Just Jennifer

All the Summer Girls by Meg Donohue (William Morrow, June 2013)

Kate, Vanessa and Dani have been best friends since their days at a Philadelphia Quaker Friends’ School.  Even during their college years the here would reunite at Dani’s beach house in Avalon, New Jersey each summer.  Eight years after their last beach reunion, and one night that would change their lives forever, the three women converge on the beach again to sort out their presents, reveal and heal from the secrets of the past and make plans for the futures.

Kate, who remained in Philadelphia, has just been dumped by her fiancé as the wedding invitations are about to go out and on the same day she learns she is pregnant.  Vanessa appears to be living a dream life, married to a handsome television personality and stay-at-home mom to an adorable two-year-old.  Vanessa is beginning to feel restless, thinking about the career she gave up as an art gallery specialist and finds herself searching for a boyfriend from the fateful summer eight years ago.  Dani, who has been in San Francisco for the past eight years chasing her dreams of writing, has hit rock bottom after too many drugs, too much alcohol and losing too many jobs: Dani plans to return to her father’s home in Philadelphia after a long overdue reunion with the girls.  Arriving in Avalon, Dani is met with a surprise that changes her plans in an instant.

As these three women gather to face each other and themselves with nothing but the sun, sand and memoires, they each take stock of their lives and how the events of eight summers ago has shaped their choices.  When they come together to face the roads not taken, they realize some secrets might have been better off kept and the uncertainty if their friendships can withstand the truths they now face.

Meg Donohue intertwines the stories of the three women with honesty and ease.  She allows each woman to accept responsibility for her role in the summer eight years ago and the choices each has made since without casting blame.  As there women ready to let go of the past and step into adulthood with both feet, they learn what memories they need to let go of and how to forgive themselves and each other in order to hold close to each what is dearest.