Our place on the island A novel

The reviews are in for Mickey Campbell's restaurant, and it's a smash hit. Too bad the reviews come after she's gotten up to her ears in debt trying to keep the place afloat. No one knows, especially not her head chef and business partner, who just happens to also be her boyfriend. Before she can work up the nerve to confess, a call comes in from her mother, Hedy--Mickey's septuagenarian grandmother, Cora, is getting remarried. As three generations of Campbell women descend on Martha's Vineyard and the family beach house, they will all confront their insecurities and reckon with the past while building their futures. Using alternating time lines between the wedding weekend and Cora's newlywed life on the island, Montgomery handles the mother-daughter relationships between Cora, Hedy, and Mickey with compassion and builds complex characters in a lovingly designed setting. Kitchen-design aficianados will want to take notes, and fans of Montgomery's previous novel will find this one equally charming. Recommend to fans of Susan Mallery or Kristin Hannah.

Three generations of women reunite at their family's beach house in this passionate tale of love and loss from Montgomery (A Summer to Remember). In 1948, working-class newlywed Cora Campbell struggles to fit in to her husband's world of wealth. Her neighbors are judgy and her husband is often away on business. Then she meets Max Dempsey, the contractor hired to renovate her kitchen, and the pair develop a strong bond. In 1999, three years after Cora's husband's death, she and Max announce their engagement. Her daughter, Hedy, and granddaughter, Mickey, head to Cora's home on Martha's Vineyard to celebrate, but secrets threaten to derail the joyful gathering. Hedy is not pleased with someone replacing her father and suspects that her mother may have been having an affair with Max years ago. Mickey, who's always had a close bond with her grandmother, is more supportive of the union, but she's keeping a secret from her own boyfriend that casts a pall on her mood. Toggling between the two timelines, Montgomery tells a stirring, magnetic story about the tension between commitment and desire. The characters are as flawed as they are sweet, and their bond rings true. The result is a nostalgic tale that will warm the coldest hearts. (June)