Brenner's 'Forever Summer' a Timeless Beach Read

Yes, Jamie Brenner’s “The Forever Summer” is chick-lit, but it is not a cliched Cape Cod summer romance novel.

It’s true that waspy New Yorker Marin Bishop seems to take pride in her Anglican features and hardy work ethic, inherited from her driven Protestant father. But all that starts to unravel when the astute young lawyer is presented with undeniable DNA evidence by her heretofore unknown, Bohemian younger half-sister, Rachel Moscowitz.

This revelation sparks a journey to visit Amelia, a woman believed to be both girls’ biological paternal grandmother. The timing is perfect, as Amelia, who runs a well-loved bed and breakfast in Provincetown, has recently decided to hang up the shutters. So there is plenty of room at the proverbial inn to host the eccentric characters who converge to help the two young women, and the older generation, find the peace that has eluded them.

What was going to be just one week turns into a “forever summer” as the two sisters keep finding reasons to extend their stay.

The Forever Summer
By Jamie Brenner
Little, Brown, 368 pages, $26

Marin discovers her artistic side when Amelia’s wife begins to teach her the fine craft of mosaics. Rachel uncovers her own culinary talents as Amelia shares her great-grandmother’s recipes from Portugal. Of course, Brenner, who is speaking at the Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center on Nov. 7, provides the requisite handsome and aloof lover and the equally handsome “almost boyfriend” to keep both sisters swimming against the tide. But there is also the coming together of generations and the healing of old wounds as secrets are revealed and defeated.

You don’t have to wait for summer to book your own stay at the Beach Rose Inn. Wrap yourself in this exquisite quilt of a beach read in any season.