What do readers think of Summer of Love by Kerri Maher? Write your own review.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

The term summer of love has been used to describe the 1960s. A time of free love, free drugs, and free booze. This book has some of that, yes, but it's really a story about women; mothers, sister, daughters, and friends. There are men but they exist on the periphery as absent fathers and doomed relationships. Joan is the matriarch, the head of Hartley vineyards. Her daughter, Miranda follows in her footsteps and takes over the running of the vineyard. Her sister, Winnie, is the opposite, the true daughter of the summer of love. She's a classic hippie and immerses herself in drugs and alcohol and sex just to feel alive. Dawn is Miranda's daughter, an artist who struggles with her own addictions. When Dawn and her friend, Amelia, discover a popular young adult book series, the comparisons to Hartley vineyard cannot be ignored. They set out on a quest to find the author and in doing so find themselves. This in turn helps all the female relationships to heal. I figured out the twist fairly early on but it didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the book. I think any woman fighting an addiction, whether it's drugs, alcohol or a toxic relationship will find Dawn and Winnie's journey to free themselves to be interesting and inspirational. An added bonus to this book is discovering things I didn't know about wines!

I was somewhat disappointed in the book "The Summer of Love". The timeframe of the late 1960's to 1970's covered in the book was the same timeframe that of when I was a teenager to young adult. I was hoping the book would talk about the music scene and the attitude of peace and love toward our fellow human beings tht I personally experienced. I did not think that drug addiction and alcoholism would figure so prominently in the story. I did like the mystery surrounding the writing of a book series that the main characters realized had to do with themselves and their upbringing and which helped to explain the relationships and dynamics that they experienced in their family.

Summer of Love fell somewhat flat to me, struggling to find its footing. The execution of the dual timeline was a miss for me. Rather than weaving together to create a cohesive narrative, the shifts between eras felt clunky and disjointed. The transitions often interrupted the flow of the story, making it difficult to settle into either period fully. The dual timeline felt like two different stories competing for attention.
The storyline itself offered very few surprises. Unfortunately, the plot followed a predictable trajectory that has been explored more dynamically in other works. There was a lack of fresh perspective or a "hook" that distinguished this particular narrative from the many others set during the counterculture movement.