True Confession: StephanieVandrickReads...Chick Lit!

Most of the books that I read, and that I post on here, are "literary." But it's summer, and sometimes what a girl (even an - ahem - mature girl) wants, what a girl needs is -- chick lit! I don't seem to be getting to many beaches lately, but once in a while on sunny summer days I crave a good "beach read." And so I just read "Beachcombers" (Ballantine, 2010), by Nancy Thayer. The title couldn't be a more blatant appeal to summer readers of chick lit/beach reads, but it worked for me. Ingredients: three young adult sisters spending the summer at their childhood home on Nantucket; much angst about life, sibling relationships, past and present disappointments, broken romances. But - surprise ! - new romances with handsome, sexy, attentive men appear like magic within a couple of chapters! Romances with ups and downs, sure, but that's part of the formula. Who could resist? Did I say formula? Yes, this book is pretty formulaic -- but in a good way, when one is in the mood for it. It is undemanding and goes down very easy. Fortunately, Thayer's writing is a slight cut above the usual beach read's, so there is only a little cringing involved on the reader's part.