#MMBBR Review with Guest Post: The Guest Cottage by Nancy Thayer

MY REVIEW:

Another brilliant book from the mind of a master storyteller, Nancy Thayer.  The Guest Cottage has been set in a wonderful location.  I wish I could jump inside the book and escape to Nantucket and walk the shore with my toes in the sand!  In addition to the beautiful and magical setting, Thayer has a way she creates characters that readers can relate to...they could be one of us.  It is the characters and their personal journeys that keep us coming back to the books of the wonderful and talented Thayer.  I instantly feel in love with The Guest Cottage and think that this is one of those books that are perfect for a summer read.  4.5 stars

Hello, again!  I last posted here with my daughter Samantha Wilde, when her novel I’ll Take What She Has and my novel Island Girls came out.  Since then, I’ve published two more novels, and she’s had another child!

                                             

My new novel, just published this May, is The Guest Cottage.  Sophie Anderson, 36, is told by her husband Zack that he wants a divorce.  Alarmed and confused, Sophie uses the money her fabulous aunt left her to rent a house on Nantucket for the summer for herself and her son, Trevor, 15, and her daughter Lacey, 10.

Trevor Black, 30, is worried about his 4-year-old son Leo, ever since Tallulah, Leo’s mommy, died.  Hoping that a change of scenery will help his son recover, Trevor rents a house on Nantucket for the summer.

But oops, they’ve rented the same house, and the two cousins who rented it to them are unreachable, so Sophie and Trevor decide to make the best of it.  After all, it is Nantucket.                                                 

                                                      

Over the summer, Leo’s obsession with Legos creates the Great Wall of China in the kitchen, Sophie meets a gorgeous and wealthy European, and several of Sophie and Trevor’s friends come to visit, especially seductive man-killer Angie and simpering but determined Candace.  Sophie is enormously attracted to Trevor, but he is six years younger.  A marriage between them couldn’t possibly work, could it?

(Hint: my husband is six years younger than I am.  We’ve been married 32 years.)

                                             

This book is one of my most personal and autographical.  I was married at twenty, had two children, and got divorced in my early thirties.  I came to believe, as Trevor says, “Sometimes you have to marry the wrong person to get the right children.”  

I also write about loving mother-in-laws and cold mothers, plus a darling grandfather from Iowa who ends up with. . .well, one of the women.  And of course I write about the beauty of this faraway island, where romance abounds.  Really.  I met my husband here, and in a snap I could name ten women who met their husbands here, in all sorts of ways.  But never mind the men, this island is magical.

                             

When I’m not writing, or playing with my four grandchildren, I post on Facebook, and send out a newsletter.  You can sign up for the newsletter on my website: Nancy Thayer.  Having grandchildren has enriched my life immeasurably—for one thing, I now get to read children’s books again.  They’re the best!

I hope all you Mommy Booknerds have a happy and healthy summer.  Thank you so much for letting me share my world with you.

                                                     

With much love, Nancy