147
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #211,684 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★☆☆☆☆
Not the summer beach read I wanted -- repugnant politics
The "same time, next year" plot just seems sad -- especially during a pandemic when we're struggling with isolation. But even taken as given, the individual summer segments are disappointing. In some, the two main characters do not even interact. What happened to the Labor Day weekend interludes? It is as if Hilderbrand tired of the plot device she chose even before she finished the book.
The politics that enter into the plot are unbearable to me: It seems all too plausible that the very wealthy Bayer Burkhart "dabbles in politics" but his admission "I pull the puppet strings" on p.145 just put me on notice that yes, at some point he will. I don't like dark money in real life politics -- I most emphatically don't want it in my summer fiction.
