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Butternut Summer (2014)

by Mary McNear(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0062283162 (ISBN13: 9780062283160)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks

series

The Butternut Lake Trilogy

review 1: Butternut Summer is the second book in the Butternut Lake series by Mary McNear. The first book in the series is Up at Butternut Lake. Butternut Summer tells the story of Caroline Keegan and her daughter, Daisy. Caroline lives in the small Minnesota town where she grew up, Butternut Lake. She runs a small diner called Pearl's. It has been in her family for years, and she takes pride in her work and the community she lives in. Daisy is home from college for the summer. Unbeknownst to Caroline, Daisy has been in contact with her father, Jack. Jack Keegan is a handsome charmer who disappeared from the lives of Caroline and Daisy while Daisy was still a toddler. When Jack moves back to Butternut Lake and attempts to reconnect with Caroline, things are set in motion. ... more Over the summer, Daisy meets a good looking "bad boy" that she grew up with named Will Hughes. Will is a mechanic at a local shop, a small town ladies man without a sense of direction. The summer romance of Daisy and Will is central to this story.Butternut Lake is a charming little town like Mayberry. In this book we meet some of the townspeople and visit local sites. This is a town you will enjoy visiting, full of people you will want to meet.The interrelated stories are compelling. We have the mother-daughter story of Caroline and Daisy, the father-daughter story of Daisy-Jack, Jack's wishful pursuit of Caroline, and Daisy's first love with Will.The book ends with a cliffhanger. I hope the story continues in the next book. I am looking forward to the upcoming third book in this trilogy, Moonlight on Butternut Lake. I recommend this book highly for fans of women's fiction.
review 2: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.Butternut Summer is a book about family, love and forgiveness. It's about woman trying to do the best that she can, a man trying to fix his past mistakes, a young woman falling in love and a young man giving himself a chance for a better future.I loved how the book brings into focus a serious issue like alcoholism and how it's brought up like the disease that it really is, instead of just some personality defect. Since the very beginning, Jack earns up to the mistakes he made and doesn't make any excuses for them, which was really important to his becoming a likable character, instead of just the bad guy who left his wife and daughter 18 years earlier. He comes back to "the scene of the crime" willing to show to his ex-wife, Caroline, that he's changed. He never expects anything in return, but he hopes and works really hard towards it.Caroline is single mother who worked really hard her entire life to provide for her daughter, Daisy, and to be self-sufficient. All of a sudden she sees her world turned up side down when her ex husband comes back to town, her very responsible, good girl, daughter gets herself a bad boy for a boyfriend, all the while risking losing the family business she's worked at her entire life, which also happens to be her home, and Daisy's home, too, when she's not at college. It's very hard for Caroline to accept her daughter's relationship, mostly because Daisy's situation deep down reminds her of her own when she was her age, so she's afraid the girl will make the same mistakes as she did with Jack. When it comes to Jack, she's very reluctant to give him the time of the day, let alone a second change. McNear treats this subject very realistically, which was very refreshing for me as a reader.For Daisy's part, she's attracted to Will right away. She remembers him from high school, a time where he smoked, cut classes and didn't give a care about anything. Daisy's and Will's paths never crossed then, since Daisy was a top student and an athlete. When she runs into him again, though, she sees something in him and can't bring herself to stop wondering about Will. I thought it was very important that he wasn't a "bad boy" anymore and that's why Daisy was attracted to him, but someone doing his best with what he's got, very much like Daisy's mom. Will has never taken anything seriously in his life until Daisy comes into his life. He starts reconsidering everything he's ever expected of life and of himself, and because of how he feels about her, he starts working towards building something more for his life. That gives readers a very hopeful message, that even though you were given a bad hand in life, it doesn't mean you can turn things around for yourself. Butternut Summer is an easy read that makes you think about life and second changes. I would recommend it to an older audience, however, than young and new adults, just because I believe that more experienced people would be able to appreciate the story more than young readers. less

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