The Summer After You and Me [Spotlight Blitz & Review/Giveaway]

Posted May 4, 2015 by Stephanie in Excerpt, Review, Spotlight / 0 Comments

The Summer After You and Me [Spotlight Blitz & Review/Giveaway]The Summer After You and Me by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
Published by Sourcebooks Fire on May 1st 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Realistic
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads
four-stars
Buy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Sunbathing, surfing, eating funnel cake on the boardwalk—Lucy loves living on the Jersey Shore. For her, it's not just the perfect summer escape, it is home. And as a local girl, she knows not to get attached to the tourists. They breeze in over Memorial Day weekend, crowding the shore and stealing moonlit kisses, only to pack up their beach umbrellas and empty promises on Labor Day. Lucy wants more from love than a fleeting romance, even if that means keeping her distance from her summertime neighbor and crush, Connor.
Then Superstorm Sandy tears apart her barrier island, briefly bringing together a local girl like herself and a vacationer like Connor. Except nothing is the same in the wake of the storm. And day after day, week after week, Lucy is left to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and broken home. Now with Memorial Day approaching and Connor returning, will it be a summer of fresh starts or second chances?

I really enjoyed this book. As much as I don’t like the Jersey Shore, I really liked this book. It was a good plot and the writing flowed nicely. It’s a very easy read and I read it in one sitting. This was my first Jennifer Doktorski novel but I have had her other book, How My Summer Went Up In Flames, on my TBR List for quite some time and I think I’m going to pick that one up sometime soon.

This book takes place post Hurricane Sandy. When we first meet Lucy, her life is kind of falling apart. There’s been a lot of rebuilding in her hometown and she has other problems with boys and friends as well. I think Lucy was a great main character. I really liked her. I understood her. I related to her. Her twin brother, I couldn’t stand him until the last 10% of the book. And her friends weren’t the greatest either. But they redeem themselves for the most part.

Connor Malloy. I loved him! I loved the romance between Connor and Lucy. I loved the story between them. Connor was this good guy hiding behind a bad guy persona. Connor doesn’t live on the shore all year round. Only for the summer and some holidays.

I really liked that this book revolved around a natural disaster. It was really cool learning about the rebuilding of the town and the people who lived there. It shows the strength you get from the community coming together to help each other and the town. I would have liked to have seen more of the storm in the book. Like maybe, a few more flashback/memories to when the storm was coming.

This is a perfect book if you want a good contemporary read. It’s definitely a good beach read! And it goes by quickly!

An Excerpt:
Connor opened the gorgeous double doors, each with half-moon stained-glass windows on the top, and motioned me inside. “After you.”
The house had that distinct yet hard-to-describe smell of a beach home that had been closed up for a while. I walked to the center of the high-ceilinged foyer and immediately pic­tured pine garland and twinkling white lights wrapped around the sweeping banister.
“Wow. I’d love to spend Christmas here,” I said and immedi­ately regretted being so sappy.
Connor smiled. “You could fit a twelve-foot tree in this hallway.”
I admit, over the years I’ve had my share of Connor-centric fantasies. However the image of him watching his children pad down the stairs on Christmas morning had never been one of them…until that very second. I liked thinking about Connor that way.
“Come on. You’ve got to see the master bedroom.”
The wholesome image of a Malloy family Christmas van­ished. Aha, I thought. That was the Connor I knew.
“Uh-uh,” I said. “The widow’s walk. I want to go there first.”
“Race you,” he said and took off running.
He beat me up the two flights and was waiting for me in the third-floor hallway toward the back of the house. Off the hallway was an art studio, with a drafting table and a bookcase. There was also a telescope standing near the window.
“Follow me.” He crossed the studio and unlocked the dead­bolt to the narrow door leading outside.
“You’ve already been up there?”
“First thing I did when I got here,” Connor said.
“Not the master bedroom?”
“Nah, that’s the first thing I wanted to do when you got here.”
I thought it was just more flirty banter, but Connor’s flushed cheeks looked as warm as my body felt. He stared at me for a beat too long and my throat constricted. I was suddenly aware that I’d left the house with slept-on hair and no mascara. The look on Connor’s face told me he hadn’t noticed. His eyes never left mine.
Finally he said, “Come on, Luce. I’ll follow you.” The space was tight when I passed in front of him, and the closeness of his body gave me the shivers. I opened the door and stepped outside onto a small patio. I walked toward the wrought-iron spiral staircase that lead to the widow’s walk on the roof and placed my hand on the railing. My knees felt shaky as I began the climb, but I never looked back.
*****************************************************
 
Let’s talk about it. Did you read The Summer After You and Me? Or any other of Jennifer’s books? What did you think of them? Leave your thoughts in the comments! 🙂
four-stars
Stephanie

Related Posts

Divider

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge