The Edge of Summer by Viola Shipman ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

"You don't know where you're goin, if you don't know from where you came."  (loc 335)

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

July 2022; Graydon House; 978-1525804816
audio, ebook, print (368 pages); women's fiction

Viola Shipman has only been publishing novels for 6 years.  I read his first book because it was set in Michigan on the Lake Michigan shoreline but soon found out that not only was it a great setting but it was also a fantastic book.  Since then, I've read every book that he's written and have loved them all.  He always writes believable characters in beautiful settings and his plots always make it difficult to put the book down before the end.  He's now been added to my list of authors that are auto-buys.  I don't need to know what the book is about before I pre-order it.

Sutton grew up with her mom in the Ozarks.  It was always just the two of them because her mom always told her that her family all died in a fire.  The older Sutton got, the more she wanted to know who her family was but her mother never said a word about them.  When she dies, she leaves a letter to Sutton and after reading it, she decides that the answer to her questions about family may be found in Michigan at a resort town named Douglas near Saugatuck on the Lake Michigan shoreline.  Her mom had always had button boxes in the house and Sutton spent a lot of time organizing them and making necklaces when she was growing up.  She rented a small cottage in Douglas and started to ask questions about her mom.  When she goes to an estate sale near her rented cottage, she buys a collection of buttons from Bonnie, the owner of the huge house near hers.  She and Bonnie begin to spend some time together and Sutton begins to wonder if Bonnie might be her grandmother.  After she finds out that her mother grew up in  Douglas, she begins to ask Bonnie and some of the old-timers in town about her mother.  The more she learns about her mother and her mother's family, the more questions she has.  Will Sutton ever find out about her family or are the secrets buried too deep in this small resort town?  Once she finds out will she go back to Chicago, the Ozarks or will she stay in Michigan?

This is a great story about family - known and unknown, friends, love, and secrets and how they can affect people in later generations.  It's not only a story about finding a family with blood ties -  you can also create a family consisting of people you love and spend time with.  

Pack a bag and take a trip to one of the loveliest places in the world -- the Lake Michigan shoreline.  I'm headed there in September and can't wait to see the lake again.  If you can't make the trip, pick up a Viola Shipmen book and take a mental vacation.

Buy The Edge of Summer at  Amazon

Other Books by Viola Shipman

The Charm Bracelet  (2016)

The Hope Chest  (2017)

The Recipe Box  (2018)

The Summer Cottage  (2019)

The Clover Girls  (2020)

The Heirloom Garden  (2021)

The Secret of Snow  (2021)

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is two hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.  You can connect with her on Facebook.

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