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There are currently 18 member reviews
for Summer of Love
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Cresta Fillmore
Peace, Love and Rock and Roll
I enjoyed Summer of Love and appreciated reading details of the 60s. I was a very young child in the 60s so I didn't get to experience, as a peer, the tumult of those trying times. I also really liked reading about the vineyard and the strong women who made it into a successful enterprise. The themes of addiction throughout the book helped to better understand each character's personality, their strengths and weaknesses.
I appreciate receiving a free copy of Summer of Love and am providing my honest review.
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Laura J. (Bellevue, WA)
Thoughtful Historical Fiction
Summer of Love by Kerri Maher is a vivid and emotionally rich historical novel set during the cultural upheaval of 1960s San Francisco. Maher beautifully captures the spirit of the era; the music, freedom, hope, and uncertainty of the Summer of Love… while also showing the emotional complexity beneath the movement. The characters feel authentic and deeply human as they search for identity, connection, and purpose in a rapidly changing world.
What makes the novel especially compelling is its balance of nostalgia and realism. Rather than romanticizing the decade, Maher explores both the beauty and consequences of chasing freedom and reinvention. Her descriptive writing fully immerses readers in the atmosphere of Haight-Ashbury and the counterculture movement. Thoughtful, engaging, and heartfelt, Summer of Love is an excellent choice for fans of character-driven historical fiction and stories of self-discovery.
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Debra F. (Cudjoe Key, FL)
All abut the Love
I received a free copy of Summer of Love from the publisher, Bookbrowse and Netgalley. Summer of Love by Kerri Maher is a richly atmospheric, character-driven novel that completely immerses you in the spirit of the late 1960s. Maher captures the era beautifully—the freedom, the rebellion, the idealism—and also the underlying tensions that came with it. You can practically feel the music, the energy, and the shifting cultural landscape on every page.
What I especially enjoyed was how personal the story felt. The characters are layered and believable, each navigating love, identity, and purpose in a time that promised everything yet delivered plenty of complications. There's a real emotional depth here that goes beyond the setting, making it easy to connect with their journeys.
At times, the pacing felt a bit uneven, but the vivid sense of place and strong character development more than made up for it. Maher clearly did her research, and it shows in the details that bring the story to life.
Overall, this is an engaging and thoughtful read that will appeal to anyone who enjoys historical fiction with heart and substance—especially those drawn to the iconic era of the "Summer of Love."
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Susan R. (Greensboro, NC)
Fantastic
This well written dual time line novel about two sisters and a daughter is centered around the summer of love – 1967 in California. The story is told by all three main characters and gives the reader an all-encompassing look at what is actually going on.
The three main characters are:
-Winnie is the younger sister who moves to San Francisco when she graduates from college to live a hippie lifestyle and become a poet. She knows that she won't be happy staying at the family vineyard in Napa. When she connects with an old boyfriend, she finally finds true happiness in her life. She and Lincoln are each other's muse – his songwriting and her poetry meld together and help her love her new life.
-Miranda is the older sister who wants to stay at the vineyard and work to create new flavors of wine that will compete with French wines. She worries about her sister and there is always a strong bond between them. The choices that each sister makes will lead them on totally different paths their entire lives.
-Dawn is hiding secrets from her mother Miranda. Her life is a mess due to alcoholism and she is working on her recovery. Her mother doesn't know that she has a problem with alcohol and Dawn wants to keep it a secret mostly because her mom now runs a well-known winery. As Dawn begins to unravel a big family secret, it will involve all three women. Will the secret bring the three family members closer together or tear them apart?
The author does a fantastic job of describing life and attitudes during this time period. The importance of the music and the anti-war movement are background to the story that's being told. On one side we see the free thought and poetry of the time while the other sister lives a totally different life working hard to create a family legacy. All three of the main characters were well written but my favorite was Miranda who chose to work on the family vineyard but always loved and worried about her sister who was definitely part of the counter culture in San Francisco. Even though the book deals with many difficult subjects – addiction, mental health and family issues – the feeling at the end is hopefully that family love can help people through difficult occurrences in life. This was a great look at life in the 60s with results that echoed throughout later years.
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Marquita S. (Ranson, WV)
Enjoyable
I enjoyed reading this book. I felt the title was very fitting. The POVs of the three women explored their love, whether it was a love for drugs, alcohol, family, or their love life. I look forward to reading more from her.
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Deborah C. (Highland Park, NJ)
Years of Love
Thank you to BookBrowse and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.
As someone who was at UC Berkeley between 1965 and 1969, I was delighted to see the Bay Area reflected in the Summer of Love. Maher's descriptions of the sights, sounds, and even smells of 1967 all captured the experience and ambiance of that time. The subsequent depictions of addiction and recovery from alcohol and drugs also come through vividly and sympathetically.
The story, too, was engrossing, about two sisters from a wine-growing family in Napa, and the daughter of one. Starting in 1967, it is told from three alternating viewpoints: each of the sisters, Miranda and Winnie, who are in their early 20's in 1967, and whose stories go through the 1980's, and Dawn, their daughter and niece, who is writing in 2015, when she is almost 40 years old. Close as they seem to be, all are dealing with family secrets, including alcoholism and depression.
Sometimes told in the first person, sometimes in the third, events and feelings are strong and dramatic, and paint a compelling picture of struggle and growth within and beyond the family. Each of the women makes difficult choices and commitments, both in work and relationships, as they follow their dreams and ambitions and deal with their demons.
Two aspects detract from the book's impact: First, the women's voices are very similar, and if the sections were not given dates, it would be difficult to know who is speaking. Second, I found it somewhat unsatisfactory to have a fairy tale-like ending with success and closure for all. For this, I would give the book 3 ½ stars.
However, Summer of Love remains a moving story of sisters and recovery that will speak to many readers, with insight and compassion.
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Laura P. (Atlanta, GA)
Summer of Love
This 3-generation dual-timeline family sage begins in 2015, when 40-something set designer Dawn Hartley is commissioned to design a release party for the last volume of a series of children's books known as Vineland. As she is reading a book in the series as research for the design she discovers that the plot and setting bear an amazing resemblance to the winery owned by her family and managed by her mother.The author of the book writes under a pseudonym, and Dawn sets out to discover his/her identity. The details she notes lead the reader into the family story, focused on Dawn's mother, Miranda, and Miranda's sister, Winnie, taking us back to 1967, the Summer of Love, and their lives in San Francisco and the Napa Valley. (That connection to the Summer of Love is the only thing that allows this book to be described as historical fiction; I think that descriptor is inaccurate,)
This family has lots of secrets, and the secrets get in the way of any of the 3 main characters -- Miranda, Winnie, and Dawn-- having a satisfying life. As the story switches back and forth between the two time periods (the 60s/70s and the 20-teens), we encounter story lines related to the damage done to both abusers and those around them by substance abuse, the impact of dishonesty in relationships, the impact of stress from a variety of causes, the healing powers of friendships and strong family relationships, and the value of rehabilitation and forgiveness -- lots of discuss-able issues for book clubs.
