the best of friends can offer comfort, infuriate, or even-sometimes-open one's eyes to the astonishing possibilities of life lived in a different way. This captivating novel displays a prestigiously gifted writer at the height of her storytelling powers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 5, 2012
    ISBN9780307939562
    Unavailable
    Summer Breeze: A Novel
    Author

    Nancy Thayer

    Nancy Thayer is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including Girls of Summer, Let It Snow, Surfside Sisters, A Nantucket Wedding, Secrets in Summer, The Island House, The Guest Cottage, An Island Christmas, Nantucket Sisters, and Island Girls. Born in Kansas, Thayer has been a resident of Nantucket for thirty-five years, where she currently lives with her husband, Charley, and a precocious rescue cat named Callie.

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    Reviews for Summer Breeze

    3/5

    74 ratings20 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      A typical beach read. Unreal, because you knew what couples would get together in the end.
    • 3/5
      Maybe it was me, but this book seemed a little too laid back (or maybe it was supposed to be that way, being that it was a summer book???) I think Nancy has written better.....
    • 4/5
      I was pleasantly suprised by how much I connected with the characters in this book, because there were several. I especially loved that all the characters were from a variety of backgrounds and places in life.

      I reached a point in the story where I didn't want to put the book down and was frustrated by interruptions that kept me from getting the next piece of the story.

      My only complaint with this story is that I felt that it wrapped up too quickly. There was some sexual and romantic tension between several of the characters that was not resolved as realistically or logically as it might have been. It felt abrupt compared to the rest of the story. There was a lack of introspection, for some characters, that had been present throughout the rest of the story.

      Overall, the book is good and will be one I'm likely to suggest when doing reader advisory.
    • 5/5
      In Summer Breeze: A Novel, Nancy Thayer tells the wonderfully moving story of three women who forge a unique bond of lasting friendship during one sun-drenched summer on New England's Dragonfly Lake. Morgan O'Keefe feels trapped in a gilded cage. True, the thirty-year-old mother had agreed to put her science career on hold in order to raise her young son while her husband pursued his high-powered job. But although Morgan loves many things about staying home with her child, she misses the thrill of working with her colleagues in the lab. She's restless and in dire need of a change. Fed up with New York City's hectic pace, Natalie Reynolds takes her aunt's offer to move to the Berkshires and house-sit her fabulous lakeside house for a year. Passionate about applying brush to canvas, Natalie is poised to become the artist that she has always longed to be. But life on Dragonfly Lake is never without surprises, and for a novice swimmer like Natalie, the most welcome surprise of all proves to be the arms of a handsome neighbor pulling her up from the water for a gulp of air. When her mother breaks her leg, Bella Barnaby quits her job in Austin and returns home to help out with her large, boisterous family. Among her new duties: manning the counter of the family business, Barnaby's Barn, an outdated shop sorely in need of a makeover. While attractive architect Aaron has designs on her, Bella harbors long held secret dreams of her own. Summer on Dragonfly Lake is a season ripe for romance, temptation, and self-discovery as the lives of these three women unexpectedly intertwine. Summer Breeze: A Novel illustrates how the best of friends can offer comfort, infuriate, or even - sometimes - open one's eyes to the astonishing possibilities of life lived in a different way.I absolutely loved this book. I became completely immersed in the story, and it only took me two days to finish reading it. I definitely give this book an A+!
    • 2/5
      "Summer on Dragonfly Lake is ripe for romance, temptation, and self-discovery as the lives of these three women unexpectedly intertwine. Summer Breeze illustrates how the best of friends can offer comfort, infuriate, or even sometimes open one's eyes to the astonishing possibilities of life lived in a different way. I have read all Nancy's books; however this one as well as her last one Heat Wave were not my favorites. Appears her writing has changed as very slow and characters not exciting or engaging." Her last two books are different than her earlier books which I loved!
    • 4/5
      good . but drawn out
    • 2/5
      2.5 StarsI was so looking forward to this book. Then I started reading and found out this book's a mess. It jumped all over the place. Scenes had no depth to them just skimming the top. So it left the characters plain and bland with no feelings. I came away shaking my head of why did I read this book.
    • 4/5
      This book is the typical summer beach read - young women looking for love, young men with other things on their mind. The interesting concept for me was that the relationships showcased were in different stages and yet they managed to overlap. Morgan is married to Josh who has just taken a new job with a very prestigious firm and he wants his wife and young son to have a big house right on the lake where they meet Bella. Bella is in a relationship with Aaron who is interviewing for a job in San Francisco and if they stay together, would necessitate Bella leaving Dragonfly Lake and her new business. Natalie, an artist, is housesitting for her aunt and is living next door to Morgan. The 3 woman become fast friends. Trouble arrives in the figure of Slade, Natalie's brother, who takes a shine not only to Bella but Morgan as well.Relationships get even more jumbled when Morgan is unhappy because Josh is working too many hours, Natalie gets involved with Bella's brother, Ben, and Slade is trying to influence Bella into a relationship as well as business dealings.The story was okay, but I think that there were just too many relationships, too many twists. Two relationships in the story would have been sufficient and made more room for emotional expansion. Overall an okay for the beach.
    • 3/5
      This was a typical summer book -- very little substance or character developement. I didn't really like any of the characters and thought overall the book was very flat. This authoer has written some great books but I didn't think that this one was anywhere near her previous books.
    • 4/5
      Summer Breeze is the story of three women who meet and become friends during a summer on Dragonfly Lake. Bella, who grew up here, has come back home to help run her Mother's store while she recuperates from an accident. Morgan has moved to the lake with her baby and her husband who has accepted a demanding new job. Natalie is an artist who has struggled over the years to make the money for art school and the freedom to create. Her well-to-do aunt has asked her to house-sit her home on the lake for a year while she travels. The story of what follows over the summer is a great beach read. Nothing too serious or deep but a well-told story.
    • 3/5
      On Dragonfly Lake three women come together and learn the meaning of friendship. Bella has come to take care of her mother and run her craft shop. Bella is almost engaged and struggling with the idea that her fiancee wants to take a job in San Francisco. Natalie, an artist, has come to house sit and have time to draw and paint. And Morgan now lives on the lake with her husband and son and is learning how to be a stay at home mom. And just to mix things up a bit, enters Natalie's attractive brother, Slade. This book is of a genre that I generally enjoy, but I just could not find enough heart in it. The women irritated me and I found myself frequently setting the book aside to read other things.
    • 3/5
      This book started out slow for me then caught some momentum and finished in a slow third for 3 stars. I loved her Hot Flash books and she's nicely written just a little sing singy at the end. Nice description of the lake and lake houses, love reading of the colleges in Western Mass.
    • 1/5
      Is it hot where you are? The temperatures lately have been consistently in the 101-105 range and that made it a really good time for me to read Summer Breeze by Nancy Thayer, a free book to review from Librarything. I was looking for an excellent summer beach read that would take my mind off of the impending heat and the inability of the air conditioner anywhere but Wal-Mart to keep up with the oppression of the sun. Seriously, where do they get their air conditioning? I need to get some of that. Unfortunately, Summer Breeze was a summer bummer. Ideally, this novel would be about three women who discover each other at the beach and celebrate their differences and talents. Instead it turned into a catty women in heat novel that made me really disappointed that anyone would consider what they had as friendship.Bella is a martyr of a daughter who has come home to take over her family shop and instead decides to turn it into an antique and art shop. Throughout the book she struggles with knowing if she loves her fiance because…he might take a job in San Fransisco. Really? I mean, he could have leprosy and I can see how that presents a challenge but his dreams are somewhere else and you want to run your shop here? Clearly, I’m not sympathetic to the characters in the novel. Morgan, a new stay at home mom and former scientist presents as unrealistic and insensitive to the demands on her husband as he goes to bring home the bacon and ultimately I think most modern women would just ask her why she didn’t hire an interior decorator and a babysitter and go back to work instead of trying to sabotage her marriage? Sometimes the answer really is that simple. And Natalie…well, she’s a confused artist because aren’t all artists confused?If I sound patronizing it’s because I’m being patronizing. I disliked how cookie cutter the novel was from start to finish. People are more dynamic than this. The only characters I liked were Bella’s parents. You just cannot pit three protagonists against each other for the four men in the novel and expect it to fly. The ending was trite and I couldn’t finish it quickly enough. I rarely give bad reviews, but I wouldn’t read this one again. It was hard enough to finish the first time. Thayer has better writing in her.
    • 4/5
      Recipe for a Beach Read:Take one dutiful daughter, one unhappy stay-at-home mommy, and an exotic artist. Add in an aspiring architect, an overworked executive with a hidden passion, a geeky professor, and the inevitable bad boy brother. Mix thoroughly in the tony Berkshire lake district and sit back and watch the action. Does the dutiful daughter stay dutiful or ?. Does the unhappy mommy figure out what's next? Does the geeky professor finally figure out how to romance a beautiful woman? Don't forget the bad boy brother in the background. Many twists and turns until everyone figures out what is right for them -- you may not agree with at least one of the choices, but there are a lot of goings on to get through. Enjoy the read.
    • 2/5
      This is probably classified as a beach read. The story reminds me of Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews. Both books are fluff, and contain detailed setting and characters. The title, Summer Breeze, is aptly chosen, as the three women in the story breeze through life without very little interruption. The outcome of the story ended uneventful with most of the women sacrificing for the man. This is a book that did not enlighten me on any topic, just a quickly read and forgotten beach read.
    • 4/5
      This is a summer beach story which centers around several families who live in beach houses surrounding Dragonfly Lake. Bella has recently returned home to help her aging and injured mother run her children's store and starting a new relationship with Aaron (an architect). Natalie has moved in to take care of her aunt's house for a year and have an opportunity to live her dream of painting. Morgan and Josh are new parents who are trying to balance their goals of career and family. Ben is Bella's brother and a research scientist. Slade is an antiques dealer and Natalie's brother. As one would expect, romances start to develop between several of these characters, with a few love triangles and some conflicts regarding shared life goals. Each of these characters struggles with trying to find or actualize their passion for a career, which for several involves environmental science. In this respect, the dialogue of the characters is a little unusual for a romance book as the characters are somewhat geeky and talk alot about biological research development and environmental protection measures! As this novel is light on the conflict and high on the beachy setting, it is a somewhat refreshing and light-hearted read. I enjoyed it and I think it would make a great story to tuck into your beach bag this summer, though it is not likely stick with you for long after you have returned home and unpacked your vacation bag.
    • 4/5
      Due to her mother's broken leg, Bella, former Texas third grade teacher, comes home to Dragonfly Lake near Amhearst, MA. She hasn't yet found her passion in life, career- wise anyway, yet but now she is back she has found out how much she likes running her mother's shop; not the way it is now but the way it could be. Aaron, Bella's soon-to-be fiancé gets an offer of his dream job in San Francisco so he wants Bella to go with him but she doesn't want to leave Dragonfly Lake although she insists she loves Aaron. When Bella meets Slade, her new friend Natalie's brother, she is thrown for a loop. Why does her heart skip a beat? She does loves Aaron, doesn't she? Bella has some tough choices to make. Will they include Aaron or Slade?Natalie, a young painter house-sitting for her aunt next to Bella's family home, has yet to find her niche in the art world. She does know painting is her heart's desire but she has yet to make a name for herself. When she meets Ben, Bella's scientist brother, she gets an inspiration and new direction for her art.Morgan and Josh, the young couple in Dragonfly lake, become good friends with Bella, Natalie, Ben and Slade. Josh's new job is so time consuming that Morgan becomes lonely and distraught and the marriage starts to suffer. Although she loves their son and wants to raise him she is not prepared for how much she so misses her job in bio hazard safety. When she finds out Josh has been keeping a huge secret from her, she blows her lid but inspiration hits Morgan. She finally has a brilliant solution for everything but Will Josh go for it if it means lowering their living standards?Thayer always draws me into her world immediately and I get engrossed in her characters' lives. In Summer Breeze, it's a summer of new relationships and self-discovery, new found interests and loves. Well done all around, I really enjoyed it! 4****Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Random House and LT in exchange for my honest opinion.
    • 4/5
      As a general rule, Nancy Thayer's books are always good reads. This one was no exception. It was a summer story set on a lake and centered around the lives of seven adults in various stages of relationships and families. While I can't say this is a literary wonder, it was definitely a story worth reading.
    • 3/5
      Three women spend a summer together surrounded by a beautiful lake, family and friends. Morgan struggles with motherhood and missing her career; along with problems within her marriage. Natalie is struggling to become an artist and falling in love. Bella is in love and unsure of where it (and her career) are going. They become close friends and learn alot about life and each other in a summer.I enjoyed the lake/beachy setting and the gatherings with friends and neighbors. Slade was fun...I could just picture him in my mind! The book was slow for me. I didn't really love the characters, a pretty shallow bunch. I didn't quite believe most of what was going on with them. It all happened a bit too fast for me. AND the ending, it seemed really abrupt and didn't make much sense to me...throw in a new character right at the end??? hmmm.....
    • 4/5
      I received this book as part of LT's Early Reviewer program. As a longtime fan of Nancy Thayer, I was so happy that I received this book to review, and it did not disappoint. Filled with Thayer's common themes of family, friendship, life's passions, and hints of betrayal, I finished "Summer Breeze" quickly. My only regret is that the book is such a perfect beach read, I should have saved it for summer vacation! Focusing on three women, Bella who is looking for her passion, artist Natalie, and current stay-at-home mom but missing her work desperately Morgan, I enjoyed entering the stories of each woman. Thayer keeps the book from having too much a perfect ending without disappointing readers. My only flaw with "Summer Breeze," trying not to put in a spoiler here, is how implausible I found for Bella's store. I really don't want to give too much away, but as an out of work teacher, she put a lot of money into it for the ending to go the way it did. Otherwise, I thought the book was a great summer read. The characters aren't necessarily going to stay with me forever, but what fun to open up and delve into a fun summer breeze.