Dorothea Benton Frank novels are filled with smart and witty fiction that every reader wants on their bookshelf: soulful, edgy stories about realistic characters familiar to us all that explore the most deeply felt moments of life with wry humor and heart.All Summer Long follows one charming New York couple – prominent interior designer Olivia Ritchie and her husband Nicholas Seymour, an English … Nicholas Seymour, an English professor and true southern gentleman. They are seemingly polar opposites, yet magnetically drawn together and in love for more than fourteen years.
As they prepare to relocate to Charleston, S.C., Olivia, the ultimate New Yorker, has reservations about the promise she made to retire in the Lowcountry, where Nick wants to return home and lead a more peaceful life. They are moving north to south, fast pace versus slow pace and downsizing. Nick is ecstatic. Olivia is not. She can’t let Nick know that their finances are not what he thought. Her client list is evaporating, their monetary reserves are dwindling and maybe that house she picked out on Sullivans Island needs too much work. Thank God, for her assistant, Roni Larini, her right (and sometimes left) hand.
As they find themselves pondering the next step of their lives, Olivia and Nick travel with her billionaire clients and their friends and are swept up into the world of the ultra-rich and explore the globe with a cast of zany eccentrics over one tumultuous, hot summer. All as Olivia grapples with what lies ahead for her and Nick.
This is a story of how plans evolve and lives change in unexpected ways, how even those who have everything are still looking for something more. Even the most successful people can often struggle to keep things together. All Summer Long asks the ultimate question: can money buy happiness? From Sullivans Island to Necker Island to Nantucket to the beaches of Southern Spain, we’ll come to recognize the many faces of true love, love that deepens and endures but only because one woman makes a tremendous leap of faith. And that leap changes everything.
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All of Dot Frank’s novels are exceptional , filled with wonderful characters that come to life on the page. She may be my favorite Southern author!
I have read every one of her books. A great Southern writer who will be greatly missed
I picked up this book for a reading challenge. I didn’t know anything about the author or her style, and I honestly didn’t read the book blurb, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Now that I’m done with the book, I’m still working the story through my head.
The story sort of rambles around a bit. There’s a lot of bouncing around in the characters’ heads. For a while, I wasn’t sure what the plot was about: the designer or her client. Despite all of that, I kept going (I listened to the audiobook). It was kind of all over the place, but I ended up enjoying it (though I did NOT like the last chapter — I’m not sure why that was necessary).
I usually say, “if you like this author, you’ll like this book,” but I really don’t know who to compare this too. It’s a bit Susan Mallery, a bit Jan Karon, a bit Jill Mansell.
*Rated PG-13 for language and some implied (but not shown) situations.
All Summer Long is a character driven novel. While the author does use a major life change in her main characters’ lives as an overall plot arc, the feels more about people and relationships.
Readers meet Olivia and Nick as they are moving out of their expensive apartment in NYC and renovating a not-so-small country house in the Low Country where Nick grew up. This huge transition creates a lot of tension and strife in Olivia that later translates to relationship issues such as trust and communication.
Author Dorothea Benton Frank uses Olivia and Nick’s wealthy friends and their dysfunctional lives as a way to further explore relationships. Each couple has their own issues, and Olivia and Nick juxtapose to Bob and Maritza (and their entourage) seem the normal, happy couple even though their marital issues seem to be at the center of the story.
There are a few plot points that are far-fetched, but overall, All Summer Long is a pleasant, leisurely-paced book. It’s filled with vivid descriptions that pull the reader into life in both the city and the country. There are strong underlying messages of “money doesn’t buy happiness” and the power of a trust and love in a marriage.
The audiobook is excellently narrated by Bernadette Dunne.
3.5 stars
This was not one of my favorite books by Dorothea Benton Frank. While I really liked Olivia and Nick, some of the other characters were rude, disrespectful, conniving, greedy, and just not nice people.
I, however, loved the few twists at the end as well as how at least one character realized that they had to change and become a better person.
A little slow getting into it at first. Then it started moving along and was enjoyable and easy read. Great for a relaxing beach read.
Worth reading
Loved this book…funny, chamrinf, great story!!
Really enjoyed this book about change and the struggles to make those changes. It was well-written…few errors.