{ The Light in Summer by Mary McNear - TLC Book Tour }

 

About The Light in Summer

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (June 20, 2017)

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary McNear brings you home to Butternut Lake and a novel filled with irresistible characters who you will want to call your friends.

It’s summertime on Butternut Lake, where the heat of noon is soothed by the cool breezes of the evening, where the pace grows slower, and sometimes, just sometimes, the summer light makes everything clearer...

For the lovely Billy Harper, Butternut Lake is the place she feels most at home, even though lately she feels the only one listening to her is Murphy...her faithful Labrador Retriever. Her teenage son, Luke, has gone from precious to precocious practically overnight. Her friends are wrapped up in their own lives, and Luke’s father, Wesley, disappeared before his son was even born. No wonder she prefers to spend time with a good book, especially ones where everything ends in perfection.

But Billy is about to learn that anything is possible during the heady days of summer. Coming to terms with her past—the death of her father, the arrival of Cal Cooper, a complicated man with a definite interest in Billy, even the return of Wesley, will force her to have a little bit of faith in herself and others...and realize that happiness doesn’t always mean perfection.

“Butternut Lake is so beautifully rendered, you’ll wish it was real.”—Susan Wiggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author  

“This triumphant story had me reading until the wee hours of the morning.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber on The Space Between Sisters

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

  

Photo by Amelia Kennedy

About Mary McNear

Mary McNear, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Butternut Lake series, writes in a local doughnut shop, where she sips Diet Pepsi, observes the hubbub of neighborhood life, and tries to resist the constant temptation of freshly made doughnuts. Mary bases her novels on a lifetime of summers spent in a small town on a lake in the northern Midwest.

Connect with Mary on Facebook.

My Thoughts:

Oh my word, I absolutely adored this book.  It was a good, fun and easy ready from the very first page.

You know how sometimes you open a book and start reading and find it quite hard to get into?  For some reason the words don't seem to flow, or it has too many details or descriptions or whatever.  Not this one, it captured me from the very first page and I zipped right through it, every chance I got.

Here's the only issue I had with the book......the fact that it's part of a series which I have NEVER read before and it made me sad that it was the first time I was hearing about the Butternut Lake series.  Hahah 

The story itself was deliciously cute and romantic and everything you would expect in a summer read.

I didn't feel that I was lost or confused, or missing something from the previous books.  AS much as I want to go back and read the previous parts of this series, this is pretty much a stand alone story.

The main characters are Cal who has shown up to his family's old summer cabin, in his flashy fast sports car, needing a break from life and wanting to hide away from everything and everyone.  His sister lives in Butternut Lake, is married with children and pretty much takes Cal in when he needs a crying shoulder.

The other half of this pair is Billy, who is struggling to deal with her 13 year old son Luke.  He is a teenager, rambunctious and full of attitude and she's just not doing very well with it all.  Her father passed away and he was a huge influence in Luke's life, so with his passing, Luke lashes out at his mom.  One thing I also love about Billy is that she's a librarian, and a Jane Austen fan (helloooooo fellow sister).

We are thrown into the usual and quite predictable love story, but that never stops me from enjoying the journey.   This is the quintessential summer read, perfect to throw into your beach bag.