Kelsey Worthington is a desk-bound young woman in a publishing house, who is about to embark on THE SUMMER OF YES. That happens after a major shift in her mindset, caused by a street accident. Waking up in a hospital with concussion and bruising, to be told she was lucky the car hadn’t killed her, Kelsey makes changes. Her companion in the hospital is a senior lady, Georgina Tate of the publicly listed Tate Cosmetics. Georgina’s in a worse medical condition, and Kelsey tries to persuade her to take some time for herself too.
We see something of busy New York City with the unlikely pair. Georgina's son Hayden is spotted by Kelsey at the hospital, but he doesn’t visit as they haven’t spoken in a decade. He sided with his father in the breakup. Kelsey has too much to do, initially, to worry about this man she doesn’t know. She haunts Georgina’s vicinity until the older businesswoman agrees to do some interesting activities.
The reader’s reaction to this story will depend on how they see Kelsey. She’s quite a strange person, as she lives out of boxes in the apartment she’s inhabited for two years. No decorations or personal touches. She’s frequently manipulative and thoughtless where other people are concerned. Kelsey also obsesses over her assistant editor work and thinks she can’t have a writing career because she doesn’t want to write great literature. To me, this makes no sense, as the editor sees non-literary novels making money every week. And she’s assigned to help a Tik-Tok star write a book. Makes no sense.
I feel the author, Courtney Walsh, may be writing to help herself and her readers get back to interesting life after the Covid lockdowns trapped us in homes and restricted activities. Kelsey doesn’t do anything world-shakingly important or scary, her changes being more of the edible variety and travels involving a borrowed car and a small boat.
Georgina Tate is by far the more interesting personality. We’re told she broke glass ceilings, was a workaholic – and still is, though the firm seems to run sweetly without her input. Having sacrificed family time, she now has to reconsider, at Kelsey’s prompting. While Georgina is unapproachable to start, I was soon cheering for her, wanting a better outcome. THE SUMMER OF YES may be tailored to an older lady’s pace, but Courtney Walsh encourages us to think positively, think of others, and do something interesting in our lives. That’s worth a read.
Sometimes you’re so busy writing other people’s stories that you lose the plot of your own.
This wasn’t how Kelsey Worthington’s day was supposed to go. She wasn’t supposed to be picking up Starbucks for her smarmy boss. She wasn’t supposed to get hit by a car that jumped the curb. And she certainly wasn’t supposed to wake up in a hospital room next to Georgina Tate—the legendary matriarch of New York City businesswomen.
Kelsey and Georgina couldn’t be more opposite. Kelsey’s a dreamer, a writer who questions her own skill. And Georgina is a confident businesswoman whose years of shouldering her way into boardrooms and making her voice heard have made her far too outspoken for the faint of heart.
But now, when Georgina’s failing kidneys force her to face some big regrets about the way she’s lived her life, the two women recognize they share a common thread. Maybe it’s time to confront a few things. They must ask themselves: What if I said yes to everything I’ve always said no to?
With Georgina as her companion, Kelsey soon finds herself doing things she’s never done before. Eating street food. Swimming in the ocean. Matchmaking for Georgina with the help of Georgina’s handsome son. And writing her own romance—both in book form and in real life.