Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The Forever Summer - Release Day Review & Giveaway

Review by Deb Czajkowski
Marin Bishop is about to celebrate her thirtieth birthday with her parents.  She has reasons for this to be a happy birthday dinner: She is a lawyer for a prestigious Manhattan law firm and has just been assigned to a high-profile case ─ a big deal for a junior lawyer at the firm; she knows her father ─also an attorney who is highly respected in the legal world─ will be proud of her, and his approval is extremely important to her. There is also one reason that this will be an unhappy birthday dinner: Marin has just broken her engagement to Greg ─Greg, from a prominent Manhattan family, Greg, the successful Wall Street Financier.  That is unhappy! Actually, Marin is fine with her decision to end the engagement; it’s her mother who will be unhappy!

Oh, and there’s also a (birthday?) surprise coming her way!

Rachel Moscowitz was born and raised in Los Angeles.  Well, that’s a tad misleading.  Rachel’s mother ─”Call me Fran, don’t ever call me Mom!”─gave birth to Rachel, but that was her largest role in Rachel’s twenty-three years of life.  And Rachel’s father was, literally, a sperm donor.  Rachel has always wanted a family ─really, to know her family!─ and now, with the help of a friend, Rachel learns the name of her father ─and that she has a half-sister! Rachel can’t wait to make contact with them and to get to know her family.  Will they feel this same way?

Amelia Cabral runs the family B&B, the one that’s been in her family for generations ─at least five!  But her husband and son are deceased, and she’s been estranged from her daughter for over thirty years.  Now, at age seventy-five, for the first time ever, she’s not opening the inn for this summer’s guests ─even the regulars, the ones who book next year’s week at the end of this year’s.  Worse yet, she’s tired, so tired that she’s wondering if this is really closing the inn for good.  Can she really do that?  After so many generations, can she be the last in the long line of her family history to own and operate this special summer home for visitors? Unthinkable. But still….It’s what she’s thinking!

Author Jamie Brenner paints three very different pictures: Three strong women who are independent and perhaps more resilient than they even know.  All three, coming from diverse and separate scenarios, are about to collide, learning lessons about life that none see coming.  The author, in The Forever Summer, clearly delineates the fierce personalities of her leading ladies.  She shows us through their actions that they have flaws and vulnerabilities but also fortitude in facing newly revealed truths, and working through the clouds to find the sunshine once again.

If your family is unconventional, you might see yourself, or your family, in The Forever Summer.  Or maybe your family isn’t like any of those in The Forever Summer, but you can identify with the uniqueness that comprises every family unit. Large or small, extended or just you; it’s still a family ─your family.  If you wouldn’t define your family as unconventional, The Forever Summer will peek into the lives of those who do. 

Life can ─and usually does!─surprise us at one time or another. The Forever Summer has its share!  If you’re in the mood for intriguing surprises, start turning the pages of The Forever Summer.

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About the author:
Jamie Brenner is the author of The Wedding Sisters, coming June 14, 2016 from St. Martin's Press. Her previous novels include the historical The Gin Lovers (St. Martin's Press), named by Fresh Fiction as one of the Top Thirteen Books to read in 2013, and Ruin Me, a coming-of-age story set in the art world. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two daughters.

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The Forever Summer by Jamie Brenner

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