The Summer Share by Jenn McKinlay Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, large print, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: contemporary romance, family life fiction, friendship fiction, relationship fiction, romantic comedy, women's fiction
Pages: 368
Published by Berkley on May 26, 2026
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
When two misfits discover they’ve inherited the same beach house, sparks fly in the most unexpected ways, in this hilarious and heartfelt rom-com from the New York Times bestselling author of Summer Reading.
Free-spirited travel influencer Hannah Spencer has spent five years touring the country in her vintage van. An unexpected inheritance from her Pops brings Hannah to Cape Split, North Carolina, where she learns she’s the new owner of a worse-for-wear seaside beach house. Or, rather, fifty percent of one. Turns out Simon O’Malley inherited the other half from his Gramps.
As Simon and Hannah spend the summer tag-teaming repairs on the crumbling cottage, they discover the house was once home to a timeless love story. Soon, they begin to wonder if the house’s romantic past may be a good omen for their future together. But there’s one problem—Simon is set on selling the property at the end of the summer.
Hannah thought one summer at the Split would be enough, except it isn’t like any place she’s ever been, and Simon isn’t like any man she’s ever known—and she’s thinking about putting down some roots. She just needs Simon to see their budding relationship and this newfound community the same way or their first summer share might also be their last.
My Review:
I picked this up because I loved Witches of Dubious Origin. While I wasn’t exactly hoping for the same kind of book, because Witches is cozy fantasy and this book is more cozy small town romance/relationship, I was still hoping for some of the same sensibilities – and certainly some of the same charm.
Those things I definitely got!
The meeting between Hannah Spencer and Simon O’Malley isn’t so much of a “meet-cute” as it is a meet really, really awkward with a big surprise inside. Literally inside the beach house on the Outer Banks they each thought they’d inherited from their beloved grandfather which turns out NOT to be a solo inheritance.
Hannah inherited her HALF of the cottage from her “Pops”, while Simon inherited HIS half from his beloved “Gramps”. Now they’re stuck with each other – according to their grandfathers’ wills – for two whole months during a glorious Outer Banks summer. At the end of the two months, they can each do what they like with their half. But that assumes they’ll be on something like the same page at the end.
They sure don’t start out there, not on the same page, not even in the same book. She wants to stay. After five years of being a travel influencer, Hannah is ready to stop living out of her van. The minute she sees the cottage, she recognizes that she’s tired of running from her past griefs and traumas, and that this gift from her “Pops” is a golden opportunity to make both a home and a homebase for herself and her big, goofy, Harlequin Great Dane, Dude.
Simon needs to sell. He needs the money to support his brother Charlie’s long-term medical care – and keep their rapacious father away from Charlie’s medical conservatorship and the money invested in it. And he can’t make the kind of living he needs to on the Outer Banks to make sure he has enough to be there for both of his adult siblings, because he KNOWS their father won’t.
But the story isn’t just about Hannah and Simon and Dude. (Not that Dude doesn’t steal every scene he galumphs into.) Not even though the romance that steals up on Hannah and Simon is lovely and hesitant and hot and sweet in all the right ways.
The romance that steals the story is the one that started 60 years ago, between two young men who met and fell in love over a contested fishing spot, during one golden Outer Banks summer – before one shipped off to war and the other began the life he was expected to have. Only to find each other decades later, and return to the place they were happiest, with time enough for a second chance with the love of their lives.
A secret they both kept from their entire families for decades, leaving their grandchildren with a chance for happiness of their very own. If Hannah and Simon can step out from their own secrets and traumas and grab the opportunity with all four hands – and four paws.
Escape Rating A: I picked this up early because it looked like the precise antidote for my reading slump – which it definitely turned out to be. I had a terrific reading time, to the point where I almost wish this was the start of a series because as much as I loved the main characters and THEIR story, I’d love to go back and see more of the whole community. They were great folks AND I need to see how ‘The Dude’ is abiding.
What’s driving me crazy about this book is that I can’t decide whether it’s a romance that just happens to, well, happen in the midst of a story about family relationships, found families, family secrets and a great community – or if the shoe is on the other foot and its a relationship story in which a romance occurs in the present because a different romance occurred in the past.
I know I’m splitting hairs a bit, but for my reading group it’s a serious question and I keep waffling about the answer.
Whichever comes first, the romance or the circle of family and community relationships, the story is delightful – and not just because of Dude. Not that he’s not a HUGE spread of icing on this delicious (book) cake.
What made this book work for me is the way that different plot threads played off against each other – and that the changes and revelations happen at what feels like a realistic and human length of time – and not in an instant.
Because three stories intertwine in The Summer Share. The one at the top of the pile is the ill-advised, somewhat hesitant, emotionally complex slow-burn into conflagration romance between Hannah and Simon. They’re surprised at their joint inheritance. They’re shocked at the secret their grandfathers were keeping. They’re hurt that the person they thought they were SO very close to kept such a huge secret for so many years.
At the same time, discovering that secret – and investigating the whole story of their grandfathers’ secret life in the OBX, brings them together AND connects them with the community. A community that had taken Bobby and Billy into their hearts and is more than happy to take their grandchildren to that same place. One startling revelation at a time.
And underneath all of that are the issues and family relationships and traumas that Hannah and Simon came to the cottage with in the first place. All the things that need to be resolved before they can get to their own happy ever after.
In the end, I had a lovely reading time on the Outer Banks with Hannah and Simon. And Dude. Mustn’t forget the Dude. Their troubles felt real, their solutions felt solid, and their happiness was definitely earned. This is a book that will leave readers with a big smile on their faces, whether they come for the romance or for all the intertwined relationships that make a community and a life.
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