All the Summer Girls

April 1, 2013
Donohue (How to Eat a Cupcake) sounds an irresistible call to spread a blanket on the nearest beach with three best friends who reunite on the Jersey Shore to commiserate, imbibe, and confess the dark secrets that have haunted them since college. The ladies—newly jilted Philadelphia lawyer Kate, restless Manhattan “yummy mummy” Vanessa, and drug-and-alcohol-abusing San Francisco writer Dani—are a hot mess in “the summer of our discontent,” mishandling the past and present as they move Kate’s canceled Las Vegas bachelorette party to their favorite summer haunt in Avalon, N.J. But problems old and new follow them to the beach: Kate is pregnant; Vanessa is flirting with an old boyfriend; and Dani can’t keep a job, find a home, or finish her novel. The elephant in the room at their rambling beach house, however, is the eighth anniversary of the drowning death of Kate’s troubled but lovable twin brother, Colin, a disaster that became a “lever pulled, sending them each hurtling down a different track.” The girls’ shared and private guilt predictably brings them closer, but Donohue gives the chick-lit buddy trope an appealing twist and a lot of depth, turning a familiar yarn of regret, trust, and loyalty into an elegant ode to late bloomers. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Weed Literary.

April 1, 2013
A fast-paced novel about the enduring friendship of three young women who spent their summers in Avalon on the Jersey shore before dispersing across the country. The book opens with Kate, now a lawyer in the girls' original hometown of Philadelphia. Kate's fiance, a man she met in law school, breaks up with her the same day she learns she is pregnant with their baby. Then we meet Vanessa, now living in New York City. Vanessa has given up her career as an art dealer in the city to raise her daughter Lucy and is struggling with her husband's confession that he recently came close to cheating on her. Then we meet Dani, an aspiring novelist who has just lost her job in a bookstore in San Francisco. Dani is still dealing with drug and alcohol addictions and is still looking for Mr. Right. When the three decide to get together and spend the 4th of July holiday back in Avalon, they are each haunted by memories of Kate's twin brother, Colin, who tragically drowned there eight years earlier when they were all on the cusp of adulthood. Woven into the mystery of Colin's demise are other issues of childhood that influenced each of the young women. As they look back on the painful past and flirt with future opportunities, the women finally share the secrets they had kept all those years, forgive one another and prepare themselves to move on in positive ways. A good beach read, set in a beach town.

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May 15, 2013
Kate Harrington finds out she's pregnant minutes after her fianc' dumps her. Vanessa Warren loves being a stay-at-home mom, but she can't stop thinking about her college ex. Dani Lowenstein might be living the writer's life in San Francisco, but she can't hold down a job, and her taste for drugs and alcohol is becoming more pressing than fun. The three women, childhood friends who have drifted from their Philadelphia private-school roots, decide to reunite for Fourth of July weekend at Dani's father's beach house in Avalon, New Jersey, like they did as girls. Vanessa and Dani want to support Kate with a fun, forget-about-him girls' weekend, but none of the women can escape the growing tension in the friendship or the specter of Kate's twin brother, Colin, who died eight years before on a similar Avalon summer weekend. Donohue captures the beauty and frustration of reconnecting with old friendsthey know you so well, and they don't know you at all. Perfect for a staycation for readers who like the beachy drama of Elin Hilderbrand and Susan Wiggs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)