Friday, September 23, 2011

The Gin & Chowder Club by Nan Rossiter

Set against the beautiful backdrop of Cape Cod, The Gin & Chowder Club is an eloquent, tender story of friendship, longing, and the enduring power of love. . .

The friendship between the Coleman and Shepherd families is as old and comfortable as the neighboring houses they occupy each summer on Cape Cod. Samuel and Sarah Coleman love those warm months by the water; the evenings spent on their porch, enjoying gin and tonics, good conversation and homemade clam chowder. Here they've watched their sons, Isaac and Asa, grow into fine young men, and watched, too, as Nate Shepherd, aching with grief at the loss of his first wife, finally found love again with the much younger Noelle.

But beyond the surface of these idyllic gatherings, the growing attraction between Noelle and handsome, college-bound Asa threatens to upend everything. In spite of her guilt and misgivings, Noelle is drawn into a reckless secret affair with far-reaching consequences. And over the course of one bittersweet, unforgettable summer, Asa will learn more than he ever expected about love—the joys and heartache it awakens in us, the lengths we'll go to keep it, and the countless ways it can change our lives forever. . .
~~synopsis from Goodreads

I loved this book. I loved the setting of Cape Cod. Cape Cod is a place that I would love to visit someday. And this book took me there now. I could really feel the place from Ms. Rossiter's writing. She is a very good writer and the words seemed to flow off of the pages and through my mind.  

The Gin & Chowder Club is a beautiful story of love and broken hearts. The story made me happy but it also made me cry a little too. There was a lot of growing up to be done after that summer.

The only thing I seemed to have trouble with was the age thing between the two main characters that have the affair. The young man was heading off to college and the women was older and a family friend. 

I know, I know, this kind of thing happens all the time but I kept going back to the fact that he was only 18. Only 18! And there didn't seem to be very much angst about that fact. Sometimes I just didn't let myself think about how young he was. Other than that, the story was great and I am glad that I read it. 

Author's website

I received this book from Goodreads for my honest opinion. Thanks Goodreads!  

3 comments:

  1. I have been wanting to read this. I wonder how much older Noelle is? I hope not too much older. Now I am really curious about this book.

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  2. I had to go back and check, it was driving me nuts. Asa, I assume, is 18 (just graduated from HS). Noelle is married to a man who is 50 and she is 18 years younger. So that puts her at 32, 14 years older that Asa. Obviously the age thing, either way, doesn't mean much to Noelle.

    I just wish the author would have made Asa a little older, not right out of high school, that was just kind of weird.

    But other than that, I loved the book, so I tried not to dwell on it too much.

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