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By Nancy Thayer
ISBN: 0345545516
Publisher: Random/Ballantine
Publication Date: 5/12/2015
Format: Other
My Rating: 3 Stars

A special thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nancy Thayer delivers THE GUEST COTTAGE, a Nantucket, lighthearted summer romance, perfect for leisure summer beach days, or relaxing sunset evenings.

Sophie and Zach, married sixteen years, with faded passion in their marriage –resides in Boston with a teenage son, Jonah age fifteen, and daughter, Lacy age ten. One evening, Sophie focuses on her calendar and notes her husband has typed in April 11, discuss div with S? Divorce?? Zach the former high school football hero had just turned forty and was showing all the signs of trying to gain back his youth with a Mustang convertible and Grecian formula for his hair.

This was not the perfect timing Zach had planned; however, since she is now bringing it up, he makes Sophie aware he does indeed want a divorce. But what about the children? Of course, as she suspected it is Lila, the young one, from work and he loves her. Of course, she makes him feel young and he wants to move in with her, as he is now rushing her to separation and then divorce.

Humiliated, Sophie lets her husband know she was planning on renting a summer home in Nantucket for July and August, the guest house behind the main house. She thought if she could get her husband away, maybe he would change his mind. No go. Well, she is going anyway as she needs time away with the kids, even though Zach will not pay, she will get it from her Aunt Fancy, the aunt she had always admired and she had left her some mad money. Sophie was certainly mad at Zach.

The idea of spending her inheritance to rent a house on Nantucket was downright epic for her, but she decides she will go and lets Susie Swenson know she will take it.

Little does Sophie know, Trevor Black, age thirty (younger), has also rented the same guest house from his old college friend, Ivan Swenson. Trevor’s wife died in November, and he is raising his four year old son, Leo; they are seeing a psychologist and he needs a getaway. He has his own computer business, so he can work from anywhere.

Susie was getting excited about the house, especially when she sees the piano. Unfortunately, when they discover they both are renting the same cottage, neither wants to give up the house. They find out quickly they both rented from the Swenson cousins which evidently are lacking in the communication skills area.

They both have only verbal agreements, and decide to compromise. They do not have another choice. Being the house was rather big, they decide to both stay and share the cottage, after all they could each have their own wings.

Now here, Sophie was with a strange man and a child, and she was not was not good at spontaneity, as she preferred her routine and organization. However, she decides that will soon go out the window, since she will be a single parent; her life had been shattered.

What comes next is too totally different adults and a mix of children, with Trevor being insulted by Sophie’s questioning his child rearing tactics. However, they soon start on an adventure, mixed with humor for an unexpected summer of reinvention, and possibly serendipity, fate, and a miracle thrown in.

Fans of chicklit, women's fiction, family drama, humor, and contemporary, without a lot of suspense, will enjoy this summer romance, of starting over with two families--who may have more in common than they may think.