Product Description

Mitchard's 'Still Summer' plunges into terror

By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY

Secure your life preserver. Tie yourself to the mast. It's late August, but it's still summer, and Jacquelyn Mitchard is taking you on a thrill ride you won't forget.

Mitchard made her mark in the literary world in 1996 when TheDeep End of the Ocean was chosen as the first pick for Oprah Winfrey's now-legendary book club. Since then, she has written six other novels, but none matches the suspenseful pitch of Still Summer.

It's a tale of terror on the high seas, but this is no Pirates of the Caribbean wannabe.

Readers know something terrible is going to happen, but Mitchard ratchets up the suspense by allowing her story to unfold at a leisurely pace. She painstakingly fleshes out her characters, because as readers will discover, their temperaments and personalities are as crucial to the story as the mounting disasters.

Tracy Kyle, Holly Solvig and Olivia Montefalco, lifelong friends in their early 40s, charter a yacht and two-man crew for a sailing vacation that will take them from St. Thomas to Grenada.

The trip starts out as an innocent adventure in paradise until two accidents in quick succession strand the women without their crew. What else can go wrong? In a word, everything. The engine conks out, the sails are torn, lack of electricity spoils their food and limits their drinking water - and then there's the injury to Holly's leg.

Nature's fury, murderous drug dealers and, possibly most deadly of all, their own frailties and secrets are added to the list.

Readers will wring their hands with frustration, weep with sadness and second-guess the choices these women make. But since characters must do the bidding of the authors who create them, we can only sit back - or sit on the edge of our seats - and let Mitchard's terror-filled tale wash over us.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #226674 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Amazon.com Review
Guest Reviewer: Jodi Picoult
From the provocative and gut-wrenching The Pact, to the brilliant genre-bending The Tenth Circle, to Nineteen Minutes, her most recent novel about a high-school shooting, Jodi Picoult's riveting novels center on family and relationships, and bring to light questions and issues that remain with a reader long after the last page is turned.

In one of my novels, I describe life as what happens when the what-if's don't. In Jacquelyn Mitchard's book, Still Summer, we lucky readers get tumbled into a world where extraordinary things happen to ordinary women; where the what-if's don't only become a reality, but a nightmare that truly puts into perspective what's important in life, and who we truly are.

Mitchard has always excelled at capturing the details of a fictional character with such a finely drawn hand that it's easy to believe you know the people who inhabit her books--that you may have had coffee with them, or passed them on the street. Sometimes her characters are so real to me I have to close the book to cry; or I find myself yelling at them out loud. The ladies of Still Summer--a band of high-school friends who have long since grown up--base their connection to each other on the past, when they were tough-talking Catholic schoolgirls called the Godmothers. But where Tracy, Holly, and Janis went on to marry and live quiet suburban lives, Olivia became an Italian countess, living the kind of life the others could only dream about. Reunited for a Caribbean sailing voyage after Olivia's husband's death, we watch the women come to terms with the fact that our memories of the past are often colored by nostalgia; that friends who fit together seamlessly years ago might, with the passing of time, find it harder to align.

The book begins in familiar territory--women whose lives that are peppered with recalcitrant kids, clueless husbands, the double-handed shuffle of home and career. At the last minute, Janis begs out of the trip to tend to an ailing husband--leaving Tracy's daughter, Cammie, to take her place--in spite of the fact that the relationship between mother and daughter is rocky and cavernous. And then, just as suddenly as a rogue wind, the book takes a shocking turn--leaving these women in a crisis situation that leaves them not only fighting for their lives, but revising their own understanding of friendship, family, and loyalty.

What is it about a Mitchard novel that rises so far above others? The realism, the grace of the characters who people it, and the heartbreaking truths that sneak up on a reader when we least expect it. Still Summer reminds us that sometimes it takes a tragedy to learn what's beautiful about ordinary life; that sometimes we have to travel great distances to figure out how we define "home"; and perhaps most importantly, that we do not know anyone as well as we think--not our daughters, not our friends, and not even ourselves. --Jodi Picoult

From Publishers Weekly
Bestselling Mitchard offers the harrowing tale of four women lost at sea and pitted against nature and a cohort of contemporary pirates. Tracy, Holly and Olivia have known each other since high school, when they were glamorous, popular troublemakers. Twenty-five years after graduation, the three women, plus Tracy's 19-year-old daughter, Camille, set out on a "reading, sunning, gossiping" trip aboard a luxe sailboat helmed by a two-man crew. But a storm leaves the women adrift with no sail or engine and their co-captains gone overboard. With limited sailing experience, failing radio equipment and a rapidly diminishing cache of food and water, the women are vulnerable to the worst threats the Caribbean can offer—the elements, sharks and, most troublesome, pirates. This fast-paced novel borrows qualities from several genres—suspense, survival epic, coming-of-age—and mostly succeeds in melding the better aspects of each, though Mitchard has a surer hand in creating women characters than men. Mitchard's fans will appreciate this high-stakes adventure. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Family tragedies are Mitchard's stock-in-trade, and here she adds a suspenseful twist. Friends since childhood, Tracy, Holly, and Olivia charter a private yacht for some girl-time R & R, bringing along Tracy's 19-year-old daughter, Cammie. Manning the vessel are two Virgin Island residents: Lenny, the captain, and Michel, his mate. Just as some mounting mother-daughter tension between Tracy and Cammie begins to dissipate amid the tropical setting, Cammie and Michel commence a flirtation that seems at first innocent but progresses too quickly for Tracy. The youngsters' courtship becomes secondary, however, as bad weather separates the women and the boat from the crew, and Tracy takes the lead by default. Diminishing food supply, piqued anxiety, and increasing desperation conspire to undo the group, revealing one of them to be vindictive and conniving--and possibly vicious when survival is at stake. Though not nearly on par with Mitchard's Oprah title, The Deep End of the Ocean (1996), fans will enjoy this mix of seafaring adventure and romantic suspense. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Eh ... not a waste of time, but not a classic
This is my first Jacquelyn Mitchard book, and I can't say I was blown away. The fascinating premise of ordinary women trying to survive at sea was really hampered by some pretty stereotypical characters: the bratty teenage girl, the self-sacrificing mom, the self-absorbed beauty, the sexy Frenchman.

All of these characters (along with others, who are very thinly drawn for the most part) are on a yacht trip in the Caribbean. Three of the women (Tracy, Holly and Olivia) are lifelong friends; the other is Tracy's daughter Cammie. There are also two crewmen. As they sail, they meet with a series of accidents that put them in increasing peril and show what the women are truly made of.

While the story itself was interesting, I found myself repeatedly annoyed at the characters. One of the women is portrayed as an experienced sailor, yet she doesn't know to take the sail down during a heavy storm and is surprised when it gets torn up. Seriously? I've never sailed a day in my life and even -I- knew that. Also, how on earth did it take Tracy 20 years to realize what a worthless excuse for a human being Olivia was?

In addition, I saw one major "plot twist" coming about 100 pages before it was revealed. (I won't post it here, in the unlikely event that it would spoil the surprise for others.) This is notable because I'm notorious for not being able to spot plot twists, so if it surprised me, it must be pretty dang obvious!

This is the sort of book that a hotel would do well to keep by the pool for guests who want a fast, interesting read. But it's not the sort of book those same guests would go home and buy a copy of for themselves.

Almost gave this one four stars, just shy of that, here's why
I have been a fan of Jacquelyn Mitchard's writing after reading The Deep End of the Ocean so I looked forward to this novel with great anticipation.
Although I read it completely through, it did not "grab" me or give me a sense that I really knew the characters, not in the same way other books of her had.
My main issues with this book:
1. I felt it took a long time to get going. Focusing on three high school friends- Olivia, Holly and Tracy -and their reunion after Olivia's husband dies, the author spends a great deal of time setting up the introduction to the main action. It was hard to see where this was going and how everything would connect, let alone lead to a critical turning point.

2. Sloppy proofreading. On p. 73, the word cinnamon roll is spelled "cinnamon role". Of course, this will be a way to tell the first edition from later editions as I hope this mistake will be corrected.

3. Lack of detailed characterizations. I did not have the sense that the author was passionate about this book. Again, I admit I may have a bias because of the quality in The Deep End of the Ocean, a book I have reread many times and which grabs the reader from page one and never lets go.
I've noticed others here gave the book 4 and 5 stars. I admit my expectations may have been high based on The Deep End of the Ocean.

AN EXEMPLARY NARRATION

There are story tellers and there are story tellers. And then there is Jackie Mitchard who first captured millions with her debut novel The Deep End of The Ocean. (The first Oprah pick!) Who could forget the poignant story of a mother who loses her young son? Mitchard followed her initial success with almost a dozen novels for adults, young adults, and children - each penetrating, thought provoking in its own way, usually dealing with human drama or dilemma.

Drama takes center stage in Still Summer, a story of friendship, the camaraderie and affection shared by three women- Tracy, Olivia, and Holly. They were an inseparable trio in high school and that closeness has stood the test of time. Some twenty years later Olivia is a widow, having lost her well-to-do Italian husband. As Olivia arrives in the United States, we hear: "Two skycaps trailed behind Olivia, like yoked oxen straining to push the teetering towers of Olivia's turquoise Henk van de Meene luggage. Olivia stuffed their hands with crumpled wads of dollar bills and gave them a smile so candent that they felt something more than a tip had been bestowed.."

She has that effect on people. So, for that reason and others she was and is the leader of the group. Olivia wants to be with her friends again, suggesting a get-together, a luxurious one on a sailboat navigating the Caribbean. They do just that, including Tracy's 19-year-old daughter, Camille or Cammie. The boat's crew consists of a captain and his young mate. It's not a great surprise that Cammie and the mate are attracted to each other. The shocker is a sudden storm that leaves the boat without power, sail or radio. And, perhaps worst of all without a crew.

Thus, the women are left bobbing in shark infested waters at the mercy of a burning sun, and modern pirates.

Mitchard comes to the fore as she documents their days adrift, skillfully revealing how much or how little friendship can mean when lives are in the balance. This mixture of revealed emotions and suspense makes for high drama as each woman faces the ultimate danger in her own way.

Narrating this tale, embracing a variety of voices would be a challenge for most voice performers, but not for Susan Ericksen who is more than successful in reflecting each character as she copes or combats or both. An actress who has recorded more than 100 audiobooks, Ericksen has a clear, distinct voice that makes her presentation more than enjoyable.

- Gail Cooke