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Summer Breeze
by
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 ...more
Morgan O’Keefe feels trapped in a gilded cage. True, the thirty-year-old mother ...more
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Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
June 5th 2012
by Ballantine Books
(first published January 1st 2012)
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This was a nice little summer read. Something light and airy! A nice breeze (lol forgive the pun). Natalie, Bella, and Morgan- three women who happen to live next to one another on Dragonfly Lake will find out friendship is what they really need to help with their lives. Each woman is searching for meaning in their life and what they want to do with their lives and through friendship and one another they find that. Would recommend!
I keep trying to read nancy Thayer, mostly because I live where most of her stories are set. I need to stop trying because, well, at 44, I am easily a decade too young for her style of writing. She writes middle aged fiction, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. BUT, my big issue with her is that she writes middle aged fiction with young characters who speak and act like middle aged women. No young person says "gosh." And yet, her characters say "gosh" every five minutes. This book a
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Looking for an entertaining, grabbing beach read? Keep looking. This one won't be it.
Nancy Thayer has many other books, such as Beachcombers, Summer House, any of them really. This one missed the mark, greatly.
I felt a total disconnect immediately. Such a rush cast of characters at the beginning, with absolutely NO depth whatsoever. When the 3 become friends so quickly after one evening of drinks, I said what. What is that! The conversations are terrible. I detested every character. I can't tell ...more
Nancy Thayer has many other books, such as Beachcombers, Summer House, any of them really. This one missed the mark, greatly.
I felt a total disconnect immediately. Such a rush cast of characters at the beginning, with absolutely NO depth whatsoever. When the 3 become friends so quickly after one evening of drinks, I said what. What is that! The conversations are terrible. I detested every character. I can't tell ...more
I didn't dislike "Summer Breeze" as much as many other reviewers did, but it was not up to par for Nancy Thayer. Thayer has been around a very long time. I was reading her richly woven novels in the early 1980's, and some had been written long before then. She seems to be "dumbing herself down" of late. Perhaps she is trying to appeal to a different audience, one that is looking for a quick read, a good story, without any literary worth. Having said that, I enjoyed the STORY in this book, about
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Oh please. I guess I'm just not used to this genre, mainly because I tend to stay away from it, and reading this one just makes me want to say why did I bother in the first place? Like shooting myself in the foot. I'm sorry, I just don't enjoy books where everyone is ravishing, everyone's body is perfection, their deep blue eyes this and their shiny perfect hair that, and every droplet of water from an oar is like a gemstone glistening in the ...... gag me.
Call me a realist? Maybe? But life just ...more
Call me a realist? Maybe? But life just ...more
I'm a big Nancy Thayer fan and was anxiously awaiting her latest novel. I'm sorry to say I was disappointed with "Summer Breeze". I think part of the problem was that she tried to give a voice to too many characters, instead of focusing on them one at a time. I didn't buy the instant friendship the girls found and the instant romances. I agree with another reviewer that it lacked excitement. I was also disappointed that the novel wasn't set in Nantucket as I've come to enjoy her descriptions o ...more
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Aug 07, 2020
Chele
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
genre-chic-lit-womens-fiction
My copy of this story can be found in this anthology: Summer Beach Reads 5-Book Bundle: Beachcombers, Heat Wave, Moon Shell Beach, Summer House, Summer Breeze
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This was a First Reads Giveaway Win
At first I thought this was going to be your typical contemporary romance / summer read/ chic lit book. The deeper into the story I got the more I found in Summer Breeze that exceeded my expectations. While the book focuses on these three different women, all new friends at different points in their lives, we also read about the women who raised them. While you definitely get the feel that Natalie, Bella and Morgan are fast and lasting friends, I loved how real ...more
At first I thought this was going to be your typical contemporary romance / summer read/ chic lit book. The deeper into the story I got the more I found in Summer Breeze that exceeded my expectations. While the book focuses on these three different women, all new friends at different points in their lives, we also read about the women who raised them. While you definitely get the feel that Natalie, Bella and Morgan are fast and lasting friends, I loved how real ...more
What a total disappointment from an author I've enjoyed before. Thayer used the same adjectives over and over...I swear if I read "lush" one more time I would have gagged. So many little details that added nothing to the story as well. I really don't care who showered and who sat next to whom. I found myself rolling my eyes over all the biohazard info. I mean really...no one talks like these characters do. Especially about biohazard and chemical engineering. The plot was way too trite, the chara
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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.
I was so excited to find a Nancy Thayer book I had not read. Unfortunately - it was not good. If I had to read one more thing about science, scientists, waste management, I would have screamed. Who walks around in everyday life spouting off about that stuff? I don't hang out with my friends and keep telling them how smart I am! Very disappointed. I don't know if I dislike the women or the men more.
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"Summer Breeze" tells the story of three women whose lives intersect at Dragonfly Lake. They become fast friends, more quickly than seemed believable to me given how differently they are portrayed. This novel would be classified as a beach read but I didn't find it juicy enough to be the type of beach read that would hold my interest. The only character I somewhat enjoyed reading about was Natalie and her journey both as an aspiring artist and in finding love.
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I just didn't fall in love with these characters. It was a nice read. Read it in two days. ...more
I love the cover. I liked the lake setting. I didn't like the characters. They were bland. The story was boring, and the ending was disappointing. I was hoping for something completely different.
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Blah... Boring. DNF.
2.5 stars
A fun read perfect for curling up and escaping.
It’s really hard for me to give a book 3 stars (usually 4 or 5) While I really liked the characters, this book was suuuuuuuuuper cheesy. And like I said- if I think it’s cheesy, that’s saying something.
Entertaining! A lot of “who’s going to end up with who” going on. Likable characters, fast read.
good summer vacay read
and they all lived happily ever after!!!ugh
Welcome to Summer at Dragonfly Lake.
Bella Barnaby has come home to help her mom out. She has broken her leg and needs Bella's help to run her little store Barnaby's Barn. While there she starts to imagine a different course for both the store and her life.
Natalie Reynolds has dreams of becoming a successful artist but can't succeed in New York working as a waitress and taking classes only when she has the money. She decides to take her aunt up on her offer to house sit at her lakeside home. More ...more
Bella Barnaby has come home to help her mom out. She has broken her leg and needs Bella's help to run her little store Barnaby's Barn. While there she starts to imagine a different course for both the store and her life.
Natalie Reynolds has dreams of becoming a successful artist but can't succeed in New York working as a waitress and taking classes only when she has the money. She decides to take her aunt up on her offer to house sit at her lakeside home. More ...more
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Summer Breeze is a satisfying summer/beach read. This was my first Nancy Thayer book and I welcomed the setting in Dragonfly Lake, just outside the Amherst area, since it is an area I lived in for five years. I loved that I knew first-hand many of the restaurants, shops, and of course, campuses, that were referenced in the story. The story is centered around three women who form a bond with one another over one summer. All three women seem to be lacking in confidence in at least one aspect of th
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Three women spending the summer on the shores of a New England lake meet at a barbecue and form a tentative friendship. Morgan, a young mother, is desperately missing her job as a scientist and trying to cope with her husband's all-consuming new job and the showplace home it requires them to keep up. Natalie has fled New York's hectic pace to house-sit for her aunt and use the time to try to finally establish herself as an artist. Bella isn't sure exactly what she should be doing, but she loves
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Enjoyable summer read about three women at crossroads in their lives. Bella is in love with Aaron but not sure she wants to live on the other side of the country, far from her family. Morgan's husband works long hours and Morgan misses work and they way she and her husband used to be before he took such a demanding job, she had a baby and gave up her job. Natalie is staying in her aunt's house on the lake, next door to Morgan and Bella; she is trying to make it as an artist. Their lives intertwi
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Awesome beach read! Different people all end up on DragonFly Lake for the summer. Morgan who agreed to quit working to raise her young son, Natalie who escaped from NYC, Bella & Aaron who are newly in love and Ben who is a scientist who doesn't have time for a normal life. All very different but what kept me reading was the anticipation of a possible tangled web. I had a feeling all these relationships would intertwine and cause drama so I was excited. Although a little unrealistic I still enjoy
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"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 e
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Nancy Thayer has a B.A. and M.A. in English literature from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Before settling down to write and have children she taught English at various colleges and traveled, living in Paris, Amsterdam, and Helsinki. In 1981 she was a Fellow at the Breadloaf Writers Conference. She has lived on Nantucket Island year-round for 25 years with her husband Charley Walters.
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