Summer Longing
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
When a baby is left on the doorstep of a Cape Cod beach house, an unlikely group of women risks all they hold dear to harbor and protect her in this "touching, nuanced summer yarn" (Publisher's Weekly).
Ruth Cooperman arrives in beautiful beachside Provincetown for her retirement, renting the perfect waterfront cottage while she searches for her forever home. After years of hard work and making peace with life's compromises, Ruth is looking forward to a carefree summer of solitude. But when she finds a baby girl abandoned on her doorstep, Ruth turns to her new neighbors for help and is drawn into the drama of the close-knit community.
The appearance of the mystery baby has an emotional ripple effect through the women in town, including Amelia Cabral, the matriarch who lost her own child decades earlier; Elise Douglas, owner of the tea shop who gave up her dream of becoming a mother; and teenage local Jaci Barros who feels trapped by her parents' expectations. Ruth, caring for a baby for the first time in thirty years, even reaches out to her own estranged daughter, Olivia, summoning her to Provincetown in hopes of a reconciliation.
As summer unfolds and friends and family care for the infant, alliances are made, relationships are tested, and secrets are uncovered. But the unconditional love for a child in need just might bring Ruth and the women of Provincetown exactly what they have been longing for themselves.
With heartfelt storytelling, Summer Longing is Jamie Brenner's eagerly anticipated return to Provincetown; another unforgettable tale about motherhood, friendship, and finding your way home.
"Welcome to the gold standard of summertime escapism."
—Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Summer of '69
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brenner (The Forever Summer) takes readers to a small Cape Cod beach community where an abandoned baby becomes the talk of the town. When newly retired Ruth Cooperman moves to Provincetown, Mass., she is hoping to slow down. Then she finds an abandoned baby on the front porch of her rented beach house. Couple Elise and Fern move back in to the cottage they rented to Ruth to care for the infant rather than call the authorities, and Ruth's quiet retirement becomes even more crowded after her estranged daughter, Olivia, agrees to visit, while Ruth continues her search for a house to buy. As Ruth and her daughter address Olivia's sense of abandonment by her mother, Elise and Fern bond with the baby and dream of making her their own. However, the mystery of the baby's mother lurks in the background, and Ruth's tenuous relationship with her daughter, as well as the connections created as the town comes together to support Elise, Fern, and the baby, will soon be tested. While Brenner gets off to a slow, muddled start, she eventually finds her footing and achieves a satisfying ending. This touching, nuanced summer yarn delivers the goods.
