Really slooooooooow to get started.

Not the train wreck bore of Away from Home but less effervescent than The Hills at Home. July and August has lots of charm and humor but it really needed a good editor. ( )

I loved the story premise. The writing style was not my favorite; it is a bit old fashioned, and yet, it fits the tone of the book. It was a nice read ( )

I loved the story premise. The writing style was not my favorite; it is a bit old fashioned, and yet, it fits the tone of the book. It was a nice read ( )

This was by no means a terrible book. I actually think that I may go back to it at some point. The story just didn't grab me and I drifted off to read other things. ( )

My first Nancy Clark was [Away From Home] and I read it in a state of literary euphoria -- you know -- that sensation when you are reading a book where the words are delicious, so that the place, the characters, the story -- a whole world becomes palpable to you. In this, the third book and last book of the trilogy about the Hill family of Towne, Massachusetts, appropriately Lily has opened a farm stand, finally finding, in her 70's her vocation, growing and selling vegetables. Never married, Lily owns the big family house and all Hills and people, Hills and others have a way of gravitating to her house in times of need and change. It is summer and one beloved niece, terminally ill, has come to stay; the rest of the clan collects and things happen or don't happen. The point of view slides almost slyly from character to character from Petal, the model, who arrives with some great-nephews who've become fabulously wealthy dot-commers and never leaves, to great-niece Julie who announces her engagement but then never once during the interval between the announcement and a day or two before the weddin, allows the family even a glimpse of her too-perfect sounding fiancé. Best of all, for me, are the two little girls, aged 7 who flitter and sneak and battle and giggle their way through the novel. I'm giving it a five for being a perfect domestic novel. ( )