Book Review: The May House

The May House is quite possibly the perfect book to stash in your beach bag this summer. The novel is bittersweet, joyful, and spans decades, following the three May sisters from childhood until almost present-day, as they visit their Grandma Vera’s beach house for one week in May each year.

Set in Coronado, an island off the coast of San Diego, California, The May House is for readers who like stories about sisters and families, with heartfelt moments, realistic grief, and even a hint of romance and mystery.

 The eldest daughter, Julia, is the planner and the dependable one, a front she keeps up even when her life is falling apart. One summer, during their yearly sister’s week in Coronado, Julia doesn’t show up. By then they are all adults in their 40s, and youngest sister Nora and middle child Emily realize that their sister might really need them, even when she doesn’t show it.

The novel starts with present day and flashes back to the summers when the girls were children, and when teenage Julia was falling in love with Nate, the boy next door. These three motherless daughters cherished their week with larger-than-life, funny, kind, and wise Grandma Vera. As the years pass, Julia becomes a lawyer, Nora tries to make it big on Broadway, and Emily tries to find her true calling and true love. The one constant is one week in May, when they are all together again.

My Thoughts

Readers who enjoy summer reads by Annabel Monaghan and Meg Mitchell Moore will enjoy The May House! As someone who loves a beach read and stories about sisters, this novel hit a sweet spot for me and I read it in two days. It also has serious moments (see trigger warnings below) yet there are many joyful moments, too. The one-that-got-away love story with Nate and Julia was a lovely, subtle, slow-burn, but the romance plot wasn’t the center of the book. I enjoyed how each character was developed uniquely. I liked following each character’s storyline and related to each sister in different ways.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Scroll down for the trigger warnings….

TW: child loss, miscarriage, loss of a parent and grandparent, cancer