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From the publisher:

From the New York Times bestselling author J. Ryan Stradal, a story of a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota, and the legacy of love and tragedy, of hardship and hope, that unites and divides them

Mariel Prager needs a break. Her husband Ned is having an identity crisis, her spunky, beloved restaurant is bleeding money by the day, and her mother Florence is stubbornly refusing to leave the church where she’s been holed up for more than a week. The Lakeside Supper Club has been in her family for decades, and while Mariel’s grandmother embraced the business, seeing it as a saving grace, Florence never took to it. When Mariel inherited the restaurant, skipping Florence, it created a rift between mother and daughter that never quite healed.

Ned is also an heir—to a chain of home-style diners—and while he doesn’t have a head for business, he knows his family’s chain could provide a better future than his wife’s fading restaurant. In the aftermath of a devastating tragedy, Ned and Mariel lose almost everything they hold dear, and the hard-won victories of each family hang in the balance. With their dreams dashed, can one fractured family find a way to rebuild despite their losses, and will the Lakeside Supper Club be their salvation?

In this colorful, vanishing world of relish trays and brandy Old Fashioneds, J. Ryan Stradal has once again given us a story full of his signature honest, lovable yet fallible Midwestern characters as they grapple with love, loss, and marriage; what we hold onto and what we leave behind; and what our legacy will be when we are gone.

“Stradal serves up another saga of food and family, hurt and healing, pitched between cliff-hanger moments. . . that make the pages fly.” —People

“Stradal…displays his gift for writing female characters who are fully realized, sometimes unlikable, but always as flawed and compelling as real people. The Midwest setting is written with love and respect, and while the story is often heartbreakingly sad, there’s also real warmth and comfort in Stradal’s writing. A loving ode to supper clubs, the Midwest, and the people there who try their best to make life worth living.” —Kirkus (starred)

“Stradal’s novels…always resonate…He explores universal themes: love, loss, regrets for one’s past mistakes, and longings for what might have been—plus, of course, the importance of family.” —Publishers Weekly

https://amzn.to/42efPal

I don’t know a whole lot about the Midwest, other than what I’ve gotten from books and a friend from St. Louis. Stradal’s books are firmly set there, so they are always a learning experience for me. Plus, he wrote one of my favorite books ever – Kitchens of the Great Midwest.

I’ve heard of supper clubs, probably from his earlier books, but this book dives deeply into the tradition. I’m still not 100% sure I can differentiate between a supper club and any other restaurant, other than in the reading it feels somewhat different. We try and understand things we aren’t sure of by thinking about things in our own lives that may be similar – to me, to my understanding, it feels almost like a country club restaurant, without the golf and the membership dues.

This is a story that spans generations, marriages, deaths, and estrangements. Once I started this book, I was hesitant to put it down and not because of anything gimmicky, like 2 page-long chapters (I’m looking at you, James Patterson et al.,) but because I wanted to see what happened next with this family. This is a book where you can’t help rooting for all the characters to come together, to find their happy endings, but as in life, not all the endings are happy. This story took me on an emotional journey, and I loved it.

Let me add that Pamela Dorman books never let me down. If you are searching for a new read, a good way to find one is by imprint, in this case, Pamela Dorman books. You can google her or even do a search in Amazon, and anything you find attached to her name will be a good book, (at least for me.)

5/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE LAKESIDE SUPPER CLUB by J. Ryan Stradal. Pamela Dorman Books (April 18, 2023). ISBN:‎ 978-1984881076. 352p.

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From the publisher:

A woman’s second act on the island of Nantucket delivers much more than she expected in this captivating novel by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer.

“A beautiful, hope-filled, heartwarming story about new beginnings and second chances.”—RaeAnne Thayne, author of The Cafe at Beach End

Heather Willette has a good life in Concord, Massachusetts. But when her marriage has fizzles out, Heather has to decide what sort of life to live next. Ready to seek out her own happiness and discover herself again, Heather decides to leave her husband and rent a cottage on Nantucket. And her plan is going perfectly—until her son, Ross, announces he’s moving to Nantucket to work at his girlfriend’s family’s construction business instead of going back home to work with his own father, like he’d promised. Worst of all for Heather, this means having to get along with her.

Kailee Essex is thrilled that Ross is willing to move to her hometown. She has big hopes for their happily ever after, especially now that her parents are finally showing interest in her career. She’s less thrilled, however, about his mother living nearby. Kailee has clashed with Heather since the day they met. But anything is possible in the summer sun and sea breezes of Nantucket—even reconciliation. And when change comes sooner than either Heather or Kailee expect, they must learn to overcome their differences to fight for the future they want.

With All the Days of Summer, beloved storyteller Nancy Thayer delivers a moving novel that explores the complexity of family and the unexpected ways fate can guide you forward.

“Thayer delivers another heartwarming story that fans will enjoy.”—Booklist

https://amzn.to/42efPal

Nancy Thayer writes heartwarming stories with strong female protagonists, and the setting on Nantucket is just the icing on the cake here. Heather has been married for a long time, but her son is getting ready to finish college and she decides it’s time for her to find some happiness. Not that her marriage is a bad one, it’s just not especially happy or fulfilling. Heather and her husband have grown apart and while that isn’t enough of a reason for some people to divorce, it is for her. When her best friend finds a small cottage for rent on Nantucket for $10,000 for the summer – a steal for this market – Heather decides to take some of the money she’s been squirreling away for years and splurge on this summer rental. Her husband doesn’t quite understand why she is leaving him, but he doesn’t put up much of a fight, either. I think her calmness and logic in all of this is a rather nice change from the usual craziness of so many divorces.

The only downside to Heather’s plan is that her son, whom they expected to take over the father’s hardware store, is not interested in doing that. He has a girlfriend and it is getting serious, so when her father offers him a summer job working for his company, the largest construction company on Nantucket, he jumps at the chance. His girlfriend is none too thrilled to find out that Heather is staying on the island, too. She is immature in a lot of ways, and it takes some time to see her grow up.

Heather and her future daughter-in-law both do a lot of growing this summer. I liked seeing Heather come into her own here, and while the ending is a bit too neat, it is perfect for my first read of the summer books. The calendar may not say summer yet, but Thayer took me there anyway. I enjoyed the writing, the setting, and the characters in this domestic fiction with a touch of romance – everything I like in a book.

5/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

ALL THE DAYS OF SUMMER by Nancy Thayer. Ballantine Books (May 2, 2023). ISBN:‎ 978-0593358450. 352p.

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