Dumped by her fiancé, opinion columnist Lyla Dune returns to small-town Echo Cove to heal, and to help her parents prep their house for sale. When she decides to open a time capsule she buried in high school, past memories lead her to a diary filled with memorable moments from the last summer she spent at home, right before college. Some of the events feel like they happened yesterday. That’s normal. Not so normal is that they actually start happening all over again . . .
Lyla gets a flat tire in the same spot and is saved by the same person. The same movie is playing at the theater. Her house has the same leak it once had. As her current summer increasingly mirrors that last one, Lyla worries it will end just as disastrously: with a category 3 hurricane—and with losing Travis, the best friend she was always secretly in love with. If only she hadn’t been too scared to admit it.
When you couldn't wait to escape your small hometown and take the world by storm only to discover ten years later that everything you'd been searching for was waiting for your return. That's the premise of the newest novel from Annie Rains, another heart-tugging story that kept me reading way past my bedtime.
Rains has become one of my go-to authors for small-town contemporary romance and women's fiction. Summer in a Bottle is a perfectly balanced blend of the two; a story that is immersive, with relatable characters I couldn't help but root for and a small town that mirrors those that many of us (me) may have grown up in. The addition of a bit of magical realism only adds to the emotional heft of this journey that feels all too real. I had no problem at all placing myself in Lyla's shoes as she confronts past decisions, current situations, and future possibilities.
Summer in a Bottle is a heartfelt journey of growth, friendship, self-discovery, a touch of magical realism, and a second chance with the love that was always meant to be. It has my enthusiastic recommendation.
Thank you for this review. The story sounds wonderful. Another book I really, really need.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the review. This sounds like an interesting exploration of what happened and wheat might have been. It is something we all have happen to us every so often.
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