The End of Summer (1971) by Rosamunde Pilcher

🌸 Jane is a twenty one year old Scottish girl who has lost her mother in childhood. Her father has immediately moved them both to the United States, where he's been working as screenwriter for Hollywood. After years in America, Jane still miss Elvie, the beautiful estate near the Loch where she had spent happy childhood. Elvie also correlated with Sinclair, Jane's cousin, to whom she had secretly dreamt of marrying some day. One day in this titular summer, Jane has a lovely surprise - a family lawyer called David Stewart brings a summon from Jane's grandmother, for Jane to come home to Elvie. Jane is torn between her duty to look after her father, and her heart. But as her father brings home a lover, Jane knew he would be looked after, and decides to go with the young lawyer to Elvie, leaving her American beach home, including her "date" with a young surfer she has just made acquaintance with, the day before.

🌸 Arriving at Elvie, though, Jane soon finds out that Sinclair isn't what she has thought him to be. There is long-buried secrets which shaped Sinclair to his true self, a rakish and opportunity-seeker, and which secret is also affecting Jane's future. Now Jane needs to make a decision, should she accept Sinclair's proposal - a marriage she had been dreaming growing up - or should she listen to her instinct?

🌸 Many readers said The End of Summer isn't Pilcher's best, and one in particular daubed it as her least favorite of Pilcher. I haven't read many of her, my only other acquaintance with her was The Shell Seekers, which I loved, and even got to be one of my favorites in 2025. But I think, The End of Summer is not that bad. It maybe lack of depth, at least when compared to The Shell Seekers, but the characters are well drawn, and I loved the picturesque description of the Scottish landscape. Jane is not a memorable main character, rather weak and insipid. My favorite is perhaps the lawyer, David Stewart; he's a true gentleman and well balanced person.

🌸 I was kind of interested about the surfer Jane chatted with on the beach, though. It's ashamed that we don't hear about him any more. It will be lovely if we can follow Jane when she's back in California and meet again with him. But of course, the circumstances are changed, so maybe it's not a good idea. Still, although the story is set mostly in Scotland, I kind of love the beach house (or shack) where Jane and her father live. My favorite scene is perhaps the arrival of David Stewart at the beach house (the first time Jane met him) - it ends up hilarious at the end, but at the moment, it was quite thrilling. Jane was alone (her father was on business trip), it was a dark night. Jane saw a silhouette of a man approaching the house from the beach, which should be deserted after sunset, and this terrified her, imagining every evil scenario imaginable. 

🌸 On the whole, it was an okay read; short (only 150-ish pages), and with an unexpected twist concerning the family secret, and a pleasant ending (the one I have been hoping).

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

The Shell Seekers (1987) by Rosamunde Pilcher #20BooksofSummer2025

🐚 The Shell Seekers is the title of a painting which hung on the wall of Penelope Keeling's abode. It was a wedding gift from his father, with herself as one of the shell seekers depicted in the painting. The story opens when Penelope is sixty years old, and has just been out of hospital and recovering from a heart attack. After that, the story runs parallelly between Penelope's past and present, giving us the view of how she had become what she is now, and why she does things that is incomprehensible to her children.

🐚 Penelope is the daughter of a bohemian parents; her father was a painter who married a much-younger French girl. And so, Penelope had been brought up quite unconventionally, and has an unconventional way of thinking too. For her, money means freedom. And it is money that created diversions between the mother and the three children: the bubbly, self-indulgent Nancy, the sensible, businesslike woman Olivia, and the selfish, greedy Noel. Nancy and Noel, especially, have been pestering her to sell The Shell Seekers and other paintings by grandpa Lawrence Stern, whose name had been resurfacing lately in art galleries. But Penelope was adamant, the paintings were hers - her father had given them to her only, and it's up to her what she'd like to do with it. She had done everything to make her children happy - she had even put up with her ill-suited and cheating husband for the sake of the children. And now it's her turn to make herself happy - free and happy. And I agreed with Penelope 100%.

🐚 I loved Penelope from the start, both as young girl and elderly lady. I always believe that when a child is brought up with love and trust, the child would be blooming to be unique, affectionate, and self-confident adult. I loved the relationship between Sophie - Penelope's French mother, and her daughter. Their relationship reminded me of mine and my mother - not that my mom's a bohemian, but she always put trust in me, and let me be what I want to be. Unfortunately for Penelope, only Olivia who has similarity to her mother; while Nancy and Noel must have inherited their father's character - money-oriented and petty.

🐚 I couldn't decide which part of the book I loved most - each had charm and interesting characters. Penelope's wartime story with, first, her husband, and then with the only man she ever loved, and also her friends who were evacuees, living at the family's house? Or Penelope's story as an old lady living alone in the village, befriended the young gardener and a girl that acquainted to Olivia, of whose future she helped building? Each had its warmth and charm, and I loved how Pilcher interwoven the past and the present into one wholesome story.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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20 Books of Summer 2025

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