Summer of Love, Kerri Maher (Review by Kristin Kurek)
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Summer of Love unfolds across two timelines, weaving a tender portrait of one family’s devotion and the ways love endures through generations.
In the 1960s, sisters Winnie and Miranda are moving through a rapidly changing world in strikingly different ways. Winnie, an aspiring poet, is drawn to the counter‑culture movement, embracing its art, freedom, and rebellion. Miranda, steady and pragmatic, remains rooted in the family winery, determined to preserve its legacy amid the shifting tides of the decade.
Fast‑forward to 2015: Miranda’s daughter, Dawn, newly sober and tentatively rebuilding her life, stumbles upon a bestselling novel titled Vineyard. To her astonishment, the book contains intimate details that mirror her family’s home and winery with uncanny precision. Compelled by equal parts curiosity and unease, Dawn sets out to uncover the identity of the anonymous author — and to understand how a stranger could know so much about the Hartley Vineyard.
This is not simply a story featuring a sober protagonist; it is a story about sobriety with other narrative threads woven around it. I’ll admit that reading it on a sun‑drenched, Cava‑soaked trip through southern Spain made the theme hit me like a wet wool blanket. But with my preferred vices aside, I found myself swept up in the beauty of the writing.
Maher’s descriptions of California are lush and transporting, capturing everything from the rugged coastline to the golden plains to the quiet, orderly rows of vineyard country. The novel also shines a light on a pivotal era in California wine history, when local winemakers were striving to compete with French producers and reshape American tastes. It was a transformative moment — one that helped define the region as a world‑class wine destination — and the book renders it with both fascination and reverence.
Summer of Love is ultimately a story about legacy, reinvention, and the invisible threads that bind a family across time. It’s tender, atmospheric, and quietly profound.