A review by theberries
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

3.0

I liked Summer Before. I cared about the characters and felt/bled for them, and I learned from reading it. But it did not capture me the way that Major Pettigrew did, and I did not have to re-read it immediately like I did Major Pettigrew. I wish I could say otherwise, because Simonson is such a good writer and she clearly did a ton of research to create this entire village of characters navigating the first waves of change that would crash down upon them as a result of The Great War. But all I could think was that so much worse was coming for them, and most of them had no idea of the horrors in store for their nation, the Continent, and the world, in this war or in the next one(s).