Are you familiar with the term “new adults”? It refers to twenty-somethings, on their own, making major life decisions. Hannah McKinnon’s Mystic Summer is definitely for that audience.
Maggie Griffin is perfectly happy with her life in Boston. She teaches at a private day school, and she has a handsome actor boyfriend, Evan. She’s a little uneasy with the wedding preparations for her best friend, Erika, though. When Erika marries, everything will change. Her friends will be married, buying houses, planning families, while Maggie hasn’t moved into the next stage of her relationship or life.
And, then everything seems to fall apart at once. Maggie will probably be let go from her job as they downsize. Evan never seems to have time for the two of them, and he’s paired with a gorgeous model on the TV show. And, Erika’s dream wedding is threatened when her reception location cancels. It’s only when Maggie suggests that they move the wedding home to Mystic, Connecticut that there’s a brighter future. At least it seems brighter for everyone except Maggie. Once she’s home, she runs into her high school sweetheart. Cameron has moved home, opened a business, and he’s raising his baby by himself. Suddenly, Maggie’s picture-perfect dreams of life in Boston don’t seem so perfect.
As I said, Mystic Summer is a book designed with new adults in mind. Because I received the book to review for a journal, I finished it. But, in my stage of life, I wasn’t particularly excited by the confusion and decisions young people in their twenties have to make. But, stories of first true love, weddings and babies should appeal to that younger audience.
Hannah McKinnon’s website is www.hannahmckinnon.com
Mystic Summer by Hannah McKinnon. Atria. 2016. ISBN 9781476777696 (paperback), 287p.
*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I received the book from a journal in order to review it.
