Review: Summers at the Saint

 

This was actually more enjoyable than I expected it to be. I was anticipating one of those meandering, plotless books that middle aged white women seem to love, and it certainly wasn’t that. Instead, it was a perfectly pleasing mystery with plenty of clues and even a bit of action. Seemingly unrelated details were smoothly woven together in a satisfying way, and there were nice little relationships that got nods throughout.

I did have a few gripes, mainly to do with the various perspectives the author was trying to weave together. The main thing is just that there was no reason to have so many different POVs. At the beginning, I think we heard from almost every single major character, and a couple of characters that seemed like they’d be major but then got shunted off to the side a third of the way in. 

One example of this was I believe KJ (yeah, he was presented as a main character in the first several chapters and then became so sidelined that I hardly even remember his name). He was the POV for two or three chapters right at the beginning and then never had a POV for the rest of the book. Frankly I found this choice incredibly frustrating, especially due to the fact that (spoilers follow) his only role in the story is to help set the staff dorm on the fire, apparently because he was blackmailed over his sexual orientation. Making the story’s only queer character a repressed gay jock with daddy issues who’s willing to commit crimes to avoid being outed? And give him absolutely no sympathy or perspective beyond that? Kind of a crappy thing to do in my opinion. (Spoilers end.)

There were also one or two plot hooks that got thrown out for no clear reason – namely, the mysterious helicopter accident that killed Traci’s husband. It honestly kind of seemed like the author just needed the husband out of the way, but the way it was talked about made it seem like it would be important. Nope, not so much.

All that aside, there were elements of this book that were quite well done. The romances, while not the main focus, were sweet. There was some excellent representation of various challenging family relationships, especially with aging relatives. And while it does deal with sexual assault as a central plot point, the issue was handled in a sensitive, compassionate way.

Generally, I wouldn’t consider the book anything special, but it’s a perfectly enjoyable story.