Family Reunion

A Novel

By: Nancy Thayer

Narrated by: Tanya Eby, Whitney Dykhouse

Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

A longtime Nantucket resident is trying to make the best of a lonely summer. Her spirited granddaughter is learning what she wants out of life. Unforgettable surprises await them both in this magical, multigenerational novel from New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer.

“Readers come to Nancy Thayer novels for the idyllic Nantucket beaches and lifestyle, but they stay for the characters.” --New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe

Eleanor Sunderland loves living on Nantucket, in a gorgeous cliffside home that has been in her family for decades. Yet this year she can’t help but feel a bit isolated, even as the island begins to come alive with summer tourists and travelers. Her best friend has skipped town on a last-minute cruise, leaving Eleanor feeling lonely and nostalgic about her family’s weekend trips to the island, made less frequently in the years since her husband’s passing. Now, her money-driven children contact her mostly to complain and to beg her to sell her beloved home for a steep payout. Hoping to kick the season off on a good note, Eleanor decides her seventieth birthday may be the perfect occasion for a much-needed reunion.

Fresh off the heels of her college graduation, Eleanor’s dear granddaughter, Ari, has just ended an engagement that felt less like true love and more like a chore. She longs for a change of scenery and to venture far from her parents’ snobbish expectations. Taking advantage of her newfound freedom, she heads to Nantucket to clear her head before graduate school, moving in with her grandmother and taking a job at the local beach camp. As she watches Eleanor begin to form a bond with an old acquaintance, Ari herself becomes completely smitten with a friend’s charming older brother. But just as grandmother and granddaughter fall into a carefree routine, a few shocking discoveries throw them off course, and their ideas of the future seem suddenly uncertain.

Eleanor and Ari make exciting connections, old and new, over the course of an unpredictable, life-changing few months, and learn to lean on each other through every new challenge they face in life and love, in this tale filled with Nancy Thayer’s signature Nantucket magic.

©2021 by Nancy Thayer. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Overall good

What prevented me from leaving a better review was how irritating the mother character was. The character had mental health issues, spoiled beyond belief and obsessed with selling her own mother's home . I almost put it down because that aspect was so offensive. Several characters were obsessed with money and age and it was annoying. Also, I do agree with other reviewers the narrator was subpar.

fantastic

This novel was Spectacular! I cried with such a great ending. can't wait for the next one

Narrator detracted from story.

Something was just off on narrator’s voice/tone. Seemed somehow bored. Gram was 70, yet voice portrayed as about 90.

Love the author.

Too happy of an ending

The grandmother is the only reason I finished this audible. She is sweet and kind. The daughter and granddaughter are self center and selfish and always get what they want. I kept waiting for them to change by the end of the book and they never did. Money grows money in this book……..
But I will listen to more by this author as the basic story line was good but could have had more twists to it. Really liked the narrator.

A Hard Book to Like

It’s hard to like a book when one of the characters is so unlikeable. Such was the case of Alicia, the self-centered, money-loving, status-seeking mother of Ari, one of the two narrators of the book. I mean, what kind of heartless person blames her mother when her husband has an affair? There were so many things about this book that irritated me but I don’t want to give too much away. The narration was good, though.

Worst narration ever

Although this story wasn’t bad, I was so terribly distracted by the narration. It sounded like the voice was mechanical/computer-generated. It’s just hard to rate this book any higher than I did.

No meat to this book

I enjoy reading Nancy Thayer books, but this one has no meat to it.
I did not like the voices of the narration either.

Good Story with Annoying Narration

Overall the story was good (if not predictable). The voice actor for Eleanor was not so good. I felt like she was just “reading” and not putting any acting into the characters, and if she did, it was caricature like and over done; not pleasant at all.

Love the story

Love the story and the read of it.
So warm and brings you to Nantucket.

Fun and unexpected twists.

Really enjoyed the characters in this book. Didn't predict some of these twists and liked the storyline