A Summer Affair
by Elin Hilderbrand
Published by Little Brown & Company
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Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair
All of the benchmarks in Claire Danner Crispin’s love life have started in the summer. It was summer when her childhood friendship with Matthew Westfield grew into love. It was also summer when Matthew became Max West, world-famous rock star, and left Claire behind. It was summer when Claire started dating Jason Crispin, and it was summer when she nearly threw away her marriage to him. And finally, it was being co-chair of the Nantucket’s Children’s Summer Gala that led her to reevaluate what she truly cherished in life. Author Hilderbrand, known for capturing the breezy, relaxed feeling of life on Nantucket, returns to the island again. Centered around the planning for the Nantucket’s Children’s Summer Gala, A Summer Affair focuses on Claire and her family from the time she agrees to co-chair the event through Claire’s epiphany shortly after the event is over. Involvement with the gala committee stirs up many feelings in Claire. There are problems from the start.
Isabelle French, her co-chair, proves to be more of a rival than a partner. But rivals for what? The Gala brings Lock Dixon into her life, whose wife has never recovered from an accident Claire feels she could have prevented. Suddenly she’s with people interested in things outside of soccer schedules and school field trip—people who listen to classical music and understand wine.
She contacts her former high school sweetheart, the now famous rock star Max West to perform at the Gala, and when asked, she agrees to create a special piece of glass art for the auction, even though both cost her dearly. All of these things help to drive a wedge between Claire, her family and friends.
Many women will read this book and see parts of themselves in Claire. The events leading up to the Summer Gala cause Claire to reexamine the decisions she has made in her life. To do things over again, would she have changed any of them?
Armchair Interviews says: A Summer Affair is a nice read women will relate to.