For Ruthie Beamish it was the summer from hell! It started fairly normally with the all-to-familiar process of moving out of her beautiful, comfortable seafront home so that it could be rented out for the tourist season. It had always been this way because it was the only way that the funds could be raised that were necessary to pay for the rest of the year. Then there was Ruthie's 15 year old daughter who was acting like--well--a 15 year old teenager. Moving out was not to her liking.
Things got worse when office politics began to bubble up around Ruthie, making her position as Director of the Belfry Museum uncomfortable. Before the summer was over, the changes that were swirling around town would result in Ruthie being forced from her job. People she considered friends would turn against her, and her life appeared in ruins.
Then Ruthie received the worst news of all. Mike, the ex-husband with whom Ruthie dreamed of working out a reconciliation fell in love with the woman who had rented Ruthie's house for the summer. In a matter of weeks, Ruthie seemed to have lost her home, her job, hope of reconciliation with Mike, and her mind.
The question is: would Ruthie be able to navigate the turbulent waters of change and come out at the end of summer in one piece.
I found the book easy to read and smoothly flowing. Ruthie was the kind of character who drew me in and kept me interested. The problem was that there was a secondary plot line with a whole host of characters related to the Belfry Museum or the town of Orient who interrupted my flow and stifled my interest in the book. More than once I got bogged down and threatened to set the book aside. In the end it was curiosity about how Ruthie would survive this summer from hell that kept me going.
Things got worse when office politics began to bubble up around Ruthie, making her position as Director of the Belfry Museum uncomfortable. Before the summer was over, the changes that were swirling around town would result in Ruthie being forced from her job. People she considered friends would turn against her, and her life appeared in ruins.
Then Ruthie received the worst news of all. Mike, the ex-husband with whom Ruthie dreamed of working out a reconciliation fell in love with the woman who had rented Ruthie's house for the summer. In a matter of weeks, Ruthie seemed to have lost her home, her job, hope of reconciliation with Mike, and her mind.
The question is: would Ruthie be able to navigate the turbulent waters of change and come out at the end of summer in one piece.
I found the book easy to read and smoothly flowing. Ruthie was the kind of character who drew me in and kept me interested. The problem was that there was a secondary plot line with a whole host of characters related to the Belfry Museum or the town of Orient who interrupted my flow and stifled my interest in the book. More than once I got bogged down and threatened to set the book aside. In the end it was curiosity about how Ruthie would survive this summer from hell that kept me going.