Reviews - Seven Summers | The StoryGraph

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1.36k reviews for:

Seven Summers

Paige Toon

4.04 AVERAGE

honeyhoe's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful relaxing

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Very nice, loved it. Could do without the epilogue tho :/

cmorgan1101's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

_sharon's review against another edition

3.25

sad slow-paced

deadrocky19's review against another edition

2.5

inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Contains spoilers! This is my review of Seven Summers by Paige Toon. I hadn’t read anything by her before, but I liked the way this one was written. The structure alternates between different summers in the past and the current summer, so the chapters move back and forth in time.

The main character is Liv, who lives by the sea in Cornwall. She starts dating a boy called Finn, who later moves to Los Angeles. Each summer they reconnect, and the story has strong small-town, friends-to-lovers vibes, filled with art, creativity, and the atmosphere of long days at the beach. It really transported me to Cornwall with my own friends.

I thought the book handled grief very well. Both Liv and Finn struggle with family breakdowns and loss, and Paige Toon dealt with those themes in a realistic, moving way. It made me quite emotional. I also loved that Liv chose to focus on herself rather than automatically falling back into things with Finn. She starts a relationship with Tom, and I really liked how they fell in love.

That said, there were moments that didn’t work for me. For example, Liv and Tom’s scene together on a restaurant sofa felt unnecessary — imagining someone sitting on that sofa the next day made me feel a bit queasy. Still, I appreciated Liv’s independence, her choice to pursue her sculpting full time despite her grief, and her determination to prioritise her own future.

The ending, though, completely ruined it for me. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I was so frustrated that I literally threw the book across the room. The epilogue, in particular, felt like it undid all of Liv’s growth. All her independence, hard work, and prioritising herself over Finn seemed to vanish. I was especially annoyed at how Tom’s character was treated — he deserved better.

Up until the ending, I thought the book was really good, and I’d definitely read more by Paige Toon. But if she writes another ending like this one, I’d struggle. For me, it started strong but the final twist soured the experience.