This reminded me of Beaches. Yep, the movie. The plot wasn’t the same, but it just had that same kind of feel.

Sister and cousins all return to a beach house one summer to share memories from their childhood summers, and to spend time with Megan who has cancer.

The beginning of the book pretty much focuses on Megan and her needs. Then we hear about Charley and her current life problems as they relate to her childhood problems... but Megan kind of fades away in the background. I was like Hey! Don’t forget about that Megan character!

Sadly, it happened again when we are introduced to Krista, the ex con. Megan is barely mentioned, and Krista totally overshadows the Charley character. I had just gotten invested in Megan and Charley... and they were dropped like a hot potato.

Carr’s Virgin River series illustrated how to have a developed protagonist as well as an ensemble cast. I was hoping for the same in The Summer That Made Us. Had the character development been more balanced, and had the characters not been such stereotypes, this novel would have an extra star!

I enjoyed the somewhat predictable plot, I appreciated the well-written dialogue, and I was impressed that Robyn Carr still comes up with fresh ideas for new novels. This one just wasn’t for me.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest and thoughtful review.

After reading Any Day Now, which I had really enjoyed as my first encounter with Robyn Carr's work, I began reading this book with high expectations. Ultimately, however, the idea of this story was definitely better than its execution.

I'm quite sure that devoted readers of Robyn Carr will thoroughly enjoy this book and I can understand why that is; however, this one really missed the mark with me. The story is overwhelmingly told in dialogue between characters, which ultimately repeats itself over and over again as they meet and interact with one another. And there are so many characters, meaning this happens quite a lot and it begins to come across as more of a way to dump information at the reader rather than believable casual conversation. Additionally, with this large cast of characters, I couldn't really become invested in the story as a whole, and honestly felt that the main premise, Meg's decision to reunite the family as her dying wish, became lost. Most of the individual characters were very well developed with engaging story lines, but again, because they are all in a sense competing with each other for page time, I wasn't invested in any of them. Following so many plot lines, time lines, and points of view that would then repeat itself because another new character came into play began to become tedious. Pulling that aside, it was interesting to read each character's perspective on how past events shaped them and created such a dysfunctional family dynamic. I just wasn't a fan of the path I had to take as a reader to get through all the layers.

Spanning generations, I enjoyed how this book examined the devastation secrets and miscommunication can wreck on a family, but through hope, forgiveness, and second chances these fragile relationships and bonds can be rebuilt. Although much too late for Meg, she shows us how fleeting time is and how we owe it to ourselves and those important to us to make the most out of it. Personal preferences aside, I still liked this heartfelt story and will continue to read more of Robyn Carr's books.

Thanks again to Little Bird Publicity. It was a pleasure providing a review.

Once again, it is easy to see why Robyn Carr is one of my favourite authors!
The Summer That Made Us is a very touching story of mothers, daughters, sisters and cousins.
Every summer was spent at the lake house until a tragic accident changed everything. The lake house was then closed for good. Many years later, one woman is determined to bring her family back together again. She sets out to make this happen at the lake house, to face the truth with no more secrets and lies.
A beautifully written unforgettable story!

Thank you to NetGalley and Mira Books for an arc of this novel.

Robyn Carr weaves an engrossing tale of family bonds, hurt, betrayal and tragedy that touched me deeply!

At the center of the story is Meg and Charlie, sisters enduring their own crisis’, but Meg’s is more urgent. She’s been battling cancer for four long years and just had a bone marrow transplant after chemo and needs to recuperate. Her prognosis is not good, and Charlie wants to be there for Meg in whatever way she can. Life gave Charlie a great opportunity, freed up her time, because she just lost her job as a talk show host, and has no idea what to do next. Add to that Charlie’s long-time committed man (they’ve been together for twenty-years) has just proposed marriage and for some odd reason this rattles Charlie. Meg’s wish is to go to the lake house, a place that holds some of their fondest memories, but a place where tragedy changed their lives forever. Meg and Charlie’s little sister, Bunny, drowned and their mother and aunt parted ways in an ugly way. For twenty-seven years neither family has been back, but that’s about to change.

Spending time at the lake house will stir up drama, but it’s Meg’s wish, and who can deny a woman what is most likely her dying wish? To get to the heart of why everything went to hell they must travel back with their memories to the time when their mothers: Louise and Josephine, (sisters who married brothers) would take them out to Lake Waseka those summers long ago. Was Bunny’s death the only reason for their estrangement or was it something more?

I loved this story sooo much! It made me cry, stirring up so many emotions! It sounds like a lot is going on, but it’s not hard to follow as a reader. I loved the sister dynamic between Meg and Charlie, they’re so very close, but Krista, Josephine’s daughter, and Meg and Charlie’s cousin quickly bonded with them again after so many years apart. Krista had a hard life, but managed to see the positive, and I adored her little slow burn romance that was unexpected, but so sweet for her!

Charlie has basically a marriage-in-crisis sort of situation even though she’s not technically married, her relationship is at odds and I so wanted her to work it out, because Michael was the best kind of man! Meg was just so centered and at peace with her situation, she just broke my heart, though!

Louise, Meg and Charlie’s mom, and Hope, Josephine’s daughter, are also notable characters, but not in a good way. I was stunned and shocked by their behavior, but also less upset with them by the end, as details of their lives are revealed. Each and every character, flaws and all came to life; felt realistic they were crafted so well.

The Lake Wasuka house and location was vividly depicted, and sounded gorgeous! I could smell the pine and wood of the forest, feel the breeze coming off the lake and wish that I was there with Meg, Charlie and Krista having a glass of wine on the porch!

The Summer That Made Us was a beautiful and intricate story of family and love that took my breath away!

A copy was kindly provided by MIRA via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Earlier this year, I read Robyn Carr’s Any Day Now. It was the second book in the Sullivan’s Crossing series and I was instantly left wanting to read more of the author’s work. The Summer That Made Us is the result of that desire.

In all honesty, I did not enjoy The Summer That Made Us as much as I enjoyed Any Day Now. Both of the books are deeply emotional reads, yet I found myself more connected with the characters in Any Day Now than I was with the characters in The Summer That Made Us. In all honesty, I believe I can explain why this is – but I’ll save that until later in the review. I’ll start by explaining my general feelings.

It took me a few chapters to fall into the story of The Summer That Made Us. I had a similar experience with Any Day Now, and with this being my second Robyn Carr book, I’m thinking such may be the norm for the author’s work. For me, it took me a while as I felt like the start of the book was made up of a lot of information dumps. There is a lot to understand about the dynamics of the characters and the family, meaning there is a lot of information to be provided. I simply felt, at first, information was thrown in excess. Once all of the information has been shared, the book starts to move faster – but I would have liked for this to have started happening sooner.

Once the story is moving, so many connections come into play. There is so much to be known about all of the characters. There really is a lot happen throughout this one. Secrets are found in the background of all of the characters, more information waiting to be revealed. On top of all these secrets we’re begging to understand, we also have a deeply emotional read. There is so much to deal with – cancer, marital problems, prison, teenage pregnancy, mental health, loss, and so much more. Every character brings something to the story, leaving you intrigued as to where things will go, whilst falling into the deeply emotional family story.

As I found with Any Day Now, the characters were wonderfully realistic. Each brought something different to the table, and we got to experience so much. I enjoyed some of the storylines more than others, but everything came together really well. You get to experience so much throughout this one, taking you on the wild journey of family life.

Despite the deep emotional pull of the story, I wasn’t as lost to it as I had hoped to be. This is why I gave the story a three star rating rather than a four. In truth, it is more of a three-point-five read. With all the emotions at the end of the book I considered giving the four star rating, but I spent more time closer to the three star rating throughout the rest of the book.

The reason for this is more of a personal preference than something everyone will dislike. I’m the kind of person who prefers to follow just a couple of characters throughout a book. With this one, we followed so many different storylines. I never quite lost myself to all of the storylines, finding myself rather disinterested when we were focusing upon certain characters. Whilst I understand the necessity of this within such a story – it is necessary to understand all of the connections within the book – I would have preferred it had we not been flickering between characters within a chapter. I’m much fonder of one chapter following one character, the next following another, and so on when I’m reading a book with multiple characters being central.

Overall, however, this was an enjoyable read. It was deeply emotional, and I’m still willing to read more of the author’s work.

Sometimes a book just clicks with you and ends up being exactly what you wanted in that moment. This was one of those books for me. For one thing this checked a lot of boxes for me. I love ensemble casts, I love books that involve elements of the past, and I love characters that are trying to find something in their environment and within themselves and this one had all three. The characters that this book really focuses on are Meg, Charley, and Krista. Both Charley and Krista are really trying hard to help Meg who has terminal cancer and all three are trying to figure out just what went wrong that summer. There was more than just the tragic drowning of the youngest cousin.

I typically avoid books that involve the death of a child but this one is handled in such a way that while it was sad and tragic it didn't wallow in the gut wrenching sadness of it all. The focus was more on how that event had changed everything and was there more to it. While I wouldn't classify this as a mystery there is some suspense as the 3 cousins probe their memories and try to reconnect and figure out how everything had gone to pieces the way it did.

There are lots of visitors to the lake house this summer. Family members, spouses, and a character or two from the past. They add a complexity to the book as each character means forging a new connection and making peace with the old. There's a lot of sadness but it never felt overwrought or manipulative and there is a lot of joy and healing that balanced that out for me. Overall, this is comfort reading at its finest. There's heart, there's love, there's more than a little bit of drama and there are characters that I will miss now that I've put the book down.

I received a copy of this for an honest review from netgalley.com

I am a fan of Robyn Carr and I really liked the beginning of this story but then it got to be to many characters and to many plots. I did finish it but I did not love it like I really wanted to.

This was a great story to read, but at the same time it was a tough story to read. These two families had so much going for them, summers together at the beach house, cousins getting together each summer making wonderful memories. Until one summer, when it all starts to fall apart. The drowning death of the youngest little cousin seemed to send everyone into a tail spin. But evidently, there was so much more going on, secrets were being kept, blame was placed on others, and sisters who were estranged for years and years afterwards.

Now, one of the cousins is dying of cancer and she wants to spend one last summer at the beach cabin, to try to heal this broken family. Everyone is invited to come and spend some time together but not everyone is happy about the prospect of opening up all the old wounds. The family dynamics and the drama of it all made this an engaging story that I was totally wrapped up in.

I truly loved this story with all the supposedly 'normal' characters as well as the ones with their plethora of issues. Not everything and everyone is who or what they appear to be and figuring it all out made this book a page-turner for me.

The Summer That Made Us is my first Robyn Carr book but I loved her complicated characters and I loved the depth of her story, so it will not be my last. I will definitely be looking for more of her stories to read.

As always Robyn Carr has written a well crafted story that fully engaged me all through the book The Summer That Made Us. It has many threads to it, many issues and themes that ebb and flow as the story unfolds.

This is a story about relationships mostly - that of sisters and cousins, plus some of the people that surround them. As it starts out it is rather obvious that you could put a capital D on dysfunctional for many but not all of the family members.

There is Lou and Jo, two sisters - once such good friends, now estranged. Two families who grew up close to each other, spending time as children at a lake house in Minnesota. Two families of thre girls each. However one summer everything turned to ruin and they never went back...

Until Meg wants to go back to that house. She is dealing with cancer, she has had her last ditch treatment and it is time to see will it work... or not. Charlie her sister wants to make that happen for her and does so. As Charlie begins her renovations there, her cousin Krista turns up, just out of prison. We are also introduced to Hope, Krista's sister and all is not right in the state of Denmark for sure in her life.

We see things from all their points of view which does help me the reader be sympathetic towards them and to wish the best for them. I am not always engaged by so many characters in one book with issues and things to deal with. But the fact that they are all related and have been affected by the same family dynamics and tragedy, pulled me in. It perhaps lost a little though in the focus being on so many, not much, just a tad, it left me feeling a little distant from the full emotion of the characters.

Each woman grapples with her own life, moving towards resolution, new hope, forgiveness and healing in various forms as the story is retold and understood. Another well told story from Robyn Carr.

So much heaviness in this book with depressions, illnesses, pregnancy, and more yet what sticks most with me is the family coming together, putting their histories behind them and rallying around those who need them.

The dynamics of the Hempstead family is interesting. They have been torn apart by the drama of their pasts and now must figure out how to come together as a unit. There is a lot of history to get past and many families would not be strong enough to overcome it but the Hempstead family does with a lot of hard work.

The Summer That Made Us is an emotional rollercoaster. I had tears; there was fear, lots of love, and mostly hopefulness. It was intense and filled with so much feeling. Each character had their own issues, some life threatening, some life changing, but all equally important to the story. I was in awe of how Robyn managed to weave these stories together to make it complete. She was able to take different walks of life and turn them into a total package that I could not put down.

I would recommend picking up your own copy of The Summer That Made Us ASAP.

Thank you Claire McLaughlin from Little Bird Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start by saying I am a Robyn Carr fan and I love her romance series and the stand alone women's fiction books. She can write a book so I was surprised throughout this whole book that I couldn't get into it or care about any of the characters. This book was all about the characters - two sisters who marry two brothers and each have three girls and one summer at their lake house sends these families spiraling out of control and many years later two of the girls decide to return and one invites the others and of course drama ensues.

As I said above this is a character driven story and not really any of the characters drew me in and I couldn't get to caring about them. When other girls arrived to the lake house I was hoping to find one to connect with, but I just couldn't.

The thing about this book that was entertaining was the mystery about the past. I liked learning the details about what tore the families apart, but it didn't make me care anymore about them in the present.

This book won't keep me from continuing to read Robyn Carr. I will pick up the next one with the same excitement I have when she releases each stand alone!

4 1/2 STARS!

A beautifully woven story about love, life and forgiveness! Seeking emotional healing is the main underscore of this story. It brings together a family that through circumstances and life were torn apart many years ago. In one healing summer, they come together to support one special member of the family, but in the end it's a blessing for them all. I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into each of their lives and having the opportunity to see what really made each of them tick in their own way. The culmination of the summer gutted me, but there was too much happiness and love flowing to let that one heart-wrenching piece take away the fulfillment of the story.

For so many years, summers at the family lake house in Minnesota were idyllic for the Hempstead family ... until tragedy strikes and leaves the place sullied with ugliness and grief. The house was closed up and they never ventured there again. The family members each found their own way of dealing with their loss, and lives swirled out of control.

Now years later, one member needs the closure of going back to their childhood oasis to find the peace she so desperately needs to complete her life. She hopes to bring her family back together in this place that they shared so much love and laughter and open their hearts to forgiving each other for wrongs they perceive and most of all, to forgiving themselves for the mistakes they each made.

And you think your family is screwed up!

Charley’s world has just been turned upside down. After years of having her own successful morning talk show in San Francisco, she suddenly finds it cancelled without any job options available. Incredibly, her life partner of twenty-two years decides now would be the perfect time to get married to fix her problems. But the worse thing is that her sister Meg is slowly dying from stage four breast cancer. When Meg decides she wants to spend the summer at the lake house that the family used growing up, Charley knows it will be a huge undertaking to restore the house and the family after twenty seven years. Meg soon sends out letters to the cousins and hopes that everyone will show up, even though she doubts they will. But they eventually do. One cousin is just released from prison, another lives in a make believe world, and the other one fully separated from the family after the accident that split the family apart all those years ago. As they come back together, they start working through the events that tore them down as they are made whole again.

Having only read Robyn Carr’s Sullivan Crossing series, this was not exactly what I expected, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The recurring theme of hope and restoration of the family shines through in this new novel. This family is messed up, but in reality, aren’t so many others?

The majority of the book is told around the central character of Charley, but does also have a few sideline character views as well. Each of the characters shares their life experience in different viewpoints that really puts everything into perspective. The event that I thought split everyone up wasn’t actually the case. It was something completely different. That added a little bit of mystery.

There is some harsh language and sex scenes throughout, so I recommend this book to mature readers.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

4.25 Hearts This story is about family. Two sisters marry two brothers and have three daughters each. The lake house was where the entire family would spend their summers. A time to escape and just be together. But a tragedy happens one summer and while the girls think they know the story they are finding out more pieces as more of the sisters/cousins come to the lake house.

The real feel of this story is a bit heartbreaking. I can imagine how the girls feel about each other and where there is misunderstanding and hurt feelings. There is also memories that each have differently.

Carr brings us some realistic family situations and feelings but I would expect nothing else. Carr is one of my favorite authors and I never miss one of her stories but this one is not a romance. It is real. It is life. It is family. I have no idea but I can almost feel that this story kept pulling at Carr’s heart and mind to be written. It needed to be put to paper and Carr did it like no one else could.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow this book was such an emotional read, way more than I was expecting it to be! There were highs and lows, ups and downs and I loved every minute of getting to know the dysfunctional Hempstead family. When I say dysfunctional I’m not even sure that word accurately describes things, this is a family steeped in tragedy going all the way back to the summer of ’89 and to say the events of that fateful summer messed them all up something fierce is putting it mildly.

Megan’s dying wish is to reunite her shattered family. At one point they were all super close and twenty seven years later most of them hardly speak at all. Jo and Lou are sisters who married brothers and they each had three daughters. They spent magical summers at their family lake house and life was pretty damn perfect for those summer months. When the youngest child, Bunny drowns the family is completely broken. Jo and Lou don’t speak and the daughters all mostly went their separate ways as well. Twenty seven years later and they’re back, for better or worse.

What makes Carr’s books standouts for me is her phenomenal characterization. Almost immediately I find myself invested and engrossed in the lives of her characters and this may be my favorite book of hers to date. I can’t even pick a favorite one here because they were all so real and raw, but Megan definitely wormed her way into my heart. I also really liked Krista, she is fresh out of prison after serving twenty five years and she was just such a unique women’s fiction character with her own type of spunk.

The plot mostly focused on repairing the families fractured relationships while slowly revealing secrets from the past and there were quite a few doozies. I’m always fascinated by complex families and hidden stories and there were so many here. There was one little twist that I totally didn’t see coming, twists in women’s fiction always through me for a loop because I’m not waiting on the edge of my seat for them like in a thriller.

Despite it being a highly evocative read it’s still very much a lighter read with substance. Carr’s trademark charm and easy writing style is in full effect making the perfect combination for a late summer read.

A family torn apart by a past tragedy that slowly decends into a dysfunctional mess. That pretty much sums up the lives of the Hempstead women and their daughters. But how did this all happen one lovely summer by the lake? One moment, everyone was happy and carefree. The next, everything had fallen apart. The lake house is boarded up and left, forgotten.

Fast-forward to the present. Megan’s days are numbered as she battles cancer and her last wish is to bring her sisters, cousins, aunt, and mother back together one last time to the lake house. Enlisting help from her sister, Charley, who’s career is falling apart, the lake house is freshened up, ready for the family to return. And in doing so, old memories are dug up, past differences are rehashed, and new relationships are formed.

The Summer that Made Us is an intricately woven, heartfelt family story that will make you laugh and cry and will warm your heart. I highly recommend it.

"My God , I’m forty-four years old and still afraid of my mother!"

I am a big fan of Robyn Carr's books and have read them all since she published THE HOUSE ON OLIVE STREET in 1999. This book is similar to that standalone women's fiction novel in many ways.

This story is an involved tale of mothers and sisters and children and cousins and aunts and uncles and husbands and boyfriends and an extended dysfunctional family - and staying at a family-owned lake house on Lake Waseka in rural Minnesota.

Meg has Stage IV breast cancer and wants all of her extended family to gather at the lake house since it might be her last summer - and since the family stopped going there years ago after the death of one of the children.

There's a lot of characters to keep track of and the book started out slowly for me with some characters I wasn't too fond of but author Carr, with her usual adept touch, soon had me turning the pages as fast as I could and wondering what was going to happen next.

The pieces fell neatly into place and, again, Carr has a winner!

I received this book from MIRA Books through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased review.

Wow, just wow! Reading the new book by Robyn Carr, THE SUMMER THAT MADE US, is deeply engrossing and emotional with me laughing one minute and the next, crying while I flip the pages to see what happens next. Ms. Carr delivers a powerful story of two sisters and their families who were once close until tragedy tore them apart in the blink of an eye. What was once a cherished family tradition was now torn away from them and colored their memories of their one favorite place in the world. The story is moving and you definitely run the gauntlet of emotions while you read THE SUMMER THAT MADE US. This was a book I just could not put down. It left me reeling in places that had me flipping pages to see what would come next. I rooted for the families to find their way back to one another and cheered when some reconnected and when others were on the fence.

Ms. Carr is wonderful storyteller who tells of everyday people of all walks of life. Her characters are quite life-like and different as night is to day. I loved each and every one of them, even the tough nuts like Louise, Charley’s mother. She was bitter and stern yet in the end you got the glimpse of who she once was before the summer from hell and you couldn’t help but empathize with her. I don’t want to go into details about all the characters because I don’t want to reveal any plot twists but suffice to say, the reader will find all walks of life in THE SUMEMR THAT MADE US and I couldn’t help but root for each of them to get their happiness and renew their bonds with cousins, family and more.

With each book this author writes, the reader cannot help but fall in love with Ms. Carr and her wonderful stories. I know I am not the only one who finds her books quite entertaining and intriguing, either from the places they are set in or the wonderful cast of characters that populate them. With the broad stroke of her pen (or keys on the keyboard), Ms. Carr delivers a timeless tale that will thoroughly enchant you and steal your heart. At the end of the book, I just sat there with a smile on my face and a tear on my cheek. This story just hits you right in the heart and I for one can’t wait to see where this author goes next. I highly recommend THE SUMMER THAT MADE US if you enjoy captivating characters, a story that is set in the real world and with issues facing many people today and a climatic ending that will leave you breathless.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement

There was too much going on in this book and too much writing towards a happy ending, which should have made me not like it, but I found myself into it regardless. Free ARC e-book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

A heartfelt look at a family, the drama, the tragedies, the joys, the bond, the troubles of it. Each character is drawn with a sharp pencil, with the place to grow and deal with their issues. The characters might seem like the stereotypes of each of the issues they have, yet most of them manage to break the mold they are set in and surprise the reader, and the rest of the family.
Slowly but surely the story pulled me in and I was mesmerized by the memories from the lake and the troublesome life the two sisters families had lived. There's not so much that happens in the story, it is mostly built of memories of the past and in the current the character development that we witness by a lot of healing, growing, forgiving, moving on and learning to live again.
With the large cast of characters, that most of them also get to tell part of the tale from their point of view, it can get a crowded and confusing to keep up who was who and where in life they were again. The time changes from the past to present and back again, as well as the POV changes, were not marked or separated in the eARC I received.
Some of the family members were easier to relate to than others, to some I felt I didn't get a connection at all. I found Krista, the ex-convict, to be the most likable and relatable character in the story. She was a reasonable, smart, humble, kind, and considerate person.
The family made me laugh with their exaggerated dysfunctions, making my family look rather 'normal' and functioning. Yet they touched my heart, their need to fix things, find solutions to their issues, and find the family connection again was genuine and sincere. The support they were willing to give to each other was admirable, and the fragile connections between the family members were found to be on a solid foundation.
A heartening story about family dysfunctions, about forgiveness, about new chances, and the possibilities to start again, about acceptance, and how the support of the loved ones can change everything, even make the troublesome past lighter and easier to leave behind. A story about hope and love, about home and family bonds.
~ Four Spoons