A Mystic, CT Beach Read

  Mystic River Bascue Bridge
at dusk

Growing up in central Connecticut, Mystic was a town that we visited often on our way to the Rhode Island beaches or to travel on my uncle's boat, which he kept at one of the boat yards on the Mystic River. The Seaport and Aquarium were destinations for school field trips and when my children came along family vacations. So when I saw Hannah McKinnon's Mystic Summer on the summer reads display table at the bookstore I simply had to pick it up and read the back cover details. There I discovered that the main character, Maggie Griffin, is a school teacher like myself  with the summer vacation ahead of her. Sounded right up my alley so I purchased it.

In the opening pages, Maggie is in one of those difficult teacher-parent meetings that only those of us in the profession can appreciate - it's with one of those sets of parents. On the whole I would say that 99.9% of parents are wonderful people to work with but let's face it when our child is at the heart of the matter sometimes our sensibilities go out of the window. I feel for those parents, I really do, but they need to face reality sometimes - their child isn't that bright, or that talented, or has lied about doing their homework, or in the effort to please their parents has cheated in order to get the A. It is one of the downsides of the job, and so too is budget time and Maggie is the victim of cuts. Now her summer vacation is a permanent one.

She takes off from Boston (another location which I'm am very familiar with now do to my son's choice of college and my mother's cancer treatments), to return home for an extended visit with her family and an opportunity to rethink her next move in life. It's not only her job, but her living arrangements (roommate is getting married), and her love life (sexy, actor boyfriend) that need sorting through. It comes as no surprise to readers of this particular genre that of course the wonderful boyfriend isn't quite the right fit and when Maggie runs into her old high school/college flame that old feelings are rekindled. I'll leave the ins and outs of the rest of the story for you to read.

What I liked best was reading a story set in a location that I knew well. I could picture the Main Street of Mystic, the Seaport, the shops, the Crystal Mall, Watch Hill, the Ocean House, and the list goes on. They were familiar and comforting for didn't I want to revisit the town only last summer for a few days of vacation with my husband. We stayed in a cute cottage on the banks of the Pawcatuk River well situated between Mystic and Westerly, RI. The picture above was taken from our dining spot on the patio of the S&P Oyster House as we watched dinghies travel below the bridge and when larger vessels came the drawbridge would open backing up traffic - cars and pedestrian.

This story turned out to be a nice romance, girl figures out the next phase of her life story, and travel book all rolled up into one. As with many novels that I've read, I hope to one day visit the locations that the story is set in. Having visited this location many of times, I would recommend it as a lovely place to vacation and enjoy a good beach read.