28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

 28 Summers is the perfect end of summer book and I stayed up way too late tonight reading the ending. Mallory is living in NYC with her snooty "best friend" Leeland when she finds out she has inherited her aunt's cottage on Nantucket. (Mallory was the only family member who stayed close to her aunt after she started up a "relationship" with a female friend.) Since NYC isn't doing much for her, she heads to Nantucket and feels like she's living in paradise. She eventually lands a job as an English teacher and life is good.

 At the time, her brother  Coop is off at college. One day Mallory calls him there and his best friend Jake picks up the phone. He and Mallory start phone flirting and so begins a relationship that lasts for nearly 30 years. Coop and Jake ask if they can come spend Labor Day weekend at the cottage. Then Leeland invites herself along because she finds out her ex-boyfriend Fray will also be there. One thing leads to another and Jake and Mallory end up spending the weekend alone in the cottage. If you've ever seen the movie Same Time Next Year, you can see where this story is going--Jake and Mallory agree to meet every Labor Day weekend on Nantucket for 3 blissful days then stay out of touch  for the rest of the year. At first it's simple pulling this off, then things get more complicated. About halfway through the book I really wondered why they didn't get out of their other relationships and just stay together since they clearly belong together, but they never do. And maybe real life wouldn't have been as magical as one blissful weekend every year.