Book Review - The Summer we Came to Life by Debora Cloyed

Title:  The Summer we Came to Life

Author:  Deborah Cloyed

Publisher: Mira

ISBN: 13-978-0-7783-1291-9

Release Date:  2011

Pages: 312

Genre:  Chick Lit (but on a more serious side)

Format: Paperback

Source:  Publisher for Review

Back Cover:

Every summer, Samantha Wheland joins her childhood friends – Isabel, Kendra, and Mina – on a vacation, somewhere exotic and fabulous.  Together with their mixed bag of parents, they’ve created a lifetime of memories.  This year it’s a beach house in Honduras.  But for the first time, their clan is not complete.  Mina lost her battle against cancer six months ago, and the friends she left behind are still struggling to find their way forward without her.

For Samantha, the vacation just feels wrong without Mina.  Despite being surrounded by her friends – the closest thing she has to family – Mina’s death has left Sam a little lost.  Unsure what direction her life should take.  Fearful that whatever decision she makes about her wealthy French boyfriend’s surprise proposal, it’ll be the wrong one.

The answers aren’t in  the journal Mina gave Same before she died.  Or in the messages Sam believes Mina is sending as guideposts.  Before the trip ends, the bonds of friendship with her living friends, the older generation’s stories of love and loss, and Sam’s glimps int a world far removed from the one in which she belongs will convince her to trust her heart.  And follow it.

My Review:

For me the book started out very slow and I wasn’t sure if I could get through it.  I finally hit the point where I couldn’t put it down about half way through.  Journal entry vs. current day and the physics were a little oft putting.

This is a story about 4 friends that started when they were children until now when they are in their 30s.  The girls thought it wasn’t right to do this with Mina missing, but in the end they all realize that she would have wanted it to stay the same.  The older generation (the mother’s) tell their stories of love and choices that they made.  It was a great way to realize how we are all connected no matter our age.

I like that the choices that we make connect us all.  It’s amazing the strong bond of “family” they have created through the years.  The book while it did wonder in places was good once it got to the end.  I was a book that made you think.

Not bad for a first book.