The Summer That Made Us: A Novel Paperback – September 5, 2017

The Berkey women are a mess. Charley is a 44 year old talk show host who has just lost her job and whose significant other of 22 years and the father of her child has just proposed. Charley’s sister Meg has breast cancer but wants to spend the summer at their family lake house, a place no one has visited for decades. Charley has to ask her estranged mother Lou if the girls can use it for the summer.Dysfunction is a key word with almost every character in this book. Hope lives in a false world,Krista has been in prison for 23 years, Lou and her sister Jo haven’t communicated in eons, even though they were inseparable until the summer that caused their world to spin out of control. There is a mystery attached to the lake house and whatever caused the rift between Jo and Lou; and this might just be a way to solve the age old questions and pull the women together.

This is the first book that I've read by Robyn Carr. In the beginning I was concerned that it would turn out to be a soppy romance with cardboard characters, but I was wrong. It is about a dysfunctional family of three generations although we learn about some characters and events primarily through memories and discussions of the past. The book is narrated by eight family members. That works well and the changes flowed seamlessly at least for me.We learn in the beginning that two sisters had married two brothers and that the sisters Jo and Lou spent the summers at the family lake house with their daughters (three each) decades ago. However an accidental drowning triggered emotional turmoil and split the family apart.In the current time, one of the girls, now grown up, has metastatic breast cancer and tries to reunite the family at the lake house. I felt like I really got to know each of the eight main characters. There is a twist, but I guessed it long before it was revealed. Nonetheless it didn't spoil the book for me.I'll read more of Robyn Carr's books.

I mostly listened to this book, and as usual Ms Plummer did an outstanding job. This is a family saga that keeps a person riveted throughout. The story concentrates on two sisters, Louise and Josephine, and their 5 daughters. Years before the start of the book, they used to holiday together every summer at a family owned house on the lake. The last summer they'd been there (over 30 years before) had resulted in a number of things going wrong and Lou and Jo ended up feuding and not having much of a relationship after that. One of Lou's daughters, Megan, has end stage cancer and decides she wants to get everyone up to the lake house for one last summer together. It seems fairly impossible that everyone would be able to make it or care to make it. The reader becomes enmeshed in all of these characters lives and wanting desperately for everything to work out. I loved all of the characters and each of the woman have interesting background stories. Get the tissues ready.

Sentimental, but interesting story of a family, with all its character, problems, pain and love. What captured my interest most was the exceptional reality of all the characters in this story. The love and bonds were clear, as were the range of situations each of them had experienced before they returned to each other for this one summer apart from their daily lives. Every person was identifiable as a person I knew or might have mown..not al would be friends, but none were unsympathetic enough that I disliked her. I found the men who were part of this summer to be equally well defined and sympathetic.The story is written in the present tense, but a lot is remembering or learning about a past that effected each of them. As usual,Robyn Carr has given us insight to people and situations that were twisted and painful, but in the end, Robyn brought her readers back to understanding, love, and support for each other.

Wow! What a group of characters! Robyn Carr weaves the stories of the 6 cousins, their mothers, and there grandmother in a way that makes it hard to put this book down. I definitely felt like I knew each of these women, but Krista was my favorite. She had a horrible life but stayed optimistic and kind. Her common sense helped all the sisters and cousins step back and look at all the good things they had in their lives. Just a wonderful book!

A family comes back together to try and amend bad feelings and disagreements that broke them apart as the result of the death of one of their own. Opening up the old summer home where they can come back to relive the past happinesses, seems to be the best idea. With Charley running from relationship issues, Meg trying to rest from her recent cancer treatments, Krista being released from prison, and sisters Louise and Jo trying to become close sisters again, this house is where they all come together. This is a great family story, so real and honest. Love the Virgin River series but these family stories by Robyn Carr are wonderful books as well!

As always, Robyn Carr delivers a layered story of family and home. This time the setting is a lakehouse where sisters and cousins gather after not having seen each other in a while. Their childhood was filled with delightful memories of summers spent at the house, but one tragic summer changed everything, driving a wedge between sisters and sending thel cousins on hard life journeys. They return one summer to spend time with one of the sisters who is ill and find that they must deal with their pasts in order to claim a happy existence. A perfect book for summer.

This was a story that made me think about relationships. How we can get angry or hold a grudge against someone we truly love. It takes something to wake us up, like knowing that someone we love is dying. Life is too short to hold a grudge. A story that made me think about people, love, forgiveness, and accepting what we can do to fulfill our hopes and dreams. Loved the characters!

A story of a dysfunctional divided and unhappy family. Torn apart by miscommunication and assumptions. Heartbreaking and heartwarming.Loved it

What a brilliant book to read. Anyone with sisters and grew up with their cousins had to read it. It’s very moving and about how family can all go their own way but when a crisis or someone becomes ill can all pool together again. It’s got everything in it. xx

Easy read that held my interest

Great story and characters , loved it and recommended for sure. Made me wish I had a lake house to share with family .

I enjoyed reading this novel.