4ā
GenreĀ ~ coming of age fiction
SettingĀ ~ Canada
Publication dateĀ ~ May 13, 2025
PublisherĀ ~ Random House Canada
Est Page CountĀ ~ 368
Audio lengthĀ ~ ? hours ? minutes
NarratorĀ ~ Athena Karkanis
POVĀ ~ single 1st, present & past tense
FeaturingĀ ~ dual timeline, small town, first crush, first love, first heartbreak, friends to lovers, forbidden romance, second chance, very, very minimal steamage
My review:
Lia (28, now) & Wes (28, now) first met when they were both 14 years old. Her family has purchased a cottage on a lake that theyāll visit in the summers, while he and his mom live there full time. The dual timeline goes back to 14 years and moves to 10 years, which is when they last saw each other.
Now, Lia is spending the summer there again helping her 15 year old niece while her mom goes through cancer treatment. She never thought sheād go to the cottage again, and never wanted to see Wes again, either. But as the past timelines slowly move to the present we get a good look at what went wrong and why.
The plot lies heavily on cultural differences and strict parents, which leads to secrets and sneaking around. Lia is a people pleaser who tries to make everyone happy, especially her parents and boss. She strives to be the perfect daughter, even choosing a career based on her fatherās dream for her. It takes one more summer at the beloved cottage for her to see that whose dreams matter most are those of her own.
Wesās commitment to helping his mom was truly heartwarming. He was really sweet and you could just feel how he couldnāt understand why he was being kept a secret.
First loves are sweet and first heartbreaks can be earth shattering to young hearts.
Overall, this was a pretty great debut. There are great side characters, except for one bad pill, there always has to be one. I canāt wait to see what Noreen writes next.
Author note:
The Summers Between Us is a story that aims to represent the messiness of life. This book contains discussion of divorce, homophobia, pregnancy loss, grief over the loss of a parent as an adult and coping with family illness.
*Thanks to Jackie at Random House Canada for providing me with a copy. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review.
Narration notes:
I did not listen to this one, but am just giving the above info for reference.
Get your copy on ~ Amazon
Add to your never ending TBRĀ ~ goodreads
Iād love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read it.
Book blurb:
A decade apart, a painful secretācan two childhood sweethearts find their way back to a love that defies cultures and time?
Lia Juma thought sheād buried the dreams of her heart long ago. But when sheās forced to return to her familyās summer cottage on Pike Bay, the life sheās carefully crafted begins to unravel. The perfect immigrant daughter, Lia has carved a successful career as a corporate lawyer and has just started dating a man who fulfills all her motherās criteria for the ideal son-in-law. But underneath her polished life lies a secret sheās never spoken ofāone she fears could have destroyed her family a decade ago.
Back at the bay, Lia stumbles upon memories she thought long forgotten and, at the center of it all, is Wesley Forestāthe boy she left behind, the boy who knew her dreams better than anyone. Their friendship and young love once burned bright, woven through long sun-drenched days and whispered promises of a future together. But when family pressures and heartbreak pulled the two lovers apart, they were forced to follow separate paths.
Now, Wes is back in her life, and with him, old wounds and feelings surface. As the two confront the choices and secrets that divided them as teenagers, Lia must decide if she can heal from the past and finally embrace the life and love sheās always craved. Could a second chance with Wes be worth risking everything for?
Told over the course of five years in the past and one summer in the present, Lia will discover that sometimes, the only way forward is through the heartās deepest scars.
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