"This was a lovely short novel. The story is set on Cape Cod, the family’s annual trip to the beach, with their adult children and the mother’s parents. It is told in the present and then in flashbacks from the mother’s perspective. The book is essentially about mothering and the agony and the ecstasy of it all. There were some parts that wore on me but overall I found it tender and very relatable to where I am in life right now. I saw myself in so many of her joys and struggles, I teared up toward the end. "