Summer at the Cape is the fourth original hardcover from New York Times, USA TODAY, and Publisher's Weekly bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne. With the emotional pull of Debbie Macomber, Barbara Delinsky, and Susan Wiggs, RaeAnne tells the story of the Porter sisters, Cami and Violet, who come together to mourn the death of Violet's twin, Lily. Over the course of the summer, the sisters must make peace with each other and also individually with their free-spirited, outspoken, activist mother who left their father two decades earlier.
As the older sister to
identical twins Violet and Lily, Cami Porter had always been the odd sister
out. The breach became even stronger when her parents split up—while the twins
stayed in Cape Sanctuary with their free-spirited activist mother, Rosemary,
fourteen-year-old Cami moved to L.A. with her by-the-book attorney father, Ted.
Nearly twenty years later, when Cami gets the tragic news that Lily has drowned
saving a child, Cami returns to her childhood home—her mother and Violet need
her.
Lily had spent her entire life looking for something to be passionate about, and in leasing a property from neighbor Franklin Rafferty and setting up Coastal Pines Glamping, she was about to see her dream realized. Following her death, the sadness and grief Rosemary, Violet and Cami feel is compounded by Jon Rafferty, son of the neighbor whose land Lily had leased. Jon, who hadn't seen his father in years, is stunned to learn that his father is in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease, and he worries that the Porter women took advantage of him. But Jon can see that the Porter family is in mourning and agrees they can keep the land through the summer, and then they'll need to shut the glamping site down.
Then there's Violet—the child Lily saved, Ariana Mendoza, is the daughter of Violet's former high school sweetheart, Alex Mendoza. She could never forgive him way back when for cheating on her, but she is so grateful that his adorable little girl is okay. Alex still has feelings for Violet, but he is overcome with grief and gratitude at the same time for the loss of Lily, who died saving his child.
About the Author
New York Times bestselling
author RaeAnne Thayne finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah
mountains where she lives with her family. Her stories have been
described as "poignant and sweet" with "beautiful honest
storytelling that goes straight to the heart." She loves to hear
from readers and can be reached through her website at www.raeannethayne.com.
Author Links
Twitter: @raeannethayne
Facebook: RaeAnne Thayne
Instagram: raeannethayne
My Thoughts
Summer at the Cape is well-written with realistic characters and situations. The story is told in alternating points-of-view (Cami, Jon, Violet). I thought the author captured the beginning of Alzheimer’s with Franklin’s character. I loved the town of Cape Sanctuary. I can see why Rosemary loves to live there. Cape Sanctuary is a caring community. You could tell that Rosemary loves the area and she knows everyone who lives there. It was interesting learning about the glamping business dreamed up by Violet’s twin, Lily. The story delves into grief, family relationships, Alzheimer’s, second chance romance, forgiveness, and a new romance. I liked seeing the characters grow, resolve their past issues, and move forward with hope in their hearts. It is an emotional novel that is also uplifting. It is a good escape novel (a good vacation book). I am glad the author included an epilogue. Summer at the Cape is a heartwarming tale with lease wrangling, a striking son, a grief-stricken sister, jovial glampers, a singular storyteller, an unforeseen romance, and a charming conclusion.
Excerpt
VIOLET
WILD, FRENZIED BARKING RANG OUT WHEN Violet Porter let
herself into the back door of her mother’s comfortable kitchen at Moongate
Farm.
Rosemary was nowhere in sight.
Instead, a cranky-faced schnauzer–toy poodle mix planted himself in front of the
door, telling her in no uncertain terms that she was an intruder who wasn’t
welcome here.
“Hi, Baxter,” she said, mouth
stretched thin in what she knew was an insincere smile. “How are you, buddy?”
Lily’s dog only growled at her,
baring his teeth with his hack-les raised as if he wanted to rip her throat
out.
The dog hated her. Violet wasn’t
exactly sure why.
She might have thought he would
look more fondly toward her, considering she was the identical twin to his late
owner. But maybe that was the problem. Maybe the fact that she looked so much
like Lily but clearly wasn’t her sister confused the dog and made him
view her as a threat.
He had never really warmed to her,
even when he lived in her condo with Lily. Since Lily’s death, he had become
down-right hostile.
“Stop that. What’s gotten into you?
I could hear you clear back in my bedroom.”
Her mother’s voice trailed out from
down the hall, becoming louder as she approached the kitchen, still fastening
an earring.
She stopped dead when she spotted
Violet.
“Oh! Violet! You scared me! What
are you doing here?”
“You invited me. Remember? You’ve
known for months I was coming to help you out during my summer break.”
“You were coming tomorrow.
Not today!”
Okay. That wasn’t exactly the warm
welcome she might have expected, Violet thought wryly. Instead, her mother was
staring at her with an expression that seemed a curious mix of chagrin and
dismay.
She shrugged as Baxter continued to
growl. Wasn’t anybody happy to see her?
“I finished cleaning out my
classroom and calculating final grades this morning. Since all my things were
already packed and loaded into my car, I couldn’t see any reason to wait until
the morning to drive up. Is there a problem?”
Rosemary, usually so even-tempered,
looked at her, then at the giant wrought iron clock on the wall of the Moongate
Farm kitchen with a hint of panic in her eyes.
“No. It’s only…this is, er, a bit
of a complication. I’m expecting dinner guests any moment.”
“That must be why it smells so good
in here.”
It smelled like roasting vegetables
mixed with garlic and cheese. Violet’s stomach rumbled loud enough she was
certain her mother had to hear, but Rosemary didn’t seem to notice, looking at
the clock again.
Why was she so nervous? Who was
coming? If she didn’t know better, Violet might have suspected her mother was
expecting a date.
Not impossible, she supposed. Her
mother was still a beautiful woman, with high cheekbones, a wide smile and the
deep blue eyes she had handed down to Violet and her identical twin.
Rosemary didn’t date much, though
she’d had a few relationships since her divorce from Violet’s father.
As far as Violet knew, she had
broken up with the most re-cent man she had dated more than a year earlier and
Rosemary hadn’t mentioned anyone else.
Then again, just as Violet didn’t
tell her mother everything that went on in her life in Sacramento, Rosemary
likely had secrets of her own here in Cape Sanctuary.
“No problem,” she said, trying for
a cheerful tone. “You don’t have to worry about feeding me. If I get hungry
later, I’ll make a sandwich or something. I’ll get out of your way.”
“You’re not in the way,” Rosemary
protested. “It’s just, well…” She didn’t have time to finish before a knock
sounded at the back door. Baxter, annoying little beast, gave one sharp bark,
sniffed at the door, then plopped down expectantly.
Violet thought she heard a man’s
deep voice say something on the other side of the door and then a child’s
laughter in response.
Something about that voice rang a
chord. She frowned, suddenly unsettled. “Mom. Who are you expecting?”
“Just some…some friends from town,”
Rosemary said vaguely. She heard the man’s voice again and her disquiet turned
into full-fledged dismay.
No. Rosemary wouldn’t have. Would
she?
“Mom. Who’s here?” Her voice sounded
shrill and she was quite sure Rosemary could pick up on it.
“I didn’t know you were coming
tonight,” her mom said defensively. “You told me you were coming tomorrow, so
I…I invited Alexandro and his daughter for dinner. He’s been such a help to me
with Wild Hearts. I could never have set up all those tents or moved in the
furniture without him. I’ve been meaning to have him and his daughter over for
dinner but the time got away from me, until here we are. I’m sorry. You weren’t
supposed to be here until tomorrow and I didn’t think it would be a problem.”
The news hit her like a hatchet to
the chest. Alex was here, on the other side of the door. Alex, who had once
been her best friend, the man she thought would be her forever.
Alex, who had betrayed her.
She had seen him exactly twice
since they broke up a decade ago.
One previous encounter had been a
few years after he married Claudia Crane, when she had bumped into him at the
grocery store while home from college for a brief visit.
The second time had been four
months earlier at Lily’s memorial service.
That was two times too many,
really. Three encounters was asking far too much of her.
She wanted to jump back into her
car and head back to Sacramento.
No. This was silly. She had known
she would see him this summer. How could she avoid it? Cape Sanctuary was a
small town. Not only that, but his house and boat charter business were both
just down the road from Moongate Farm.
The concept had seemed fine in the
abstract. Like algebra and the periodic table.
It had been nearly a decade, after
all. She was a completely different person from that besotted girl she had once
been.
He meant nothing to her anymore.
She should be able to blithely chat with him about what he had been up to the
past decade.
Yeah. Not happening.
Maybe she could turn around, climb
back into her car and go hang out at The Sea Shanty until he was gone.
No. That was just kicking the can
down the road. She had to face him eventually. Why not now?
She could come up with a dozen
reasons, but none of them seemed compelling enough for her to flee without at
least saying hello.
“I’m sorry,” Rosemary said again,
her hand on the doorknob. “It’s fine, Mom. Don’t worry about it. Don’t leave
them standing outside. I’ll just say hello and then head over to the bunk-house
to settle in. You won’t even know I’m here. It will be fine.”
She didn’t believe that for a
minute, but she forced herself to put on a pleasant smile as her mother opened
the door.
And there he was.
As gorgeous as ever, with those
thick dark eyelashes, strong features, full mouth that could kiss like no one
else she had ever met…
Her toes curled at the unwelcome
memories and she forced her attention away from Alex to the young girl standing
beside him. She had dark hair that swung to her shoulders, bright brown eyes
and dimples like her father.
Right now she was staring at Violet
like she had just grown a second head.
“Miss Lily?” she whispered, big
brown eyes wide and mouth ajar.
Of course. Ariana thought Violet
was her sister. It was a natural mistake, as they were identical twins, though
as an adult, Vi had mostly seen the differences between them.
She approached the girl with the
same patient, reassuring mile she used in her classroom when one of her
students was upset about something.
“Hi there,” she said calmly, doing
her best to ignore Alex’s intense gaze for now. “You must be Ariana. I’m
Violet. Lily was my twin sister.”
“You look just like her,” the girl
said breathlessly. Her gaze narrowed. “Except I think maybe your hair is a little
shorter than hers was. And she had a tattoo of flowers on her wrist and you
don’t.”
When they were in college, Lily had
insisted on getting a tiny bouquet of flowers, intertwined lilies and violets
and camellias to represent the three Porter sisters.
She had begged Violet and Cami to
both get one, too. Cami, older by two years and always far more mature than
either Vi or Lily, had politely explained that she didn’t want any tattoos
because of the serious nature of the law career she was pursuing. Violet had
promised she would but then kept putting it off.
She still could go get a tattoo.
After Lily’s death, she had thought more seriously about it, but the loss of
her sister was always with her. She didn’t need a mark on her skin to remind
her Lily wasn’t here.
She forced a smile for the girl.
“Right. No tattoo. That’s one sure way of telling us apart.”
Plus, she was alive and Lily
wasn’t. But she wasn’t cruel enough to say that out loud, especially not to
this child.
Lily had drowned after rescuing Ariana
and a visiting friend when a rogue wave from an offshore winter storm dragged
the girls out to sea. Lily had somehow managed to get both girls back to
safety, but the Pacific had been relentless that day, and before Lily could
climb out herself, another wave had pulled her under.
Violet certainly couldn’t blame
this child for a cruel act of nature.
Or for her parentage.
Are you ready to read Summer at the Cape? Summer at the Cape is available from Amazon*, Harlequin, Barnes & Noble, BookShop.org, Books-A-Million, and Powell’s. You can find RaeAnne Thayne's other novels here on Amazon. Thank you for stopping by today. Tomorrow I am sharing my thoughts on The Burning Pages by Paige Shelton. It is the seventh A Scottish Bookshop Mystery. I am off to take my mother to get her shingles shot and her Covid booster. I just hope that I can get her out of the house on time. I am fortunate that we do not have to go far for the appointment (less than ten minutes away). I hope that you have a charming day. Take care and Happy Reading!
Kris
The
Avid Reader
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