NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A Nantucket woman returns home to find that reunions aren’t always simple, in this heartwarming novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Nantucket Wedding and Secrets in Summer. “Fans of Elin Hilderbrand . . . should add Surfside Sisters to their beach bag.”—BooklistKeely Green always dreamed of leaving the beautiful shores of Nantucket to become a writer. … Green always dreamed of leaving the beautiful shores of Nantucket to become a writer. Now she’s a bestselling novelist living in New York City, attending glamorous cocktail parties and mingling with the literary elite. Keely is also dating a charming, perfectly fine pediatric surgeon who looks good on paper but isn’t “the one.” She just can’t bear to break it off—until he declares his desire to settle down. Then Keely’s editor rejects her latest novel. With her personal and professional lives suddenly in shambles, Keely longs for the soothing island way of life.
Growing up, Keely and her best friend, Isabelle, were inseparable. Nothing could come between them—except, as it turned out, Keely’s high school boyfriend, Tommy. Returning home would mean facing Isabelle’s bitter betrayal and seeing for herself the family Tommy and Isabelle have created, the life that might have been Keely’s.
But when Keely’s mother falls into a deep depression, Keely knows what she must do, even though she is reluctant to face her estranged friend. And encountering Isabelle’s older brother, Sebastian—Keely’s longtime crush—only complicates things.
In one incredible summer, Keely must confront the mistakes of the past if she has any chance of finding true happiness in the place she will always call home. Nancy Thayer shines yet again in this uplifting tale of forgiveness and self-discovery.
Praise for Surfside Sisters
“Readers who appreciate a busy, uplifting tale of friendship and romance will enjoy spending time on Thayer’s Nantucket.”—Publishers Weekly
“An engaging tale about how childhood expectations can be transformed on the journey through adulthood.”—Kirkus Reviews
more
When you throw Nantucket into the story, it just has to be good! Loved this storyline and was actually hoping Keely ended up with someone else. The story is about Keely who didn’t have a lot of money growing up but had lots of, love for her parents and her best friend, Isabelle, who came from lots of money but not as much love. They are best friends all through high school and both want to be writers, Life happens to both and they end up not talking (jealousy rears it’s ugly head in both girls) but end back on the island with their broken friendship and sadness. Another fantastic read by Nancy Thayer!
Keely Green is a published author living in New York. New York couldn’t be more different from the Nantucket Shores she has grown up on.
Growing up, Keely and her best friend Isabelle, dreamed of becoming writers. They were fascinated with words and how to arrange them into something beautiful. Keely and Isabelle were as close as sisters. Keely has always had a childhood crush on Isabelle’s older brother Sebastian. She swore she would never confess her love for him to Isabelle. While Isabelle’s family took vacations all over the world, Keely was at home writing and working. Her family was not as privileged as the Maxwell’s and Keely always felt envious of the life Isabelle lived. Soon, after the two went off to college they began to drift apart from each other. After a terrible even, Keely returns home to help her mother but she also finds Tommy, the man that her best friend has been in love with and obsessed with since high school, has also returned. Isabelle has moved on to another man and Keely finds herself getting closer to Tommy. After a bitter betrayal, Keely flee’s to New York to escape Isabelle and Tommy to write her second novel. Finally moving on and dating a handsome doctor, Keely finds herself attending glamorous parties and benefits. Struggling to write her third novel, she gets a call from back home about her mother’s downward spiral. She knows that she must return to help her mother. Returning to her roots may be the answer to her writing problems. Returning to Nantucket, she runs into Sebastian, her childhood love and Isabelle’s older brother. A long time ago he showed interest in her and then went off to college and lost connection. Could things actually work out now that they are both in the same place for once?
Surfside Sisters explores friendship, love, and what it means to forgive.
I honestly could not put this book down! Nancy takes you through the childhood of Keely to her adult life. I felt all the emotions of Keely’s frustrations, sadness, loss, and love. I was rooting for her the whole time and Thayer painted such a beautiful picture of what it’s like having a childhood on the Nantucket shores! This is a perfect summer beach read!! I seriously loved every moment of this book! Thank you so much NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for giving me an advanced copy to complete devour!
Nancy Thayer has joined the cast of my MUST read authors for summer. She joins Mary Alice Monroe, Elin Hildebrand, and Dorothea Benton Frank. It doesn’t feel like summer until I read these authors. Thayer has written another hit. I found myself ignoring everything around me as I read. The heartache Keely felt many times throughout the book tugged at my heartstrings and I wanted to jump into the book and try to fix it for her.
The descriptions of Nantucket make the reader feel as if they are there playing in ocean waves, eating yummy food in the summer sunshine and listening to families excitement on vacation. You will be wishing you could hop on the next flight out.
If you haven’t read Nancy Thayer then start with Surfside Sisters. You will thank me when you are finished.
I received a complimentary copy from Random House Publishing – Ballantine through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.
I really wanted to like “Surfside Sisters” by Nancy Thayer, but most of the characters not only weren’t likeable, in a lot of cases I found them to be incredibly annoying and juvenile. I also found myself rolling my eyes at the book’s ending. (That in and of itself made me reduce my rating from 3 stars to 2.) However, I did find myself wanting to keep turning the pages, hoping that something would happen to make Keely, the main character, wake up and choose a better path for herself. Unfortunately, that never happened.
There were so many things that frustrated me about this book. First, we only got Keely’s side of the story, and frankly she came across as kind of whiny and pathetic a lot of the time. She was so desperate to be accepted by the Maxwell family that she put up with – even encouraged! – what seemed like very poor treatment from both Isabelle and Sebastian. That said, my perception of events might have been different if we had heard Isabelle’s side of the story too.
From Keely’s perspective, Isabelle came across as an incredibly selfish, entitled person who was never truly a friend to Keely, and yet, no matter what, Keely still wanted to be her friend to the end. There were a few times I wanted to reach into the book and slap Keely for not recognizing that their “friendship” had become toxic and it was time to move on. It’s not like Keely didn’t have any friends besides Isabelle! Why she kept clinging to Isabelle and the rest of the Maxwells was puzzling to me because they really didn’t seem that great. Keely didn’t seem to appreciate how great her own parents were, either. So what if the Greens didn’t have as big of a house as the Maxwells, or if they never had any pets because her parents were allergic? Those were such stupidly petty things to complain about that, again, I wanted to slap Keely for complaining about them.
As for Sebastian, he seemed to keep Keely dangling on a string for years and she just kept coming back for more. Except for one time when he was a freshman in college, he never went out of his way to contact her. Basically, unless she was standing right in front of him, it didn’t seem like he even thought about her, despite his protestations to the contrary. Sebastian only decided to pursue a romantic relationship with Keely when it was finally convenient for him, after he broke up with his Swedish girlfriend and moved back to the island full-time. That was fine with Keely, apparently, since she was still so desperate to be a part of the “wonderful” Maxwell family.
Then there was the Keely-Tommy-Isabelle love triangle. What a ridiculous saga that was! I couldn’t figure out why Keely even wanted Tommy in the first place – maybe just because Isabelle wanted him and had him first? How much could Keely really have wanted to be friends with Isabelle by that point anyway if her idea of “friendship” allowed her to start dating her supposed BFF’s ex the day after they broke up? I’m not saying that what Isabelle and Tommy did was right, but Keely’s behavior wasn’t exactly perfect either.
There were plenty of other things that annoyed me about this book, but this review is already way too long. Bottom line: I was really disappointed with “Surfside Sisters,” though the writing itself was decent and I was interested enough in what would happen next to keep reading to the end. I would give another one of Nancy Thayer’s books a shot in the future. Hopefully the characters and storyline will be less frustrating!
*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Keely and Isabelle have been friends forever. Even as young children, they both loved words and wanted to be writers. As adults, things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes, life just gets in the way.
This story follows Keely as she faces disappointments and sorrows. We watch as she grows as a person and the reader will love her even more as she matures. We are buoyed with happiness when her wishes are granted. You want to pull her in for a hug when she is lonely.
This is a fun beach read. It will make you laugh; make you cry and offer plenty of times to reminisce. The characters of Keely and Isabelle are displayed in all their glory and flaws. Keely is developed extensively as she matures and life deals her good and bad cards. I would have liked Tommy and Sebastian to have been painted a bit more thoroughly, but it doesn’t distract from the story, as such.
This is the book you want to grab with your towel and sunscreen. Nancy Thayer has another hit on her hand.
I received an ARC from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book.
A heart-breaking tale of best friends pursuing very different dreams! I had a little bit of a rough time getting into this book, as it takes the entire first half to set up the backstory. Keely Green represents a lot of readers, at least in my heart, so to watch her suffer heartbreak, loss and betrayal was brutal. Her best friend Isabelle leaves a lot to be desired in my book, most of the time I wanted to throttle her. Sebastian, the life-long crush, yet unattainable brother of her best friend, will have you wanting to know what his story is. Once the story was brought to the present-time, I couldn’t put it down. A great summertime read, but have the tissues ready!
This was a delightful beach read – the ups and downs of friendship, being there for family, hopes and dreams. I enjoyed the story and the characters, although some weren’t always real likable. However, overall it was a good story, an easy read, and one I would recommend.
Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer
Starts with listing of author’s other works which I’ve read many.
Dedication table of contents and acknowledgements are listed.
Starts with Keely and Isabelle and we hear all about the antics she and others when they were younger did on the island: Nantucket.
All the girls want to be Isabelle’s friend because they are in love with her brother.
As the years go by the girls have gone their different ways but still talking to one another-through fights and getting back together.
Keely’s father dies and they go to Isabelle’s dad for the will reading. This is a sad time for me and I had to stop reading for a bit as my father died also-same circumstances and I almost lost my own spouse…
Keely is there for her mother…the finances left behind are dismal….. She wants to move back to the island and get a job, quit school and refinance to get a lower payment….
Really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more.
Twists and turns and unpredictable. About the author and her other works are included at the end. Amazing how it all comes out in the end.
Received this review copy from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Ballantine Books via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
#SurfsideSisters #NetGalley
I thought it started out kind of slow. It took me a while to really get into it but found that Ms. Thayer was just taking the time to completely build all the characters. It takes time to get through all those years. There were years of angst suffered by everyone. I loved it that Keely got everything she wanted and everyone got the HEA they were seeking.
Young women should all read this so they learn to NEVER give up on their dream no matter what obstacles have been placed in front of them. A good learning experience was had by all…….
This book was gifted to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Surfside Sisters: A Novel by Nancy Thayer
July 2, 2019
Ballantine Books
Fiction, romance, beach read
Rating: 4/5
I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and Ballantine Books in exchange for an unbiased review.
This is a touching story of two friends from different backgrounds who shared a dream of becoming writers. The story explores how relationships can change over time. Some grow closer while others grow apart. In the end, everyone experiences life with happiness and hardships.
Keely Green and Isabelle Maxwell we’re best friends growing up on Nantucket. The two were inseparable with Keely feeling like part of the Maxwell family. Keely was raised in a modest home with a father who worked as a mechanic and a mother who worked as a nurse. Isabelle and her brother Sebastian grew up in a grand home afforded by Al Maxwell who was a well-known lawyer.
As the years pass, the friends begin to grow apart and Keely moves to New York when she eventually publishes her first book. She is disappointed when her best friend doesn’t share her enthusiasm. Things always seemed to come easy for Isabelle and didn’t seem to appreciate the effort it took for Keely. Some resentment arises between the two which almost seems insurmountable.
Aside from working on their writing, Isabelle becomes distracted when she develops a relationship with a high school crush. Keely is both jealous and disappointed to “lose” her friend. She focuses on her writing career and immerses herself in her NYC life. Although she is living the life she dreamed, she still feels a pull back to Nantucket, the inspiration for her writing. After returning home for visit, Keely is confronted with unresolved issues from the past including Isabelle. Can they resolve the hurt feelings and misunderstandings? Will they be able to untangle the emotional bagage?
This was my first book by Nancy Thayer. I have another on my bookshelf and now I am dying to get to it!
Surfside Sisters was one of those books that is just a step or two above your average read. Thayer has done an incredible job of insinuating the reader into the lives of the two girls that started out as close as sisters and faced some incredibly difficult issues in their friendship as they aged. There were several difficult issues (love problems, parental death, parental illness, envy…) dealt with within the story that just added incredible layer after incredible layer to the story. Surfside Sisters was just a superb read!
I was given a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.
Keely and Isabelle, friends since elementary school have both only ever wanted to be authors. Only one realizes her dream. But sometimes realizing what you want most, can bring heartache and bitterness.
Nancy Thayer has written a heartwarming novel of success, betrayal and forgiveness. A wonderful read for the beach or anytime. I received an ARC from Netgalley for my honest opinion.
What an amazing summer read! As always, Nancy Thayer did not disappoint. Best selling writer Keely Green left Nantucket for the Big Apple. She’s living the life in New York City when things all come crashing down around her. Keely heads home for the summer and must confront her past. This a sweet story about the ups and downs of friendships and self discovery. I highly recommend adding it to your summer reading list!
5 stars plus. Nancy Thayer’s Surfside Sisters is a wonderful work of contemporary fiction. Lara and Isabelle live in Nantucket and want to be writers when they grow up. There are obstacles to overcome and sometimes even jealousy gets in the way of their friendship and careers. Will their friendship stand the test of time? Enjoyable read just in time for summer. I would definitely recommend it.