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A review by beckymmoe
The Summer Deal by Jill Shalvis
5.0
OMG, I am loving this series so hard!
The Summer Deal is a contemporary romance hidden inside a women's fiction novel (ugh, I really dislike that term, but apparently it's here to stay)--as are the rest of the books in this series, really. Told from three POVs--Brynn, Kinsey, and Eli--you'd be hard pressed to say whether Brynn and Eli's or Brynn and Kinsey's relationship is the more satisfying one to read about.
As is customary in Ms Shalvis's books, the secondary characters here nearly steal the show--I adored Max (Eli's half brother and the forth roommate in the house the three POV characters live in), Deck (Kinsley's love interest; if this were a straight up contemporary romance we would have had his POV too!), Brynn's moms Olive and Raina, and of course the animals, Catherine the Great Cat and Mini. They all played their part, bringing the story to an extremely colorful life. Then there's the setting--OMG, I've never wanted to be at the beach so badly as while I was reading this...
But I digress.
I only have two complaints (beyond the women's fiction label) here. First, secrets (mostly Kinsey's, though Brynn wasn't blameless here) were held just a little *too* long here. Ms Shalvis did her best to convince us that they both felt they needed to keep them, but at the same time both knew that they did so far past the point where they should have, and it was frustrating. Second, Brynn's past hurts just didn't seem to live up to the emotional scarring she apparently had from them. I get the grudge she had against Kinsey--I am the queen of keeping grudges, so I felt her there!--but other childhood bullying (over her lesbian moms and...wearing glasses, I guess?) and one bad relationship (admittedly, she just had that bad relationship, and it did end in one heck of a betrayal, so at least that wound was fresh) really shouldn't have affected her as much as they did here. Fortunately she was eventually able to move on, but with as fabulous as her relationship with her moms was, it was hard to buy her "I never really fit in anywhere before" complaint. Sure, they were smothering, but she clearly fit with them, so...
Honestly, though, even with that super long paragraph I just wrote, I only took off a half a star, so what does that tell you? ;)
One thing that I really liked about this book is thatall the drama of Brynn finally giving Kinsey a kidney plays out 100% off the page. Ms Shalvis totally could have put it all out there in front of us--I almost expected her to, as almost any other author would have!--but she didn't. Honestly, I liked it so much better this way, because it kept the book's focus on establishing and growing relationships, exactly where it should be.
And OMG, that epilogue--with the most perfect, most Kinsey-ish final line! :D
Like the other books in this series, The Summer Deal absolutely works as a standalone. It's set in the same town as all the others (Wildstone, obvs) but other than that there was no relationship to the other stores. So--a great place to start, but do yourself a favor and read them all! ;)
Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
The Summer Deal is a contemporary romance hidden inside a women's fiction novel (ugh, I really dislike that term, but apparently it's here to stay)--as are the rest of the books in this series, really. Told from three POVs--Brynn, Kinsey, and Eli--you'd be hard pressed to say whether Brynn and Eli's or Brynn and Kinsey's relationship is the more satisfying one to read about.
As is customary in Ms Shalvis's books, the secondary characters here nearly steal the show--I adored Max (Eli's half brother and the forth roommate in the house the three POV characters live in), Deck (Kinsley's love interest; if this were a straight up contemporary romance we would have had his POV too!), Brynn's moms Olive and Raina, and of course the animals, Catherine the Great Cat and Mini. They all played their part, bringing the story to an extremely colorful life. Then there's the setting--OMG, I've never wanted to be at the beach so badly as while I was reading this...
But I digress.
I only have two complaints (beyond the women's fiction label) here. First, secrets (mostly Kinsey's, though Brynn wasn't blameless here) were held just a little *too* long here. Ms Shalvis did her best to convince us that they both felt they needed to keep them, but at the same time both knew that they did so far past the point where they should have, and it was frustrating. Second, Brynn's past hurts just didn't seem to live up to the emotional scarring she apparently had from them. I get the grudge she had against Kinsey--I am the queen of keeping grudges, so I felt her there!--but other childhood bullying (over her lesbian moms and...wearing glasses, I guess?) and one bad relationship (admittedly, she just had that bad relationship, and it did end in one heck of a betrayal, so at least that wound was fresh) really shouldn't have affected her as much as they did here. Fortunately she was eventually able to move on, but with as fabulous as her relationship with her moms was, it was hard to buy her "I never really fit in anywhere before" complaint. Sure, they were smothering, but she clearly fit with them, so...
Honestly, though, even with that super long paragraph I just wrote, I only took off a half a star, so what does that tell you? ;)
One thing that I really liked about this book is that
And OMG, that epilogue--with the most perfect, most Kinsey-ish final line! :D
Like the other books in this series, The Summer Deal absolutely works as a standalone. It's set in the same town as all the others (Wildstone, obvs) but other than that there was no relationship to the other stores. So--a great place to start, but do yourself a favor and read them all! ;)
Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.