What do readers think of The Narrowboat Summer by Anne Youngson? Write your own review.

I enjoyed reading The Narrowboat Summer. I learned a lot about canals and narrow boats which were two things I didn't know I would be interested in. I can't say that I necessarily liked Anastasia, but Sally and Eve had enough depth to keep me wanting to hear more about their lives. This was the perfect book to take my mind out of our current world and if the author writes a sequel, I would happy to read more about all the characters in this book.

I knew nothing about narrowboats before I started reading The Narrowboat Summer by Anne Youngson. I never knew it was an option for an English holiday, much less a way of life for the denizens who live on them full- or part-time. And there are tunnels and bridges and locks (!) to navigate with at least a modicum of skill, though apparently one can pick up the necessary skills relatively quickly.

I was enchanted with the book, not just because of the pastoral setting (not always!), but also because of the strong development of main characters and some assorted family members and friends. For the three main characters, two middle-aged women and one who is elderly, the narrowboat journey serves as a subtle metaphor for a re-evaluation of their lives, a "time-out" for them to make some decisions for which fork in the stream they will take. I think of this book as a bit of a "coming-of-age" novel, though in this case our heroines aren't bridging to adulthood but to a new chapter in their lives.

I was thrilled to get an ARC of The Narrowboat Summer! Thank you so much to Book Browse, Net Galley, and Macmillan for the opportunity to read it early. Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson is one of my favorite books, so I've been anxiously awaiting a new book from Ms. Youngson. I was especially excited when reading the description of the book - what better way to escape this terrible year of 2020 than by drifting along the canals of the English countryside getting to know three older female characters?

Unfortunately I didn't love this book as much as I hoped I would. The problem is likely mainly due to my own expectations, which isn't fair to the author. I finished the book about a week ago and have been trying to puzzle out why it didn't click for me, before I wrote my review. I think the first reason is because I was expecting a charming, idyllic escape. While Ms. Youngson does an excellent job of pacing the novel to reflect the slow drift of a Narrowboat making its way through the canals, she also does a good job of reflecting the reality of such a journey, including some of the grittier landscapes and characters, the sometimes boring stretches of time, and the often repetitive tasks (I probably don't need to ever read about going through locks again, ever).

The other thing that didn't click for me was the character of Anastasia. I'm not a fan of the "crotchety-yet-wise old person" trope generally, and I felt like the great affection the two main characters had for Anastasia wasn't well-founded enough to be believable.

I did enjoy getting to know the two main characters and taking a virtual trip during these Covid times. As I mentioned earlier, I think the pacing fit the story well, and I think Ms. Youngson is talented at capturing the feeling of a journey, whether by boat, train, or road trip - that sense of being outside of time, letting the journey dictate the rhythm of your days, until the journey is almost at an end and you realize there's so much else you could have noticed or done as you need to start adhering to a schedule again.

Even though I didn't enjoy this as much as I expected or as much as Meet Me at the Museum, I still hope Ms. Youngson has already started her next book. I'll be right there in line to buy it.

This was a pleasant read, but not one needing deep thought or commitment. The whole concept of two women meeting as strangers and agreeing to take on a boat trip when neither were familiar with boats was somewhat of a stretch. To stretch the idea even further, they took on the care of the elderly, somewhat crotchety boat owner. All were things you wish you would do if you were in a similar position, but realistically know it wouldn't be that easy. I liken it to the premise of EAT, PRAY, LOVE. This book might interest some book clubs as the relationships between the characters could be examined for discussion, but overall there's not a lot of depth to this book.

Fans of Meet Me at the Museum, Youngson's first novel, will not find the same epistolary structure or poignant philosophical musings in this second outing. Narrowboat Summer has its own pleasures, though, as we witness two very ordinary middle age women, Eve and Sally, step out of their humdrum lives and agree on the spur of the moment to pilot a narrow boat through the canals of England while the boat's owner seeks medical treatment. How much a reader enjoys Narrowboat Summer will depend on how closely they identify with Eve and Sally.

Thank you to BrookBrowse for providing me with an ARC of The Narrowboat Summer. I had eagerly awaited this book as I had so enjoyed Anne Youngson's Meet me At The Museum. Fans of that book may be disappointed, as this book did not meet my expectations. In her new novel Ms. Youngson offers a view of life traveling the canals of England. The story revolves around the accidental meeting and blossoming friendship of three women who are all faced with pivotal moments in their lives offering a chance for introspection and growth. There are some lovely telling scenes and some notable quotes but the most fully developed character in the book is the canal and while its descriptions are lyrical and detailed the characters while initially interesting often come across as inauthentic, flat and difficult to know. For example, a woman who worked in a male dominated field and is the only woman on the top floor laments that she feels sorry for men. She criticizes " the idea of diversity, the constant challenges to the notion that being a man required and even mandated certain patterns of behavior, they were instead of liberated, cast into a darkness where the rules were not yet clear enough for them to be sure they had read and interpreted them correctly ." This did not mesh with the image of a woman who has worked hard to be successful in a male dominated profession, and it seemed too forced and weirdly placed. Other characters while perhaps more believable, were unfortunately, not fully developed and this coupled with an abrupt ending left me unsatisfied. I wanted to know more about Sally than just a few cliché revelations, there seemed to be so much more to her than just the glimpses we were given. The Narrowboat Summer offered such an interesting setting and premise but the lovely, lingering and vivid, details were all about the setting- the canal, the boats, the landscape while the characters remained in the background as fuzzy objects in black and white.

I just could not get into this book