The Summer that made Us

Author: Robyn Carr

Publisher: Mira

Release Date: September 5, 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

Reviewer: Jessica Higgins

And you think your family is screwed up!

Charley’s world has just been turned upside down. After years of having her own successful morning talk show in San Francisco, she suddenly finds it cancelled without any job options available.  Incredibly, her life partner of twenty-two years decides now would be the perfect time to get married to fix her problems.  But the worse thing is that her sister Meg is slowly dying from stage four breast cancer.  When Meg decides she wants to spend the summer at the lake house that the family used growing up, Charley knows it will be a huge undertaking to restore the house and the family after twenty seven years.  Meg soon sends out letters to the cousins and hopes that everyone will show up, even though she doubts they will.  But they eventually do.  One cousin is just released from prison, another lives in a make believe world, and the other one fully separated from the family after the accident that split the family apart all those years ago.  As they come back together, they start working through the events that tore them down as they are made whole again.

Having only read Robyn Carr’s Sullivan Crossing series, this was not exactly what I expected, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The recurring theme of hope and restoration of the family shines through in this new novel.  This family is messed up, but in reality, aren’t so many others?

The majority of the book is told around the central character of Charley, but does also have a few sideline character views as well. Each of the characters shares their life experience in different viewpoints that really puts everything into perspective.  The event that I thought split everyone up wasn’t actually the case.  It was something completely different.  That added a little bit of mystery.

There is some harsh language and sex scenes throughout, so I recommend this book to mature readers.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.