Title: Memories of Friendship Inn
Author: Jessie Newton
Quote: "She wanted to make something of her life, and she knew it wouldn't happen here in Five Island Cove."
In a group of five small islands near Nantucket, five girls have grown up together. They're out of high school and moving off in different directions. The story opens with an adventure as the girls row across the channel to another island, get stuck there in a storm, and stay in a hotel where one of them sneaks out with a boy, as is her habit. Boys are Ava Jane's antidepressant of choice. None of these girls thinks she's "n love" or has made much room for "love" in her plans, which seems improbable; real girls resolve to be that way, in small insular communities where all the young people at least feel like cousins, but in real life you'd think some of them would have gone to the mainland and Got Ideas. The plot then continues through a few more scenes showing each girl as the immature form of one of the characters in Jessie Newton's thirteen-volume (so far) series about these women as adults.
There's a "sneak peek" forward into the series about them as adults. Yes, men and even children will be part of their adult lives, though the series seems to be more about their friendship--at least one of the women is already a widow when, thirty years later, the adventures of the children's club pick up again.
This longish short story is most likely to appeal to people who are or want to be closely acquainted with these characters as adults. It is mostly an introduction and, after the teenagers get back home, it drags a bit. If you want to share the author's four imaginary friends and watch them coping with the addictions and emotional problems they're already forming as kids, this book is for you.
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