Welcome to the Love Books Tour for Summer Kind of Love by Charlène Boutin.
Avery spends most of her time hunched over a laptop, writing the kind of words that end up on website homepages and glossy brochures. But ever since "The One" turned out to be the
one who smashed her heart to bits, the page has been relentlessly blank. And blank pages mean an empty bank account.
When an up-market retreat center offers Avery a major project, she jumps at the chance to pay next month's bills. But taking the job means committing to a change of scenery to
jumpstart her failing creative spark. A cottage by the sea won't be lonely...right?
Actually, it's anything but. Because Logan, once the only person in the world Avery could rely on, is working the front desk. And just like that, Avery's past catches up to her. It's too
much and too wonderful all at once. Too...everything.
Review:
I do love a good Canadian love story (I’ve enjoyed several books by Kim Mills and Damhnait Monaghan, for starters). And don’t judge this book by its adorable cover.
I don’t always know how to take an author’s warnings at the beginning of a novel, but I always appreciate their thoughtfulness toward their readers. In this novel’s case, one of the warnings about anxiety made me wonder what was going on with (what I thought was) this romantic comedy.
WELL. This book was much, much more than a romantic comedy.
Summer Kind of Love begins with our main character Avery in a sad and tough place, making an uncharacteristically bold choice: pay for a month’s rent on a vacation cabin several hours from her apartment, so she could have a workcation and get some writing done. As a copywriter, she must complete the project, and she knows she cannot stay in her apartment, the one she shared with her now-ex, because she is completely blocked.
Lo and behold, she runs into her former best-friend-crush Logan while at the cabin. The book synopsis puts it this way: “Logan, once the only person in the world Avery could rely on, is working the front desk. And just like that, Avery’s past catches up to her. It’s too much and too wonderful all at once. Too...everything.”
Reconnecting with Logan, Avery must come to terms with a few unpleasant aspects of herself that are exacerbated by her anxiety, and that is the part about the story that really caught me by surprise. Anxiety is not something I knew much about until recent years, because I always thought of it as just feeling stressed. Panic attacks can be overwhelming and debilitating to people, and Avery has a couple of them during the course of the novel. Like many of us, we have to come to terms with the unpleasant aspects of ourselves, and Avery has some tough choices to make. Thankfully she doesn’t have to do it alone – and with that I will stop because no spoilers.
What I will say is this: While I respect the heads-up, I also am glad that some of this book caught me off guard, because sometimes thinking about books helps me deal with things in my own life. This book did that, and I am very glad (even though it has not been exactly easy).
Another spoiler-free shocker was the hint at the series of books to come. What this means is that I will definitely be looking for the next in the series!
Four stars for a bit of confusion in some parts and for a bit more cursing than I felt was necessary overall.
Thanks to Love Books Tours as well as the author and her publisher, for a review copy of this novel. All thoughts about the book are my own.
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