Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Summer Island: A Novel

Top positive review

Great Author, great books, full of emotion, hard to put down.

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2020

I have now read 9 of Kristin Hannah's books; all in the last 2 months or so; they are among the best books I have ever read. It all started with my daughter Audrey giving me the book "The Nightingale" and went from there. Every book I've read has been a pleasure to read, hard to put down. If you're interested in people, what they believe, how they think, what they are thinking, the mistakes they make in life, how they recover from them, their relationships to others around them...… it can all be found in Kristin's books. They are full of emotion that releases the inner emotions in you as you read them; I can't think of an author that can do that as well as Kristin Hannah!

17 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Erin V

Unbelievably bad

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2016

I honestly can't believe how many good reviews this book has. Did I read the same book? The characters are so stereotypical it's almost insulting. It's like a first draft of a book. You're telling me this lady crashes her car into a tree, drunk, and the hospital just releases her? No accident report, no arrest, no court appearance? The whole story line with Ruby and Dean is so oversimplified and underdeveoped it's like a completely different book. And when the other daughter admits her husband is cheating on her and she wants to leave, her mother tells her to STAY with him?! What kind of advice is that, especially if she acknowledges she herself married a man who was unfaithful and didn't love her? Doesnt she want her daughters to value THEMSELVES, not just their relationships? I just have no idea who could have found this book believable enough to enjoy. None of it made any sense. I need something with more substance to it, I guess. I was so disappointed with this garbage, especially after I read the Nightingale and actually found that mostly enjoyable.

31 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Karen Mead

Summer Island: A Novel

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

The story was good. Again, the language was totally unnecessary for the book, to be enjoyed. I am again disappointed at this. I have read two of your books now, and will not be reading a third one.

2 people found this helpful

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Not well written

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

I can't believe this is the same author that wrote the Nightingale and Winter Garden. Even Firefly lane. Is this an early book of hers? Like the first one she ever wrote? Annoying. I can't get through it. Story is so common and obvious. Characters act in very stereotypical ways and continue to say and do obvious things throughout the story. At least as far as I was able to get. Disappointed, but loved 2 of her other books and liked a third...

One person found this helpful

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Janet Lillian

Summer Island

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2001

Verified Purchase

Advice columnist turned writer Nora Bridges leaves her husband and two daughters suddenly, leaving the daughters emotionally bereft and vastly unsettled. Their life following is tragically affected by this departure, and they spend the remainder of their adolescent-to-adult lives trying to make sense of the departure. Ruby, the most distraught of the two, tries to recede into the underground of stand up comedy, but has little success. She is obsessed with trying to understand why her newly-famous mother (now seen as a moral authority) would have done this awful abandonment.
The mother, after a long-ago lover releases some nude photos of her to the press, sees her new life crumbling, and in an escape mode, turns to drink, heads to the car, and winds up with a broken leg, in need of help to recuperate. Ruby, the 'lost' daughter, decides to 'help' her Mother by joining her in the Summer Cottage where they had spent many good times as a family before the Mother left.....while she is writing an expose on the Mother for a $50K fee.
Mother and Duaghter explore their past, the Father enters the picture and sheds light on the reason for the Mother's departure and many late night discussion help them see each others' perspective. Meanwhile, a secondary plot with two brothers unfolds - one of whom was Ruby's first love, tho other of whom is dying of cancer.
Sound complicated? It really isn't, but there are too many story lines to allow the full development of any of the characters. Things happen without explanation (especially disconcerting is a love scene that seems dropped in to the book just to have one there.) Although you begin to understand Ruby and Nora, that understanding is more based on ones' own background and sympathies than on those developed by the author.
This is not a bad read, but I found myself frustrated that the author seemed to be racing to complete the book. The writing is just 'choppy'....if you can get beyond that, the story is entertaining and fine for a sunny day on the deck.

12 people found this helpful

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Kimberly

Predictable

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book was okay. Predictable.

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love matt and nat

Not much of a story!

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

One of her worst novels ever! Very trite, and repetitive. Too much in the style of Danielle Steele!

One person found this helpful

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Taylor

Why the need to use God's name???

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2016

Verified Purchase

This was a very good, enjoyable story. However, the author used GOD's name in vain repeatedly. Why? There was 't a need but the story was embedded with God's name, God's name, God's name. Remember the commandments!

2 people found this helpful

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Reni Cohen I want to see other books I own on this tablet?

Not like other Kristin Hannah books

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2016

Verified Purchase

I didn't like it it really drag the characters are not real like another Kristin Hannah books where the characters jumping out at you and behave like real people

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