Rating: 
Summary: Good Review from a Guy!
Review: What initially attracted me to the book was the fact that it is based around the San Jaun Islands of Washington -- a place dear to my heart. However, once I began reading I couldn't stop! An insightful book into family relationships and the power of forgiveness to move beyond old memories and patterns of behavior. Very rarely am I moved to tears at films or when I read books, but there were several passages where I found myself tearing up! A great read, and more importantly, a great lesson.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Choice
Review: Received this as a gift, and that's exactly what it was, a GIFT! Kristin Hannah has such insights in to the relationships between mothers and daughters. I simply couldn't put it down.
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Summary: never to old to "grow up"
Review: Family conflicts and resolution of those conflicts with autonomy. Nora, the mom, and her 2 daughters Ruby and Caroline, face the past, present and future to ultimately become stronger, happier and hopeful for their futures. The results create women of experience and deep wisdom. These women written by Kristan Hannah are the type I seek as friends! These are honest people who have awakened to their shortcomings and overcome them directly and completely. A wonderful read!
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Summary: Terrific!
Review: This book is terrific! Of course, I like all of Kristin Hannah's novels since she went the contemporary route. This novel speaks volumes about the relationship between a mother and her daughters, and how as daughters we don't really know our mothers until we are grown. I recommend this to every mother and daughter and sister.
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Summary: I can't wait for the next book!
Review: I really enjoyed Summer Island. It dealt with a mother -daughter relationship in a realistic manner. It also was a book about the power of forgiveness. And how we need to forgive in order to move forward in our life. Also Ms. Hannah's description of the San Juan Islands ( the setting of the book) makes me want to vacation there. Definitely a must read. I couldn't put it down and it many times moved me to tears.
Rating:
Summary: This book deserves ten stars!
Review: SUMMER ISLAND is Kristin Hannah's best book. I'm usually a tough audience for this type of "women's fiction" because I don't like feeling that I'm being manipulated into reaching for the Kleenex, but this book didn't manipulate me; it transported me into the minds and emotions of its characters. I found myself swept away to SUMMER ISLAND where a mother and daughter rediscover each other and the selves they thought they'd lost forever. This is a book about relationships, a book about the unbreakable ties that bind families and friends together, and a book about how short and precious this life really is and how very little time we can afford to waste. Not only is Kristin a consummate storyteller, she is also an exquisite writer who is able to use the simplest of words to capture the most complex of emotions. Ruby and Nora Bridge are characters I won't soon forget and SUMMER ISLAND is a book that definitely deserves to be on all the "Best of..." lists for 2001.
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Summary: K.Hannah keeps getting better and better!
Review: The characters come to life and the emotions are so real. Mending a mother/daughter relationship is a struggle, but with strong conviction and a lot of love it happened. I feel as if I have known Nora and Ruby all my life. The settings and people were so lifelike.
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Summary: Quintessential Kristin Hannah!
Review: Advice-columnist-turned-talk-show-host Nora Bridge is a national celebrity. Her radio show on relationships is one of the most popular in the nation. Over the years listeners have learned to trust her advice as gospel. But everything comes falling down one day when nude photos of Nora taken nearly two decades earlier surface. The fact that Nora posed nude isn't the worse thing - the fact that she was still legally married when she had the affair that produced the photos - is. It makes her fans and longtime listeners feel like Nora is a sham. They feel deceived. They feel she has been giving fraudulent advice all this time. How could she have given such sage advice when she had lived an immoral life herself?Adding to the confusion is the fact that Nora is estranged from her younger daughter, Ruby, a struggling Los Angeles comedienne. Ruby hasn't seen her mother in years, remembers her with hate and distaste, so when the unemployed and nearly penniless young woman is approached to do a tell-all article about her mother for $50,000, she literally jumps at the chance. After all, she has never forgiven her mother for abandoning the family all those years ago. Nevertheless, when her sister Caroline calls to tell her that Nora has been in an automobile accident and asks Ruby to come home, she does. But things aren't all rosy and perfect - far from it. To get away from the press while she recovers, Nora decides to go back to Summer Island, the San Juan island home where she raised her daughters before she felt she had to leave. As Nora cannot care for herself alone, Ruby reluctantly agrees to go along. Adding to the plot are two brothers, Dean and Eric Sloan, whose family also had a place in the San Juans. Eric is in the end stage of terminal cancer and wants to return to his family home to die. Rushing to his side is his brother Dean, with whom he had been estranged. Dean also was the childhood sweetheart of Ruby but they parted as teenagers - neither having ever forgotten the other in the ensuing years. Nobody does relationship stories like Kristin Hannah. Nobody. The depth of the emotion she puts in her books (ON MYSTIC LAKE, ANGEL FALLS) is without equal. Whereas before she has explored relationships between ex-lovers, and between husband and wife, SUMMER ISLAND is the most powerful of any of Hannah's contemporary novels and is a realistic study of the emotional bond between mothers and daughters. There is no sugar-coating here and no easy answers to resolve the conflict between Ruby and Nora, as much as Nora wants things to be good between them again. Instead, Ruby has to grow and see Nora as they are now -- both being adults -- before she can reconcile their differences. There is romance as well as Dean gingerly renews his relationship with Ruby - who's not so sure they can make a go of it. As in many of Hannah's novels, there's a deep poignancy and the story involving Eric and Dean will certainly bring tears to the eyes of even the most stoic reader. Fans of compelling women's fiction by authors such as Barbara Delinsky or Patricia Gaffney will certainly be mesmerized by SUMMER LAKE. There are really two stories going on here - the relationship between Nora and Ruby and the relationship between Dean and Eric - they do intertwine and the stage is set for a very emotional conclusion for which readers will want to have the hankies handy. Hannah's work has been described as "family drama" and SUMMER LAKE is no exception. This is certainly women's fiction at its very best. For anyone who has had a rocky relationship with their mother or daughter, it will be especially meaningful. I can't help but think that just as the fictional Nora Bridge helped others solve their relationship problems, that readers could be helped by empathizing with Ruby and Nora's touching and emotional story which tells us that what we believe to be the truth may not be as black and white as it seemed. Outstanding, marvelous, and other terms used to describe highly recommended books almost seem trite in the case of SUMMER ISLAND. It is too special a read to be simplified by such over-used terms. Another sure-fire bestseller is in store for Ms. Hannah and another sure-fire gem of a book is in store for her readers.
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Summary: A poignant family drama
Review: Ten years ago, Nora Bridge walked out on her husband and two daughters to become a Seattle radio star and a national newspaper advice columnist. She provides people with practical advice, but her source of wisdom is her own failures with her children though she does have a fragile relationship with her oldest Caroline. Nora's world collapses when the tabloids learn that the morality queen had an affair while still married. Her youngest daughter Ruby, who refuses to talk with Nora for walking out on her, has an offer to write an expose on her mother. When Nora breaks her leg during a DUI, Caroline forces Ruby to care for her mother at the SUMMER ISLAND where they once were so happy together. As mother and daughter rediscover how to rediscover the love they once had for one another, Ruby also has a second chance with Dino the man she always loved. Meanwhile, Dino's brother Eric, nears death, is wondering if his estranged parents will come home from Europe to simply say goodbye. SUMMER ISLAND is a deep tale centering on choices that impact the stability of other individuals inside what Dr. Covey's calls the "Circle of Influence." The story line is incredible with its angst-laden two interweaved subplots that will stun readers with its message and emotional fervor. The Bridge female trio struggles with the interrelationships between them ever since Nora left. The subplot surrounding Eric augments the theme that events and actions even when one follows Shakespeare's "to thyself be true" impact relationships. This novel is totally brilliant and Kristin Hannah may have written the best relationship drama of the year....
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Story
Review: This story was quite heartwarming. A family torn apart and the journey to find each other again. The story was sometimes predictable and boring but was well written. The author did a great job developing the characters. Enjoyable light reading.
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