Author: Anne Youngson
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: January 26, 2021
Book Description: From the author of Meet Me at the Museum, a charming novel of second chances, about three women, one dog, and the narrowboat that brings them together
Eve expected Sally to come festooned with suitcases and overnight bags packed with everything she owned, but she was wrong. She arrived on foot, with a rucksack and a carrier bag. “I just walked away,” she said, climbing on to the boat. Eve knew what she meant.
Meet Eve, who has left her thirty-year career to become a Free Spirit; Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children; and Anastasia, a defiantly independent narrowboat-dweller, who is suddenly landlocked and vulnerable.
Before they quite know what they’ve done, Sally and Eve agree to drive Anastasia’s narrowboat on a journey through the canals of England, as she awaits a life-saving operation. As they glide gently – and not so gently – through the countryside, the eccentricities and challenges of narrowboat life draw them inexorably together, and a tender and unforgettable story unfolds. At summer’s end, all three women must decide whether to return to the lives they left behind, or forge a new path forward.
Candid, hilarious, and uplifting, Anne Youngson’s The Narrowboat Summer is a celebration of the power of friendship and new experiences to change one’s life, at any age.
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: A novel that centers around the unexpected friendship of three very different women. Eve is 31 and has just lot her job, Sally, who is older, has just decided to leave her husband of many years. They meet unexpectedly when they try to rescue Noah a precocious dog. When they meet Noah’s owner, Anastasia, they make a decision, that will change their life courses for both of them.
Anastasia, owner of the Number One, a Narrowboat, needs to get her in for repair. However, she has just been diagnosed with cancer, and she needs stay ashore to take care of health. When she unexpectedly meets Sally and Eve, they decide on the fly, that the both of them will take the summer to get the boat to where it needs to be for repair.
Eve and Sally could not be more different from each other, but they some how make their relationship work. Along the way they meet many of Anastasia’s friends, and we get many heart warming stories and adventures.
I loved this story. Throughout all the good and bad, this was just so hopeful. There was so many rich stories to be told throughout this novel that will have you reading as fast as you can. This is an adventure story at his heart, but has all the beauty of the old tale of what friendship means.
Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron Books for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Obsessed Bookaholic 