STORY SUMMARY
June Moore and her sister Melanie grew up going to Camp Holly Springs every summer when they were little girls. It's a special place in Cape Carolina on a beautiful river.
After June faces a terrible personal tragedy, she decides to buy Camp Holly Springs. She turned it into a special haven for girls and for the last 30 years, the camp was thriving. Until the pandemic hit. The pandemic is now over but June is faced with having to possibly sell the camp to a land developer. She has sacrificed everything for this camp and she soon realizes that she has used the camp to avoid some difficulties in her personal, private life.
Daphne, June's niece, met her two very best friends at Camp Holly Springs when she was just six years old. The girls (Daphne, Lanier, and Mary Stuart) are now 30 and they have remained the best of friends. Mary Stuart is about to get married to Ted. Lanier is engaged to Bryce who is one of Daphne's clients. Daphne is a lawyer, Mary Stuart runs a PR firm and Lanier owns and operates a local bookstore.
They have always helped each other with hard things: from the heartbreak of summer romances and loss, to substance abuse issues, to an unplanned pregnancy (Daphne has a 4 year old son Henry). But....Daphne is confronted with a relationship from her past....and a work issue becomes personal...so she is faced with an impossible choice.
Lanier, meanwhile, is torn between the commitment she has made to her fiance and the one she made to her first true love. And when a big secret comes to light, she finds herself in an argument with her best friend....and she risks losing the one person she loves most in the process.
Nothing, however, is more important than Camp Holly Springs so the girls band together to try and save the camp. This adventure sends them on a journey that promises to open new doors in their lives.
MY THOUGHTS
This is a feel good story without being super sappy.
I loved the character development and that the author chose to have each chapter a different girl telling her own perspective in her own voice.
The main themes in this story appear to be: friendship, motherhood, death, single parenting, co-parenting, marriage, divorce, substance/alcohol abuse, betrayal, love, sisterhood, forgiveness.
The book is a beautiful look at how places...and people...shape our lives.
There were a few quotes I really liked from this book and my favorites are here:
"You only know your reality until you're introduced to another one." (pg 60, The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey, c. 2023)
"I had learned that just because you shared blood with someone didn't mean you were family." (pg 183)
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.
1 comment:
The cover picture looks totally like a book you would pick up. :)
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