The Summer Cottage

By Viola Shipman

Graydon House  2019

384 pages     Fiction

I knew that I would love The Summer Cottage from the very first lines. “There it is! I said, rolling down the car window and sticking my head out. Even though I was a grown woman. . .there was nothing like seeing my family’s summer cottage again.” The setting for The Summer Cottage is the beach and community of Saugatuck/Douglas Michigan, about 50 miles south of our family cottages near the Lake Michigan community of Pentwater, Michigan. Saugatuck/Douglas is an awesome, artsy community with magnificent white sand beaches, trendy bars and restaurants, and great shopping. The setting is as much a part of the magic of this sweet book as are the many characters that tell the story.

Adie Lou Clarke has been coming to Cozy Cottage for all her life, so when she and her cheating husband divorce, she returns to Cozy Cottage for solace and to gain strength. Although the cottage has seen better days, Adie Lou, who has just quit her job, looks at the cottage with new eyes, wondering if she could turn it into a bed and breakfast and make a new life for herself. Encouraged by her best friend Trish, and her college son, Evan, Adie Lou sets out to reconstruct the cottage and reconstruct her life.

This is the story of her journey, the friends she makes, the local personalities that seek to confound her endeavor, and the love interest who returns from her teenage years. One of the delightful aspects of the book are the cottage rules that Adie Lou incorporates into the design of the remodel and into the inspiration for the way she will engage with the people who come to visit Cozy Cottage. The author uses those rules to guide the chapters, as well. They are:

"1. Leave your troubles at the door.

2. Soak up the sun.

3. Nap often.

4. Wake up smiling.

5. Build a bonfire.

6. Go rock-hunting.

7. Dinner is a family activity.

8. Ice cream is a requirement.

9. Be grateful for each day.

10. Go jump in the lake.

11. Build a sandcastle.

12. Boat rides are a shore thing.

13. Everyone must be present for sunset.

14. Shake the sand from your feet, but never shake the memories of our summer cottage."

Board by board and room by room, Adie Lou creates this new dream for her life. The narrative takes us through the first year--from the construction to the first months of the bed and breakfast, and the reader finds herself rooting for Adie Lou, hoping that she can make this new part of her life successful.

The book is a simple, sweet read. I found myself wishing that I were reading it on the deck of the cottage we visit on Lake Michigan every year, pausing and looking up from my reading to listen to the children playing on the beach, riding their bikes up and down the road, climbing on the huge sand dune behind the cottage, or gathering to watch the sunset. I felt very connected to the story and the vivid portrayal of cottage life.

I have visited Saugatuck many times over my years in Michigan, and I felt that the author was very much in touch with the pace of the community and the joy of cottage life. Imagine my surprise when I found that the author is a man named Wade Rouse. His pseudonym, Viola Shipman, is actually his grandmother’s name, and he writes to honor his grandmother. He obviously knows the territory because he lives in the Saugatuck community. Not only did he understand well the setting for the book, but he also did a remarkable job of telling a story from a woman’s point of view.

I am not usually a fan of beach reads, but because of my connection with West Michigan beaches, I felt very much in tune with The Summer Cottage. We are all waiting to return. As a matter of fact, my twin granddaughters, who are graduating from high school in a few weeks, made sure to find out which weeks were cottage weeks so that they could make room for Pentwater during their very busy summer. We all find our peace at the cottage.

Wade Rouse is going to make several appearances in West Michigan over the next few weeks, promoting The Summer Cottage. His appearances will culminate at the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival in Dowagiac Michigan on Friday May 17. I hope to meet him there.