I had a lot of problems with this book. Mary is a hard character to like. She's mostly a bummer, with lots of real problems, but some of them seem to be self-inflicted. She's like a slightly-less- cranky, female version of Larry David, bumbling through life and causing trouble every time she opens her mouth. Throughout the book she lies frequently, for no apparent reason. It's just hard to buy her as the owner of a successful restaurant. There were many other characters, but few of them were well-developed enough to make any impression, including the supposed love interest. I kept forgetting who was who.

The setting was Cape Cod, but there was no sense of place. It was like the author knew Cape Cod was nice, but had never been there. (Contrast this with someone like Anne Rivers Siddons, whose descriptions are so intimate and vivid she makes you want to immediately sell everything and move to whatever location she is describing.) Finally, even though I just finished the book, I would be hard-pressed to summarize the plot. The story was thin and moved at very slow pace.

There were a few nice elements. The author probably DID work in a restaurant (although not one located in Cape Cod) because she nailed that dynamic, with her descriptions of the hectic pace, the customer complaints, the wait staff bickering with the cooks and everyone hooking up with each other, etc. I also really liked her relationship with the old man who lived in the house behind hers, and there was a nice twist there.

So to sum up, "Summer Shift" wasn't the worst book, but I couldn't enthusiastically recommend it to anyone. ( )

this book was enjoyable but too typical... ( )