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As I mentioned in my review, I look for Hannah McKinnon’s newest books each summer. They are written with so much heart, and I always love the settings.

My Thoughts:

Sailing LessonsSailing Lessons by Hannah McKinnon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Four Come Sail Away stars to Sailing Lessons! ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️

I am beginning to rely on this author for summer, beachy reads centered around family with lots of heart. Every year, I am looking for Hannah McKinnon’s newest, and I was thrilled to be approved for an early copy of Sailing Lessons, which publishes tomorrow!

Cape Cod is the beatific setting, and Wrenn Bailey has lived there her entire life, along with her sisters, Shannon and Piper, and her mother, Lindy.

Wrenn’s father, Caleb, was absent from her life, and he would drift in and out of it like the sea. After a long period of being away, Caleb returns to Cape Cod and his daughters, now diagnosed with terminal cancer and looking for forgiveness. With three women, there are different responses to Caleb, various ways of seeking healing. I especially loved the focus on the father/daughter relationship, and the exploration of Caleb’s dynamics with each daughter.

Sailing Lessons packs an emotional punch. Keep your tissues handy. But it’s not all sadness and strife with Caleb’s return. There is plenty of hope, forgiveness, and altruistic love. If you enjoy summer reads with emotional depth, I highly recommend Sailing Lessons.

Thank you to Hannah McKinnon (I’m already looking forward to next summer’s book!), Atria/Emily Bestler Books, and Netgalley for the ARC. Sailing Lessons will be published on June 5, 2018.

View all my reviews

Synopsis:

On the shores of Cape Cod, the Bailey sisters reunite with their long-lost father for a summer of hope and forgiveness in this heartfelt novel from the author of the “sharp and evocative” (Kirkus Reviews) Mystic Summer, The Lake Season, and The Summer House, sure to appeal to “fans of Elin Hilderbrand” (Booklist).

Wrenn Bailey has lived all her life on Cape Cod with her mother Lindy, older sister Shannon, and younger sister Piper. Growing up, life was dictated by the seasons with sleepy gray winters where only the locals stayed on, followed by the sharp influx and colorful bustle of summer tourists who swept up the elbow of the Cape and infiltrated their small paradise.

But it wasn’t just the tourists who interrupted Wrenn’s formative years; her father—brilliant but troubled photographer Caleb—has long made a habit of drifting in and out of his girls’ lives. Until the one summer he left the Cape and did not return again.

Now, almost twenty years later, Caleb has come back one last time, suffering from pancreatic cancer and seeking absolution. Wrenn and her sisters each respond differently to their father’s return, determined to find closure. But that means returning to the past and revisiting old wounds—wounds that cause the tightknit Bailey women to confront their own wishes and wants, and admit to their own wrong-doings over the years. In a place that brings both great comfort and great pain, the Bailey sisters experience a summer on the Cape that promises not only hard endings, but perhaps, hopeful new beginnings.

Have you read any of Hannah McKinnon’s books? Any favorite authors for beach reads? Happy reading! ~ Jennifer THR