REVIEW: The Summer Seekers by Sarah Morgan

In The Summer Seekers by Sarah Morgan, Kathleen has been hoping for a little bit of adventure for some time, but there’s only such much that really goes on in an eighty-year-old’s life. It took an intruder in her home to set her heart–and her mind–into overdrive. Kathleen decides to take her dream holiday across the US, following historic Route 66. All she needs is a driver. One wanted ad (and several scowls from her grown daughter, Liza) later and Kathleen finds Martha: a twenty-five-year-old woman living with her parents, jobless and praying for something good to happen in her life. Martha can tell traveling with Kathleen will keep her busy and amused. Something she’s been lacking in her life. She can only imagine the predicaments she and her eccentric companion will find along the way.

“Don’t die of shock, but I’m starting to enjoy driving. I’m feeling happy.”
“I can tell. Your increase in speed appears to directly correlate with your elevated mood. Let me know when you hit a moment of ecstasy so that I can take the appropriate safety precautions.”

Liza can’t believe her eighty-year-old mother is going to travel thousands of miles across a foreign country with a stranger for her companion. Feeling rather lost herself and at her wit’s end with being at her husband and twin daughters’ beck and call, Liza could go for a vacation herself. Pushed to the breaking point, she makes some decisions that while questionable at first, sets her on the path to finding herself again and putting her life and her marriage in perspective. And thanks to Liza’s newfound clarity, she just might be able to understand her emotionally-distant mother–and forge a better relationship with her for the future.

‘Somewhere along the way life had chipped away at the bonds that kept them close. They’d forgotten how to be a couple. How had that happened?’

Reading a novel by Sarah Morgan is always a treat, but boy did this multi-generational story hit the spot. Sweet and funny, insightful and endearing, The Summer Seekers touched my heart and definitely left a smile on my face.

‘Three time zones, eight states, one incredible adventure. It was going to be perfect.’

I’m a huge fan of Sarah Morgan’s so I was happy to see her newest book seemed like it was going to have the snappy dialogue, solid storyline, and well thought out characters I look for in her work. And I have to say the Summer Seekers exceeded my expectations, capturing my heart and my attention right from page one. First, it was a road trip story. Who doesn’t love that, right? Second, there were three generations of women who were all at different stages in their lives–mother and grown daughter, Kathleen and Liza, and newcomer twenty-something Martha, who was hired as Kathleen’s driver.

Reading from all three unique POVs made the story a much richer experience, in my humble opinion. I think most readers will be able to relate to at least one, if not all, of the women and will appreciate just how much they each changed from the beginning to the end of the story. We had octogenarian Kathleen (loved her so much!!) deciding to go on her Route 66 dream adventure in a Mustang reconciling her past with her present. She was an absolute riot. A bit eccentric, strong-willed, wickedly smart, and kind (perhaps even lonely?) underneath the fearless attitude. We should all aspire to be more like Kathleen when we hit eighty years old!

Kathleen’s driver and companion for the trip, Martha, was a caring, down on her luck, uber compassionate young woman who was basically the polar opposite of Kathleen in many ways. But the duo made a formidable team on their trek across the US–where they also met and changed the life of one very lucky person. *sigh*

Then there was Liza. I think a lot of moms will empathize with how she felt like she was her family’s keeper and…pretty much nothing else. Liza’s part of the storyline with her hubby Sean and her twin teenage daughters (yikes!) was honestly the most heart-rending for me, being closest to her age and with the careful way Morgan described Liza’s feelings of being unappreciated. I adored her transformation and with the changes that took place between her and Kathleen over time. It was enough to make this reader get misty-eyed.

Sarah Morgan never fails to sweep me away with her charming books and The Summer Seekers did exactly that. I think readers will savor this wild journey that had me chuckling as well as hoping it would never end.

Book Info:

Publication: Expected publication: May 18th 2021 | HQN |

“Sarah Morgan is a master storyteller”—Laura Jane Williams, bestselling author of Our Stop

Get swept into a summer of sunshine, soul-searching and shameless matchmaking with this delightfully bighearted road-trip adventure by USA TODAY bestselling author Sarah Morgan!

Kathleen is eighty years old. After she has a run-in with an intruder, her daughter wants her to move into a residential home. But she’s not having any of it. What she craves—what she needs—is adventure.

Liza is drowning in the daily stress of family life. The last thing she needs is her mother jetting off on a wild holiday, making Liza long for a solo summer of her own.

Martha is having a quarter-life crisis. Unemployed, unloved and uninspired, she just can’t get her life together. But she knows something has to change.

When Martha sees Kathleen’s advertisement for a driver and companion to share an epic road trip across America with, she decides this job might be the answer to her prayers. She’s not the world’s best driver, but anything has to be better than living with her parents. And traveling with a stranger? No problem. Anyway, how much trouble can one eighty-year-old woman be?

As these women embark on the journey of a lifetime, they all discover it’s never too late to start over…