I waver between 4 and 5 stars on this one, but ultimately choose 5 because the story was wonderful, the character development was splendid and the story is one that is bound to stick with me for a long time. (6 months later I returned to this review and had actually entirely forgotten the story, so i reduced the rating to a 4)

I read a version of this book which was released through epub, and thus there were some formatting and grammatical errors which were somewhat distracting, but the story sti More...

Nora Bridge�was kind of like Dear Abby for the radio and she had a secret. She had an affair several years ago and left her family and now she is giving advice about love and family on the radio. When this comes to light with the public, things are not good at all for her. She tries to escape from the bashing for a while by going to Summer Island with a friend who is dying. However she gets into an accident because she was drinking and slammed into a tree. This forces her estranged daughter to c More...

I had enjoyed the first book that I read by this author Magic Hour, but I think that was mostly due to the subject matter (feral children). This book shared similarities in that it too was about families and children. And also that the family was so unrealistic...
Still, it was an enjoyable and certainly escapist-fast read. I will most likely read more by her - though I doubt I will ever rush out just to get one.
In many ways, this author is reminiscent of Jodi Picoult - though on a more superfici More...

This book was my first time reading anything by Kristin Hannah and this particular book has been sitting on my TBR pile for quite some time. As with some of the descriptions of other books, this book tackles a very complicated mother-daughter relationship that has been further infected by time. We meet Nora Bridge, a popular advice columnist, as her career is going to the toilet. Pictures of her cheating on her former-spouse while they were still married have marred her pristine reputation. Mean More...

My 3 star rating is being generous on my part.

This book was very predictable and cheesy beyond imagination.

The character Ruby totally unbelievable. She goes from one personality to a completely different personality within a few weeks?

The anger and family time lost could have most likely been eliminated if the mother would have written a letter to her daughters and explained in total honesty what happened to both her and her ex. To believe somebody would not do so is pure stupidity.

While mental More...

I didn't have very high expectations for this book. I picked it up in a whim for $2, and it sat on my shelf for a good 4 months. What a wasted time! This book was wonderful. Complex and intellectually stimulating. I felt for Nora and was drawn to her despite her flaws. Ruby and Caro were definitely on opposite ends of the spectrum, but it worked so well. As a daughter and a sister, I could easily relate to pieces of them. You look at their family, their story, and see the good and the bad of you More...

I didn't have this book on my currently reading list. I picked this up last weekend along with another book from this author. I started reading this Wednesday night. Massachusetts is having a heat wave and I do not have air conditioning. I thought this would be a good book to read during the hot, sticky and sleepless nights.

I finished reading this story at 4:45 AM this morning. Some books should come with warning labels so you will know the story between the covers may cause you to feel a variet More...

I listened to this book as an audio book so my experience may be different than other readers'.

The first book I ever read by Hannah was Night Road and I absolutely loved it! There was love, there was suspense, and I remember finishing it thinking, "Yes, here is a writer I can enjoy with Jodi Picoult (whom I love!)".

So when I saw Summer Island at the library, I didn't hesitate to pick it up. I didn't even read the synopsis. Then I listened to the book.

Firstly, the woman who read the book was won More...

Feelings: pain, sadness, joyfulness

I was hooked after the first 50 pages, even the night couldn't stop me. The story made me cry, I gasped for breath as I read some sentences, they touched my heart so deeply. Love and pain. Being loved and missing love. The non-expressed words are so painful, they torn apart and make devastation in hearts. I think my heart has not opened yet entirely, thus I was shocked as I was reading about Bridge family, their story, their feelings, their life were very hear More...

"In a poignant tale of tangled emotions and triumphant redemption, Kristin Hannah highlights the troubled relationship between a mother and her daughter in Summer Island. Forced to learn things about the mother she's hated for years, Ruby Bridge learns some tough lessons about love, forgiveness, and understanding. But it's a lesson that comes at a painfully high cost.

Nora Bridge has built a highly successful career as an advice columnist valued for her frank honesty and high moral standards. She More...

It's rare that I find a fiction author whose books I sit down and devour for no other reason then they are a pure joy to read and whose characters I feel such a connection to. I loved her other books (Firefly Lane and True Colors) and this latest one I picked up from the library on a whim. It did not disappoint. The author is a Pacific NW native so many of the settings in her book are familiar places (in this case, the San Juan Islands). I typically end up crying at some point because the story More...

Nora Bridge had what appeared to be the American dream – a devoted husband, two loving daughters, and a quaint beachhouse on Summer Island. Yet one day she turned her back on them all and vanished into thin air.

A decade later her youngest daughter Ruby finds herself grappling with the heartbreaking legacy of her mother’s selfishness. Stuck in the spin cycle of financial and emotional debt, Ruby is listless, angry and desperate to make a buck. After Nora, ironically a nationally beloved radio ad More...

Very unoriginal storyline. Extremely predictable and stereotypical.

I am a mother and a daughter and if my mother never took the time to write me a letter and explain to me the reality of my younger life and her relationship with my father, I wouldn't want her in my life.

Very selfish from the standpoint that the mental illness may be something I might have problems with and I don't even know my family history of it?

"Mother who harbored terrible family secrets".... I don't think horrible would be More...

This book was okay. I give it three "eh"s. I read it on CD. It was short and sweet, I guess. I liked the first half better than the second half, the story about a woman who learns to love her mother after having to get over past hurt and offering forgiveness. This book was fine, but unremarkable. The writing was not bad, but the dialog seemed unrealistic. I recommend Kristin Hannah for someone looking for a quick read that lifts the spirts and shows that any relationship can be revived, any wron More...

Okay, I am at work, so I'll have to make this review short and to the point.

This is the third Kristin Hannah book I have read, and while the first one was very touching ( True Colors ), the last two including this one, have been so-so.

I begin to think these books are like Lifetime movies. I don't know why I would watch, they aren't particularly any good... and yet, it is easy to let a wasted few hours go by while a movie (book) full of cliches and emotional manipulation bumbles along. Sometimes More...

Summer Island focuses on a mother-daughter relationship that was broken years ago, when Nora (the mother) left the family and became a popular radio talk-show host. The youngest daughter, Ruby (now 28) never forgave her mother, nor cared to find out why Nora abandoned them.

When scandalous photos of Nora and another man are leaked, Ruby, an aspiring standup comedian, is hired to write a tell-all article. She gladly jumps at the opportunity, but things become complicated when Nora gets into a car More...

mother is estranged from her one daughter and kinda talks to the other - the mother is a famous radio personality who give life advice. a secret from the mothers past is made public and she is feeling depressed drinks and then drives only to get into an accident and breaks her legl. both daughters go to the hospital and the one who has spoken to the mother tells the other sister she needs to take care of mom for a week until she can get back on her feet. this daughter thinks it might be a good i More...

This is the first novel I have read by this author and I have to say I LOVED THIS BOOK - THANKS DONNA for the recommendation! What a wonderful story!!

Nora Bridge is a radio talk show host that espouses the morals of a nation. People trust and love her. When pornographic pictures of her are released to the press, her carefully constructed world comes tumbling down around her and she is faced with the skeletons in her closet that have left her estranged from the two daughters she has loved from a More...

Plot

Nora Bridge, aged around 50 years, is an adviser on relationships through "Nora knows best". She is famous and well respected. The world turns upside down, when her old photographs with a man surfaces which are dated back when she was already married to another man and she had left her two daughters. She is thrown off from the cliff of a celebrity to being a hypocrite. Drunk, she meets an accident. Comes in picture, Ruby. A struggling comedian and a daughter who hates her mother because she More...

Nora Bridge has had a troubled life, to put it mildly. All the mistakes she's made in the past has made her a guru at helping others in advice columns. Her fans don't know where her wisdom comes from. An incident in her past comes back to publicly humiliate Nora, and her salvation comes from an unexpected place. Her daughter, Ruby, who hates her.

In a word: Touching. I think even if I wasn't feeling particularly sentimental, this story would have gotten me to cry. It is essentially a story of lo More...

For my book club this month. Nora is a discredited advice columnist (think Dr. Laura with a newspaper column and a radio show) who is estranged from her adult daughters, esp. her younger daughter Ruby, since she left her husband and teenage daughters years ago. Ruby has amazingly never learned the true story of why Nora left and the book is about how the truth transforms her.

I had a hard time getting into this book. The characters were unlikeable, especially at first, and the characterizations w More...

What a beautiful story! The main story is about a mother and daughter who can't love each other because Mom left her two daughters when they were young and forgiveness seems impossible. But of course things change, people change and love changes.

Ruby and her sister can't seem to mesh either. One is wild and free and the other very proper and cool. Their meeting again is fascinating.

The most unforgettable character, for me, was Eric. He and his brother, Dean, are neighbors of Ruby and Caroline. More...

this was a light read, but one that i enjoyed. a mother one day walks out on her family. the two daughters are left with a distraught father. one of them continues a fractured relationship with her mother, nora; the younger daughter, ruby, doesn't speak to her in nine years.

until nora's safe existence as a columnist that doles out advice is shattered. a sex scandal breaks and nora feels her career is over. she drives herself into a tree and has to recoup on the summer island where the family hom More...

It's not really summer yet (although you'd never know it by the temperature here) but I thought it might be time for something light and breezy to read. The story wasn't quite light and breezy - rather an emotional tale with the characters constantly thinking about how they feel - but it was a quick and satisfying read .... right up to the ending, which I thought was just a little too predictable and rather a sort of "sappily-ever-after" kind of thing. I ended up sort of half skimming the last 2 More...

Kristin Hannah's niche is complicated women realtionships, whether it be between life long friends, sisters or mother to daughter, she concentrates on the deep emotions, battles and loves of all kinds of women. In this case the relationship betweem Nora and her estranged daughter is the focus. Nora had left her husband and two daughters when her girls were just teens without barely a good bye and her youngest daughter Ruby has never been able to forgive or forget the fact that her mom abandoned More...

This is a poignant and beautiful story told in downright credible way. That's what I like about Kristin Hannah. She weaves stories of normal people with problems and with emotions that are palpable and with which the reader is able to relate to, in some way of his own. To me, this book was a life-changing read. It changed my attitude to my mom and helped me get into better terms with her.
I love how Kristin conveys the message that love isn't what is between a man and woman always. Love stories c More...

I listened to this book in the car - sometimes depressing, sometimes thought-provoking, Im glad I listened to it. But I think I'm ready for a break from this author.

I hate rating Kristin Hannah's books at 2 stars. But this one was just okay as well. I had a bit higher hopes for this book than the last one I read because it was more recent (although still 11 years old), but it just didn't do it for me. I didn't really like any of the characters, even though I did grow to like them more as the story progressed. It was a nice character development and all of them grew, but I just didn't find the story very original.

I say this because if this was the first of More...

Alright, so these are definitely in the beach-read category (or transfusion room category, if that's where you're needing to pass time ...) But for beach reads, I really think Hannah does a good job with developing characters and relationships. I liked this book a lot--I'd give it a 3.5 if I could. I liked the mother-daughter relationship, and the way that the daughter had to sort of re-visit what went on in her childhood in order to come to terms with that past. I think we're all like that. Thi More...