Blame It On Nantucket

by Doreen Burliss, Sara Oestreich (Editor), Sarah Lahay (Cover Art)

What if finding your footing means letting go of the plan?
Carly Hill wants what everyone wants—a place and a person that feels like home. To be connected and steady without giving up adventure and the unscripted moments.

At the edge of thirty, Carly is still chasing the next zip code as a content creator, flying by the seat of her vintage Levis, while everyone around her is building a life with shape and meaning. When her Boston lease ends and her childhood home is sold, Carly heads for a summer gig at an ocean-front guest house on Nantucket, tasked with creating a tourism campaign for the un-billionaires of the world.

She has a front-row seat to the mess and the magic of relationships – what makes them last, and where the fault lines hide. Behind the camera, Carly starts to turn the lens inward, confronting old losses and the weight of feeling unworthy of her own happy ending -- while longing for it anyway.

Enter August Wilder, a Colorado cowboy with grounded confidence and slow-burn charm. With his boots on Nantucket sand, he brings Carly’s Yellowstone obsession into sharper focus, his quiet steadiness making space for a version of herself just starting to unfold.

Blame It On Nantucket is layered with intimate Nantucket detail, the storm of self-doubt and salty air, as it swirls with want and wonder.

292 pages, Paperback

Published June 17, 2025

About the author

Doreen Burliss, author of We'll Always Have Nantucket and That Nantucket Summer is a former lifestyle columnist and news correspondent with an irrepressible eye for photography even with the cheapest lens in the room. She believes in giving more than you get, in the enormous vitality of all living things, and that there's music for every mood, like Seals & Crofts "Summer Breeze" cranked in the station wagon on the way to your grandparents' and then the serenade of red-wing blackbirds in the trees when you get there. She loves kids, their singular brilliance, curiosity and trust, and can hardly bear that her own three have quite suddenly grown up and away. She lives with her husband in a small town north of Boston with two fat cats and a dog.



Fogged In is her second novel.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great beach read by Doreen Burliss. Blame it on Nantucket gives us single ladies hope that true love is out there, and might find its way into your life, when you least expect it. You just have to leave yourself open and allow yourself to be vulnerable just like Carly does in this book. I love how Doreen Burliss really makes her characters come alive with her in depth descriptions of each. I really felt like I knew each character, personally.

[Therese A Royce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Such a great setting. I’ve never been to Nantucket but I can see what it’s like through this book. I have read all of Doreen’s books and this was the best. Great summer romance!

[Bonnie Maclachlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Change of pace for me. A feel good story!

[Janelle AP · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book and find a replacement for the retired Elin Hilderbrand's genius. However, this was not it. I almost put it away many times. The story idea was classic, but good. I knew from the very beginning what the ending would be. The length, unnecessary detail, the stunning amount of spelling, grammatical and silly errors made me roll my eyes more than once. There were a few interesting, imaginative lines, but that was it. The only real surprise was at the very end and it was short-lived. This book needs a total rewrite. I'd be surprised if an editor had actually read it.