Review Detail

Juniper and her mother live on the North Shore of White Coral Beach, where they run a small cafe right next to their home. Juniper has a good friend Milo nearby, as well as friend-turned-secret-boyfriend, Graham. Her mother is dating Paul, who has a daughter, Tallulah, who is a year younger, and announces that the two have decided to move in together before thinking about getting married. Juniper isn't thrilled, but is even less thrilled when she realizes that she and her mother will be moving to the posh South Shore to live in Paul's house. The only upside is that her father, whom she hasn't seen in two years, is going to be working nearby for a while, and Juniper has talked her mother into letting her father stay in their house. Things are complicated with Milo and Graham: Milo's girlfriends don't always like Juniper, and Graham's father has recently separated from his mother because he got a younger women, who was a friend of Juniper's, pregnant. Graham's mother quit working for Graham's father, and moved away to be with family who offered her a new job with benefits. Graham isn't handling any of it well, and he and Juniper have a fraught relationship. Juniper is involved in a community theater production of a 1920s reworking on Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Nights Dream, and it is running into difficulties as well. As Tallulah and Juniper spend more time together, they do learn to get along better, but Tallulah's emerging relationship with Juniper's longtime friend Lucy, also changes the dynamics. While the summer drama never reaches the level of Juniper's favorite television show, Proper Southern Ladies, there's still plenty of it to be had.