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In this shimmering new novel from USA Today bestselling author Jillian Cantor, three adult sisters inherit a beach house on the condition they spend one week together every May, leading to the discovery of family secrets, unexpected romance, and a deeper understanding of each other.
No matter what's going on in the May sisters' lives, the one thing they can rely upon is seeing each other for one week in May at their grandmother's beachside home in gorgeous Coronado. As adults, Julia, Emily, and Nora aren't particularly close, their homes spread out across the country and them busy with careers, relationships, and the minutia of life, but their promise to return each year keeps them anchored together.
Until one May when Julia, the oldest and most dependable sister, doesn't show. Suddenly Nora and Emily start to question how much they truly know about their sister's life. Told in alternating points of view, spanning from their time together with Grandma Vera as kids into their adult lives, The May House explores how a decades-long family secret has unknowingly shaped each sister and, ultimately, how it brings them closer together.
Funny, poignant, and brimming with heart, The May House
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (4/16/2026)
I finished THE MAY HOUSE by Jillian Cantor and THE ANNIVERSARY by Alex Finlay. Alex Finlay is coming to Pittsburgh, and I will be going to the event. We rarely get "big" authors so I'm excited...
-Elizabeth
"The quintessential beach read—women talking, shocking secrets, and a really hot guy." —Kirkus Reviews
"The May House is a story of three sisters, the idyllic beach house they inherit, and the secrets that fractured their family. Braiding together the past and present, Jillian Cantor beautifully writes about the complicated bonds of sisterhood. Filled with heart-rending yet life-affirming twists, this novel has unforgettable characters that stick with you. It's a family drama, a mystery of the heart, and a love story all rolled into one. I adored every page." ―Audrey Ingram, USA Today bestselling author of The Summer We Ran
"A beautiful, big-hearted novel that celebrates the love, the complexity, and the life-long bond of sisterhood. With a beach house in gorgeous Coronado as the setting, The May House is the perfect summer read and a touching reminder that some promises are well worth keeping." —Amy Poeppel, author of Far and Away
This information about The May House was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jillian Cantor has a BA in English from Penn State University and an MFA from the University of Arizona. She is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of eleven novels for teens and adults, which have been chosen for LibraryReads, Indie Next, Amazon Best of the Month, and have been translated into 13 languages. Born and raised in a suburb of Philadelphia, Cantor currently lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.
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