Review: A Summer in Sonoma

A Summer in Sonoma is a sweet novel about four women who have been friends since high school.  The book opens with Cassie on a date with a handsome guy she's been talking to on the  phone for a while.  Instead of heading for the concert they were supposed to attend, her date tries to rape her in the car.  Luckily this pony-tailed guy with a naked lady tatoo on his arm, who is dressed like a biker rescues her before things get to far.  How far will things go with Walt?  Julie is married and the mother of three, and the wife of a paramedic.  To say they are having money trouble is to put it mildly.  Marty's husband is a fireman and has become the world'g biggest slob at home.  One day when she walks out in a huff to cool down she runs into an old flame.  Beth is a doctor who had breast cancer years ago.  Now she has it in the other breast.

I enjoyed the book and found myself wanting to know more about some of the characters.  We learn a lot about Cassie and Walt, and about Julie and her husband; however I would have liked more information about why some of the  other characters acted as they did.   A Summer in Sonoma is mass-market romantic fiction.  Unmarried characters end up in bed together and while marital infidelity is condemned, the same cannot be said for pre-marital sex.  There is one reasonably vivid bedroom scene and I liked the fact that it was almost the end of the book before it occurred--the couple was definitely in love rather than lust.

Grade:  B+