Maggie Weldon's family first came to Ogunquit, Maine for summer vacation forty years ago. That's when she met Delphine Crandall. Maggie's family was well-off, but Delphine's family was a hard-working one with no time for vacations. However, the two girls became loyal and steadfast friends and maintained that friendship through their college years. Delphine walked away from the friendship right after graduation; Maggie never understood why.

Now Maggie Weldon Wilkes is trying to reconnect with Delphine and reconstitute that friendship. She feels that Delphine abandoned her over twenty years ago, but has hopes of reviving the friendship once again. The two women live in very different worlds now, but Maggie is tenacious when she wants something bad enough and she really wants this friendship restored. She needs it.

Delphine is unnerved when Maggie shows up in Ogunquit. She's not sure why Maggie is doing this or what she means to accomplish. Both ladies do a lot of independent reminiscing and soul-searching throughout the story. This introspection causes them to realize things about themselves they don't like. Maggie finds she is selfish, immature, and wallows in self-pity from time to time. Delphine begins to feel unfulfilled, inadequate, and wasted. No husband, no children, no grandchildren; but all choices she made.

Although Delphine mostly focuses on negative memories, she does remember what friendship used to feel like, an emotional bond, an excitement, a deep comfort. Maggie only remembers the good things; her perspective is slightly skewed. Delphine chose to let her friendship with Maggie die. Why do we learn to appreciate someone or something only after it is dead?

Will their differences and the two different worlds they now live in create a divide that cannot be crossed? Don't friendships need some commonality to make them work? SUMMER FRIENDS is a story about making amends and reclaiming something that was once precious. Perhaps we should all reach out to old friends more often and try to recapture at least some part of those friendships. Holly Chamberlin has penned another stunning success that you are sure to enjoy. This will be a great summer read.

Book Summary

Over the course of one eventful summer, nine-year-old native Mainer Delphine Crandall and Maggie Weldon, a privileged girl 'from away,' become best friends. Despite the social gulf between them, their bond is strengthened during vacations spent rambling around Ogunquit's beaches and quiet country lanes, and lasts throughout their college years in Boston. It seems nothing can separate them, yet after graduation, Delphine and Maggie slowly drift in different directions...

With her MBA, Maggie acquires a lucrative career, and eventually marries. Delphine is drawn back home, her life steeped in family and the Maine community she loves. Twenty years pass, until one summer, Maggie announces she's returning to Ogunquit to pay an extended visit. And for the first time, the friends are drawn to reflect on their choices and compromises, the girls they were and the women they've become, the promises kept and broken - and the deep, lasting ties that even time can never quite wash away...