If one is craving sailboats, ocean, sand, sun and a little drama then Meg Mitchell Moore's Vacationland will do. Summer in Maine with all its lobstering glory came to life for this reader in this sweet novel.
Kristie comes to Owl's Head, Maine with a secret and an agenda. Not only does she need a job and an apartment, but also some resolutions. Having come fresh from her mother's untimely death, Kristie is raw, feeling like a victim, and maybe a little bitter at the family who seems to have everything, arguably at the expense of Kristie and her hardscrabble mother.
Louise is at her parent's waterfront home for the summer with her three young children in tow. Determined to finish her book, doing so is proving to be next to impossible with her kids, her Alzheimer's-ridden father and her mother who has expectations of Louise. Her husband, Steven is back in Brooklyn working on his own professional projects; between his absence and their money woes Louise's summer is stacking up to be more stressful than blissful. In addition, Louise does not expect Kristie's intrusion into her family.
Kristie finds romance in Maine and with it, another challenge to overcome. At one point, when she feels like she can't cut a break, she has the thought that "one tragedy doesn't produce antibodies that protect you from the next one". A short time after Kristie tells Louise that the only ones who say money can't fix problems are the ones who have plenty of it, Louise ponders at "how valiant it is, the way humans get hurt and just keep going". With this a seed is planted in Louise leading to a hopeful, uplifting ending to the book.
Meg Mitchell Moore writes with cleverness and plenty of well-rounded characters. Vacationland kept this reader's attention, even if it felt like it was trying a little hard at times. This beach read gets four out of five stars.
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