Vacationland, Meg Mitchell Moore

Vacationland is a solid read. It is a gentle ride to the beach in Maine with a Louisa, a mother of three, whose husband is working over-over time to get his start up ready for acquisition, and who is there visiting her parents. While at the family’s beach house, Louisa watches the decline of her judge-father as he sinks into the world of Alzheimer’s, her son 12-year old son fall for their house help’s 13-year-old granddaughter, and learn that she has a half-sister.

With this much going on I was surprised at how level the characters stayed. While it may have been a bit romantic, it was also nice not to see Louisa and her absent husband get the suspected divorce, and for the half-sister not to be crazy, and the Dad to not completely lose it.

Vacationland is more of a slow burn that needs no putting out, it just saunters along gracefully until the story is wrapped up neatly with all the pieces put where one would expect. I am usually not keen on the all-tied-up-in-a-neat-bow ending, but Meg Mitchell Moore did it in such a way that was not syrupy sweet. I would recommend this book and will read another of Ms. Moore’s work.