Summer That Made Us

Summer That Made Us by Robyn Carr   330 pages

 For years, summers for the Hempstead families meant summer at the lake house.  Two sisters had married two brothers, with each family having three girls.  The moms and girls would spend all summer at the lake with the dads coming up on the weekends.  The house was owned by the moms’ parents.  This was the pattern until one summer, the youngest girl drowned in a boating accident, and both families splintered.  Years later, one of the daughters decides she wants to return for the summer and invites all the women to join her.  The revelation of many secrets changes all their lives.  Carr has a way of turning interconnected stories into a larger story.  The results are not all happy, but understanding is achieved.  There are also no perfect people, just real people involved.