Reviews for The Summer of You

The average rating for The Summer of You based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-04-10 00:00:00 Andor Petras This was my 2nd book by this author and I can safely say I love her "informal" writing style. It's fun, charming, emotional and engaging, without being pretentious. When I'm reading her books, I feel like I'm hearing a dear friend telling me a highly entertaining story. As the story opens, Lady Jane Cummings has just come out of mourning - her mother died one year ago - and is trying to rekindle the joy of being one of the most respected and sought-after members of the ton. But her life has vastly changed since her mother's death: her father, the Duke of Rayne, has begun to show clear signs of dementia and her brother Jason has run away to the Continent, ignoring all his duties and leaving Jane to deal with all the stress by herself. No wonder she doesn't welcome her brother with open arms when he finally returns to England. However, they have to find a way to make peace with each other in face of their father's worsening condition, and that's how they find themselves leaving London and moving to the family's cottage near Reston, in Lake District. Obviously, the fact that Jason is back home doesn't mean he's any help to Jane and she gets even more stressed that she was. It's in that state of mind that she comes upon Byrne Worth one day - swimming naked in the lake near the cottage, oh yes! Jane and Byrne aren't exactly strangers but they aren't friends either. One could say they had friends in common, as his brother Marcus has just married her friend Phillippa. Byrne is a war hero who was badly injured serving the Crown - he has to walk with a cane now - and doesn't want anything to do with fame and fortune, having chosen to live like a hermit in the small house he's inherited from his great-aunt. His house happening to be on Jane's family's land and within walking distance from the cottage is just a bonus. ;) Byrne and Jane are two lonely souls who need to find comfort in life. They're drawn to each other from the start and become friends as they spend time together working on a common goal - to catch the highwayman who's been striking around Reston. At first, Jane visits Byrne's house as an escape from her stressful life at the cottage caused by her father's deteriorating health and her brother Jason's irresponsible behavior, but she soon realizes that the happiness she finds with Byrne has deeper roots. On his part, Byrne is brought back to life by Jane's visits. She makes him feel again. She makes him smile, laugh and care for things that he's ceased to care a long time ago. As sappy as it sounds, they were meant to be together. But what will happen when summer is over? Jane will have to go back to London with her family, as her father won't be able to stand autumn's and winter's cold weather in Reston. Byrne will never get back to living in London, among the ton's frivolities he can't stand. Not to mention, Jane is a Duke's daughter, Byrne is an untitled gentleman, and Jason hates his guts and will never approve a match between them. So, are Jane and Byrne destined to have only this summer? This was such a delightful read! The beginning was a bit slow to me and I admit I wasn't completely sold on Jane, because she seemed rather spoiled and self-centered. Then, Ms. Noble began to work her magic and reveal what was deep inside Jane's mind and heart. That's when I understood her and when my heart went to her. I wanted Jane to find peace and happiness soooo bad! As for Byrne, I loved him from the start, when he offered Jane some jasmine tea out of the blue even though I could feel he wasn't comfortable with it. He was honorable, dependable and oh-so-lovable. I loved all the interactions between Jane and Byrne, from their friendly conversation to their romantic love scenes. (When I say "romantic scenes", I mean everything. From simply hugging, kissing, fooling around in the lake... There's only one lovemaking scene in the book, but I didn't miss anything more.) Now, why the 4-star rating if I loved Jane, Byrne and their romance so much? Well, I didn't like how some secondary characters took much "screen time" sometimes. I really disliked Jason, but I understood the need to have him around. He was there to piss Jane (and me) off, and I was OK with that. I didn't get the need to have a secondary romance in the story, though. As much as Jane's friend Victoria was likable, I rushed through her scenes because I wanted to get back to reading about Jane and Byrne. The mystery about the highwayman's identity was well done and it was interesting to see Byrne's mind at work. His detective skills were good, but I admit the resolution to the mystery was a bit complicated. Something simpler would have been better, IMHO. Overall, this was another very good read by Ms. Noble, a relatively new author that has managed to make her way into my authors-to-watch-out-for list. Considering I've only read 2 books by her so far, that's something! Note: AFAIK, Revealed and The Summer of You aren't officially part of a series, but the latter can be considered a sequel to the former (where Byrne and Jane were introduced). Anyway, I didn't read Revealed and I don't think I've missed anything, because The Summer of You stands proudly on its own.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-07-02 00:00:00 Judith A Booth The Summer of You is a pretty good book. If you asked me to come up with two words to describe it, I would settle on "decent" and "competent." There's some sweet dialogue and a little mystery cut into the romance to keep my attention. The main characters, Byrne and Jane, are totally cool people. Like, if I got blasted into Regency times through the super-secret time machine I'm building in my basement (don't tell the government), I would want to spend country parties admiring the gardens with Byrne and Jane. London during the season would be different, though. I'd want to spend that time with people more entertaining than this sedate couple. No offense, fictional characters I've never met. But let's bring my hypothetical rant to an end because I totally don't have a super-secret time machine in my basement. The main point of this rambling paragraph is that I enjoyed The Summer of You like it was pink cotton candy for the brain. However, one of my current pet peeves is incredibly well-covered in this book. You see, Byrne, god love him, has an ouchy-hurty leg injury and walks with a cane. And immediately, my eyes rolled the whole way to the back of my head. Now wait a minute! Don't just automatically assume that I'm a heartless bitch. I have nothing against hot dudes with serious leg injuries. It's sooooo sad. But it's also sooooo overdone. The Hero Whose Only Flaw is Walking with a Limp that Makes Him Tres Sad is a very overused trope in Regency romance these days. I can name at least 3 books off the top of my head that I've read in the last year with the very same plot device. Sadly, there hasn't been an author yet with the velociraptor balls to straight-up amputate the hero's leg, which was a whole bunch more likely in wartime back then. Nope. Instead, the guy who we're supposed to love for being all tortured and damaged just limps around and bitches A LOT about walking on two legs with some discomfort. And I always think, "Yeah, that must really suck to hurt all the time, BUT AT LEAST YOU STILL HAVE A FUCKING LEG, YOU CRYBABY BASTARD!" Of course, Byrne's main form of treatment for his leg is aquatic fucking therapy, which is the new Modern Medicine Authors Slip Into Historical Fiction and Hope I Won't Notice du jour. To Noble's credit, she almost got it right. Before the story, Byrne was 18 kinds of screwed up and addicted to opium, laudanum, alcohol, etc. But then some quaint country doctors told him to swim to make it feel better instead of bleeding him out and encouraging him to stay in bed forever like doctors usually did before the invention of modern medicine, and my bullshit detector started blaring. Isn't it strange that when the girls in these books twist an ankle, the doctors and other characters are all, "You must stay in bed FOR WEEKS until there is no chance of you experiencing pain ever again," while the guys can have their legs practically torn in two by bullets, and everyone's like, "Dude, try the water. Just SWIM. It works!"? Now, Byrne totally could have gotten away with the cane, the limp, the drug dependency, and even the goddamn aquatic therapy IF Noble had given any other reasons for him to be unsociable and taciturn. Before the injury, Byrne was a light-hearted, cool guy who didn't sulk his days away in a secluded cabin. Then he gets one leg injury, which will probably heal even more in time because it only happened ONE YEAR AGO, in which time he's made get strives toward recovery, and the guy's inconsolable and convinced that he doesn't deserve love or kindness. Hey Byrne, Angst just called. It wants its fucking street cred back! So yeah. I really wish that authors would stop using one injury as an excuse to make their heroes act like asshats. I see people every day with chronic illnesses and disabilities who do amazing things! Why can't Byrne be one of them before he meets Jane's Magical Vagina of Love and Redemption? On the bright side, the love story is well-done. Byrne's anti-social tendencies aren't a factor when he's around Jane, and their biggest conflicts to Happily Ever After are class differences (Jane's the daughter of a duke, and Byrne's just a regular gentleman) and the fact that the entire town thinks Byrne's a highwayman because he's such an asshole all the time. It was nice to read about Byrne and Jane's budding friendship as it naturally progressed into the urge to jump each other's bones. Jane loses her ice queen veneer from Revealed and becomes a sympathetic and likable heroine. So aside from the leg shenanigans, I enjoyed The Summer of You quite a bit. Unfortunately, it doesn't carry quite the sparkle and fun of Revealed, so I can only give it 3 stars.