Title: The Gin & Chowder Club
Author: Nan Rossiter
Genre: Fiction
Published: June 2011 – Kensington
About: (Back of the book) The friendship between the Coleman and Shepherd families is as old and comfortable as the neighboring houses they occupy each summer on Cape Cod. Samuel and Sarah Coleman love those warm months by the water; the evenings spent on their porch, enjoying gin and tonics, good conversation and homemade clam chowder. Here they’ve watched their sons, Isaac and Asa, grow into fine young men, and watched, too, as Nate Shepherd, aching with grief at the loss of his first wife, finally found love again with the much younger Noelle.
But beyond the surface of these idyllic gatherings, the growing attraction between Noelle and handsome, college-bound Asa threatens to upend everything. In spite of her guilt and misgivings, Noelle is drawn into a reckless secret affair with far-reaching consequences. And over the course of one bittersweet, unforgettable summer, Asa will learn more than he ever expected about love – the joys and heartache it awakens in us, the lengths we’ll go to keep it, and the countless ways it can change our lives forever…
My brief take: I liked the idea of this novel. The setting is beautiful, the characters for the most part seem like normal, decent people, and two of them struggle with an epic moral situation. Nan Rossiter let it play out – and kudos to her for doing so. Given the Christian fiction tone I was kind of surprised by that. Because of the moral issues there would be a lot for book clubs to discuss.
I loved the book cover as well as the brief chapters. I read The Gin & Chowder Club in one day – I liked that I could set it down and pick it up without feeling the interruptions.
Source: I won my copy from the author via a giveaway at Redlady’s Reading Room
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