The Nantucket Restaurant by Pamela Kelley – a Review

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Description:
Three sisters. An inherited Nantucket restaurant. One year before they can sell.

Mandy, Emma and Jill are as close as three sisters who live hundreds of miles apart can be. They grew up together on Nantucket, but Mandy is the only one that stayed.

Jill lives a glamorous life in Manhattan as a co-owner of a successful executive search firm. Never married, she is in her mid-thirties and lives in a stunning, corner condo with breathtaking views of the city and Hudson river. Everyone thinks there’s something going on with her partner, Nick, because as a workaholic, she spends more time with him than anyone else. But there’s never been anything but friendship between them and Nick loves being a bachelor in NYC.

Emma lives in Arizona and is an elementary school teacher and aspiring photographer. She met her college professor husband, Peter, in grad school and they’ve been married for over fifteen years. In recent years, she’s noticed that Peter has grown distant. But when he shares a surprising secret, she doesn’t see it coming and her world is turned upside down.

Mandy followed her high school boyfriend, Cory to Boston College, and after graduation, they married and Cory joined a successful hedge fund in Boston, while Mandy stayed home and had two children, Blake and Brooke. They moved home to Nantucket when Cory opened a competing hedge fund. Now that the children are older, Mandy is eager to do more than coordinate local charity events. But Cory doesn’t want her to work. He thinks it doesn’t reflect well on him and appearances are everything to Cory. Though when Mandy finds a second cell phone in his gym bag, she begins to question what is really going on.

When their beloved grandmother, Ethel Ferguson passes peacefully in her sleep a week before her ninety-ninth birthday, she leaves them quite a surprise. In addition to her Nantucket home, they learn that she was the silent owner of Mimi’s Place, one of Nantucket’s most popular year-round restaurants.

There is of course, a catch–she left the restaurant equally to Mandy, Emma, and Jill–and also to Paul, the restaurant chef for the past fifteen years.

And before they can sell, all three girls must work at the restaurant for one year–or their shares of the restaurant will go to Paul.

The same Paul that broke one of their hearts many years ago.

Review:

The Nantucket Restaurant by Pamela Kelly is a wonderful sweet story focused on three sisters.  Mandy, Emma and Jill are very close sisters, with two (Jill and Emma) living many miles apart, with Mandy the only one who still lives in Nantucket.  The ladies learn that their grandmother passed away, and to their shock, they have inherited the restaurant Mimi’s Place, which they did not know their grandmother owned the place; with the chef Paul who also inherited. The will provides that they must work in the restaurant for one year, at which time they can sell or share.

Jill lives in New York city, and owns an executive search firm with her partner, Billy; who are best friends.  Jill’s job is hectic, and now she needs to stay at Nantucket to help with the restaurant, and she travels to New York every Friday/Saturday.  Emma is a school teacher, who was married to her husband for 15 years, and he now wants a divorce, since he plans to marry his boyfriend. Mandy is married to Cory, who is a wealthy hedge fund investor; and they have 2 children. Mandy discovers an invoice of Cory, and realizes that he has been seeing other women; she files for a divorce, and makes him move out of the house. 

The girls split up, taking turns to learn everything about the restaurant. Mandy works the day shift, until when the children come home.  Whenever Cory takes a turn with the kids, she may help later hours.  Jill mostly works at nights, helping at the bar or serving dinners; which allows her to work in the afternoon remotely. Emma will work different shifts, and becomes close to Paul, who was her first love years ago; and both begin to long for each other. Billy, Jill’s partner, also begins to realize that he has strong infections for her. 

I really enjoyed this story, especially the three sisters who were so close and great together.  It was nice to see the different kinds of food, that was terrific. The Nantucket Restaurant was a sweet, wonderful, family oriented and great sisters, who I did enjoy following them.  The Nantucket Restaurant was very well written by Pamela Kelly.  This was a fun story that I suggest you find time to read this book.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher