The Guest Cottage

The Guest Cottage is one of Nancy Thayer’s Nantucket novels, built around the premise of a guest cottage rental that brings two families into unexpected proximity for the summer. The double rental confusion that drives the early plot gives Thayer room to develop the romance and the family dynamics that the central characters work through across the season.

Thayer’s multigenerational family novels reward readers who enjoy the kind of slow building family fiction that takes its time with multiple characters and multiple plot threads. The Nantucket setting is rendered with the kind of specific detail that only an actual island resident can produce, and the various family members are written with the warm psychological care that distinguishes Thayer’s best work.

For longtime Nancy Thayer fans, The Guest Cottage is a comfortable summer read. For new readers, the novel is a fair introduction to her style.