If I had to choose one word to describe what this book is about, it would be Life. Lifelong friendships, unexpected changes that pull the rug from under you feet and make your world tumble over, families with their complex dynamics, second chances in love, growing into yourself and discovering your own strength, coming home wherever it is and whatever it means to you.

Maggie Flynn is coming back to her home town of Wyndham Beach, Massachusets, for her fortieth school reunion. She has been widowed for two years after having given her all totaking care of her terminally ill husband. Maggie and her friends Lydia and Emma finally have a chance to spend some time together. Even Maggie's best friends don't know what exactly happened forty years ago to split the golden couple of their school, the Prom King and Queen, Brett Crowford and Maggie. It is clear that the old hurt is still there,when Maggie gets very upset about being asked to dance with Brett. We also get a gimpse into Maggie's grown-up daughters' lives, who have also had their disappointments in love and marriage and who are trying to move on.

The writing was extremely engaging. The conversations between the three friends sounded realistic. Their characters are well-differentiated and the same is true for Grace and Natalie, Maggie's daughters. While I appreciated having all these different generations and their perspectives, what made this book so attractive was it's focus on Maggie and her life, both in the past and the present. Her age group tends to get little (or at least not enough) representation in romance and it was nice to read this well-written exception.

I loved the way Mariah Stewart showed the atmosphere of a little seaside town. Emma and Liddy have lived all their lives in Wyndham. They got married and raised their children there. They also suffered through their own personal tragedies. Maggie made a choice to leave. It wasn't for better or worse, just different, and she can make a new choice now, as she is at standing at a new kind of crossroads.

For anyone who loves stories with strong, realistic female protagonists, complicated friendship and family dynamics, and a small town setting. Can't wait to read Book 2 in Wyndham Beach series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC providedin exchange for an honest opinion.

I did not know anything about Mariah Stewart or An Invincible Summer before I began reading, but something in the description appealed. Starting the first page, I slipped straight into the story as the writing carried me away. An Invincible Summer switches between Philadelphia and Massachusets, between city and beach and between homes that symbolise two parts of Maggie’s life. This is the story of Maddie, a widow living in Philadelphia, and her two daughters, Grace and Natalie. At the start of the story Maddie is travelling to Wynham Beach, the scene of her childhood, for a school reunion. Over the course of the weekend old memories surface, familiar faces flood her present and start reflections on her future as she wonders about her value and future role. Grace is a lawyer who works in the family law firm and is rebuilding her life after her husband humiliated her, leaving her for a fellow employee. Natalie is a single Mum to the gorgeous Daisy, and is a teacher with a big heart. Throw in two of Maggie’s childhood friends and we have a cast of strong female characters who make this such a great story. There is so much I loved about this read. The setting of Wyndham Beach is gorgeous, I could smell the sea air, feel the warmth of the sun as the women took their coffee and sat watching the horizon. I could feel Maggie’s pull to return to her roots. I loved the female relationships in the book. Maggie is a strong but supportive Mother, who brings her children through crises but holds out for her own choices, and the independence of her own life. The gatherings with her friends are glorious - tattoos, rock concerts and the warmth of conversations between women who really know and understand each other. I loved that this was not all neatly resolved and packaged up in an ending..I cannot wait to return to Wyndham Beach though and discover what happens to them all. This was such a celebration of life and especially a celebration of women of ALL ages. With thanks to Netgalley and Montlake for a digital copy of this lovely book.

4 1/2 Stars for this story that will draw you in!

This is the first book that I have read by this author and it won't be my last! This story is heartbreaking but it also warms your heart. This is a story of long-lasting friendships and lost loves. This is a story of regret, forgiveness, hope and starting over. This is one of those books that I didn't want to end. I laughed and I cried with these characters that I felt I knew. A very realistic view of life.

This is a story about three high school friends that are still bestie's 40 years later. While Liddy and Emma married and stayed in Wyndham Beach, Maggie moved across the country with her high school sweetheart (Brett). They ended breaking up and Maggie stayed away from home and eventually married and had two daughters (Emma and Natalie). 40 years later, Emma is a widow with a son (Chris) who is a rock star. Liddy's daughter committed suicide and then her husband left her. Maggie's husband recently died and she moves back to Wyndham Beach. Brett is the police chief in Wyndam Beach and on wife number three .. with a daughter from each of his wives. We also get a glimpse into Chris, Emma and Natalie's lives ... I'm hoping that they will all eventually get their own books. This is a great start to the series and I can't wait for the next book!

I received an early copy courtesy of Montlake through NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

An Invincible Summer is the first book in the Wyndham Beach series.
Maggie, widowed 2 years ago, makes a trip back home for her fortieth high school reunion. Maggie loves catching up with her two best friends Liddy and Emma. But being forced into dancing with her ex high school boyfriend was not in her plans.
A lot going on in the background with single best friends and single daughters. I'm curious to see in the next book in the series if the main characters will be Maggie's friends or daughters or even carry on with Maggie with the others in the background. I will be looking for the next one to find out.

Thanks to netgalley and Montlake for the arc

An emotional journey for 3 best friends from Coastal Massachusetts. Maggie, Liddy and Emma have been solid friends for more than 40 years. Through tragic deaths, divorces, separations and some serious secrets, these women have persevered through the love and support of each other. Maggie's daughters too have their own pain and these five women will find their peace in Wyndham Beach. "Friendship is complicated. Families are complicated. Love is complicated. But still and always, waves of the same sea." The place sounds so idyllic that I want to live there and surround myself with these strong women. Not all is rosy and the road ahead is bumpy when secrets come to light and emotional destruction caused by others is revealed, but in the end, whether it is the place or the friendship, their stories move forward towards happy endings. I look forward to more in this world.

Friendships can be enduring, if nurtured, fed and loved. Time can separate friends, but they can always find their way back if the friendship was true. Given the right circumstances, friendship can make you feel invincible.

This book is all of the above and more. I identified with the characters, they were in their late 50's, so they had experience behind them. They have gone through pain, illness, deaths of loved ones, and betrayals. One summer, they come together again for a reunion but find so much more.

Join Maggie, Lydia and Emma for one more summer....I felt like I was there with them.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

A nice beach read, a bit slow to start but the second half was captivating. Tell the story of family drama from multi generations. Seemed like there was more story to tell but too many characters.

It’s not that summer is invincible, even if it sometimes feels that way. It’s that during this particular summer Maggie Flynn, along with her besties Lydia and Emma, discover that their friendship, tried and tested and true, makes them invincible.

Not in spite of, but because of, the 50+ years it has been supporting and sustaining them. Although definitely in spite of all the challenges that life has thrown their way.

The story begins in the summer of their 40th high school reunion, making all three women 58 give or take a few months. Lydia and Emma have lived in tiny Wyndham Beach Massachusetts all their lives, while Maggie left to work in Philadelphia and ended up staying there for 30 years, through marriage, two daughters – and the still recent death of her beloved husband.

When Maggie comes back for the reunion, she discovers that in spite of the years and the miles and the tragedies, Wyndham Beach is still – or again – the place that she thinks of as home. Even though both of her adult daughters live in the Philly area, and she loves them and sees them often, Wyndham Beach, where she grew up and where Lydia and Emma still live, is the place that calls her heart.

Even if she has to face the heartbreak she left behind all those years ago in order to stay.

Escape Rating A: This is EXACTLY the kind of story I think of as “women’s fiction”. And as much as I dislike that phrase, I LOVED this book.

One of the things I loved was Maggie. It was terrific to see a story centered on a woman near my own age that focused on her and not on her 20something daughters. Not that Maggie’s daughters aren’t important to the story and not that they don’t get their share of pages, or of Maggie’s attention. And certainly not that they don’t have their own issues to deal with over the course of the book.

But the focus here is on Maggie. She’s the person at the center, it’s about her friendships, her adult relationships with her daughters and her possibilities for romance. She’s the one turning a corner in her life and she’s the one who has to make decisions about her future.

A future that the story dives into from all sides with the acknowledgement that at not-quite-60 Maggie still has plenty of life to live and love to give and that she’s not ready to step back from life. The same is also true of her friends Emma and Lydia.

In other words, Maggie may be a grandmother, but that is far from the entire focus of the rest of her life. It doesn’t have to be and it probably shouldn’t be.

The terrific thread that runs through the story is the way that all of the women, Maggie, Lydia, Emma and Maggie’s daughters Natalie and Grace are ALL at inflection points in their lives. And that all of them grasp their respective bulls by their horns and wrestle their lives into the shapes that they want to live. If romance happens for any of them, it’s the icing on a cake they’ve baked themselves with help from each other.

Also, the issue in Maggie’s past that was holding her back, while the shape of it, so to speak, was obvious early on, the exact nature of the original issue and the way it got resolved was both surprising and lovely.

Honestly, the whole book was just a lovely, charming read from beginning to end.

This is one of those cases where a story turned out to be the right book at the right time. I fell into the lives of Maggie, her friends and her daughters with a contented sigh, and was sorry to fall out of Wyndham Beach at the end. So I’m very happy to see that there will be a second book in this series, Goodbye Again, just in time to pull me out of the winter doldrums next February. That beach is going to sound awfully good about then!

An Invincible Summer is the story of Maggie Flynn. Recently widowed, she returns to her hometown of Wyndham Beach for her 40th high school reunion and finds a connection with her best friends Liddy and Emma and an uneasy spark with her high school boyfriend, Brett Crawford. When Maggie decides to relocate back to her hometown - along with her grown daughters, Emma and Natalie - she reopens some unfinished business from the past, with surprising results.

I wanted to read this novel because it sounded like such an appealing beach read. It even has a beach setting!

This was a delightful read with warm, sympathetic characters and a charming small town beach community. I am close Maggie's age and found her high school memories and the reunion aspect of this story especially fun. I loved her friendship with Liddy and Emma.

Maggie and Brett's story is the heart of the book. They were high school sweethearts in the 1970's but a secret separated them. When the secret unexpectedly resurfaces in present day, they are thrown back together ... with the same old connection, and choices to make.

This is the first book in a new series, and I already look forward to reading the upcoming books. I would love to read more about Maggie's friends Liddie and Emma, or her daughters Grace and Natalie. It will be interesting to see where Wyndham Beach leads in future books!

I thoroughly enjoyed An Invincible Summer and recommend it - as a beach read, or weekend read, or a perfect "staycation" treat. It is the heartwarming, engrossing story of characters readers are sure to care about.

Maggie Flynn is a widow and isn't feeling at home in the city where her and her late husband made a home, with a reunion that takes her back to her hometown, she wonders if a move would "move" her into her next phase of life. At the same time, her friends and her two daughters are going through drama of their own and the author gives them "screen time" to share with the readers their own struggles.

For me this book had to live up to my current love of Mariah Stewart. I have read a few books of hers and flew through them, so the pacing of this book was disappointing as at some moments it just meandered on. It felt as though there were times where extra detail was given that could have been omitted and the need for action made it hard for me to concentrate on the story.

The characters kept me reading this book. I loved that the author not only concentrated on Maggie Flynn, but her friends and daughters. There were moments when I was enjoying one daughter or the other better than Maggie's own story, but throughout the book, I loved the character development and interactions and was connected to them throughout the book.

Before reading this book, I was a Mariah Stewart fan and although this book didn't live up to my love for her other books, I will definitely continue to read in her hopes of finding that initial spark!

Ah a second chance romance featuring a mature character. But wait- Maggie's second chance romance is only with her old flame Brett, it's with herself and her friends Lydia and Emma. She's a widow who has just bought her family's home and is about to attend her 40th high school reunion. She's held herself back but now, with the support of her pals and her daughters, she's about to spread her wings again. This is the first book in a planned series so there are a couple of plot lines that feel unfinished that I suspect will turn up again. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read for a lazy day.

An Invincible Summer follows Maggie who return to her home town for her fortieth high school reunion. As there always are in small town, there are secrets that need to be revealed and dealt with. I think this book will be a good summer beach read for a lot of fans of this author. For me, I found it to be just OK. I felt like it took me forever to get through. The first couple of chapters felt very much like an info dump and I could myself skimming. I like Maggie well enough. But none of the other character really stood out to me. In the end, I felt like I had read this plot before. As I said, I think it just wasn't for me, but I do think others will probably enjoy it.

3 women, secrets, loss and love, and a summer that ties it all together.

Maggie and her daughters are lost. Maggie’s husband is gone, her daughter Natalie is raising Daisy as a single mom and Grace has more than she bargained for with a philandering ex-husband.

When Maggie meets up with her high school friends Emma and Lydia, none of the women can imagine just hard far they’ve come, and how fall they’ll continue to grow.

Poignant topics, friendships, forgiveness, and a fresh start make this a great summer read, and one I’d recommend!

If you like series, or books about older (60 ish) women, or second chances, or enduring friendships you'll enjoy this first book in t)he Wyndham Beach series. Set in the beautiful small town of Wyndham Beach, Maggie and her long time friends are coming to terms with the way their lives have unfolded, and all three seem to be eager to move forward after dealing with loss. But if you are hiding a long-held secret as Maggie is, moving forward may not be quite that simple.

I truly loved this book. An Invincible Summer is a beautiful women's fiction book about friendship that lasts a lifetime, family, and home. The characters were well written and engaging, all at different stages in their lives and facing different struggles. This book is mainly Maggie's story, but it also gives us a glimpse into future stories in the series. I for one can't wait to find out what happens with Libby, Emma, Natalie, Joe and Grace.

My sincere thanks to Montlake and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book and give my unbiased opinion of it.

What a great story! I found this to be both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Very well written and addicting. I got sucked in and I just had to keep reading to find out what happened next. I'm thrilled that this is the start of a new series and I can't wait to read more!

Maggie Flynn has been widowed for a couple years and when one of her daughters has a crisis she decides it is time for a change in her life. She decides to move to her home town and buy the house she grew up in. Maggie has a secret from her past that has tormented her for years. This is a story about a family and their support for each other. I liked the characters and the story line. I hope there will be another book in the series. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

***4 Stars***

The title was the lure and once I read the description my curiosity was peaked because I am a sucker for small towns and second chances and this book definitely gave me all of that and more. I was hooked from the first chapter and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this cast of characters and cannot wait to see what happens next.

As for Maggie. I have to say that I really liked her. She’s had a good life, but her world has gone sideways a few times, but each time it has she’s found a way to get her life back on track and make good things come of it.

This is my first read by the author, and my first women’s fiction in a very long time. I do tend to stick primarily within the romance realm, but this book worked for me on a lot of levels. The story was engaging, well written and the pacing was good. The different POV’s were well done and I liked how they gave the story a lot more depth, even as they introduced another plot to the series as a whole. As for the characters themselves. I honestly liked them all. They all had something that I could connect with and I’m looking forward to seeing how everything plays out for them as the series progresses.

~ Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley & voluntarily reviewed ~

So heartwarming and I shed more than a few tears!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think this story hit home with me so much because it’s about older women and their relationships with each other and their family. Those in the mid life and beyond are going to appreciate this one.

Those friendships you form in high school can be super tight especially if you foster them throughout the years. This is a story of three women and their relationship along with their family ties. It’s heartwarming, and even a little heartbreaking, as we go through trials and tribulations over the years. But it is the deep seated connections that make the difference.

There’s nothing like going home, where ever or whatever “home” may be for you. In this particular story, that home is grandmother’s house and it’s located in the town where Maggie’s two best friends live. The town she grew up in. The town where her ex-boyfriend lives.

Stewart beautifully identifies those deep feelings that we get through past loves, best friends, high school memories, nostalgia. Life changes and the older we get the more we want a simplistic life without the drama. We want peace along with the love of friends and family.

I love how Stewart developed this story and brings a bit of surprise drama and love to the mix. She offers characters that are fun and friendly; people you would love to live next door to. But also the family ties that we cannot cut but can distance ourselves from are displayed in a perfect manner.

This story hooked me from the beginning and kept me dangling all the way through; cheering, crying, and just absorbing the decisions as Maggie finds her path to true happiness. An emotional second chance romance that just grabs you in your feels. A wonderful story I just fell for!

This was such a heartwarming and also heartbreaking story. A lifetime friendship, a second chance at life to start over from fresh after the death of her husband, a second chance at first love as well and a beautiful setting that makes you dream with your eyes open.
I enjoyed immensely this book and if you are looking for a great story with interesting characters and a second chance romance, this one is definitely for you.