Nice, sweet, laid back summer read. It had a bit of intrigue and the fun addition of the scavenger hunts, but mostly this is a tale of friendship and romance.

This book was a nice read but not something that I would recommend to my patrons. It's more of a "read if you have time" kind of novel. Well done, nice read.

This is the story of a woman looking to put her past to rest and forgive herself and her best friend from a traumatic childhood event. Laura and Casey are now adults and back together in the small town where they grew up. The characters are so well written, from children to adult, Amy Doan seems to relate both girls to someone everyone has known. A very nice finish has you wishing it was just a little longer and going back and rereading just so you don't have to say goodbye to this story.

This is an amazing book by a debut author. This is a beautiful novel with some great characters and lovely descriptive writing. The story is about two childhood friends, Laura and Casey, and the breakdown and repair of their friendship. In high school they are inseparable until a misunderstanding occurs that tears them apart. In the process Laura also destroys her relationship with her boyfriend JB. Laura has been gone from their small town for 17 years until she is drawn back by a letter from Casey. As it turns out the letter was from Casey’s mom in an attempt for the girls to reconcile. They are sent on a scavenger hunt to help rekindle their friendship. Along the way they learn truths about each other and the people they love. A captivating book about hope, love, and the bonds of friendship. A perfect summer read!

What a sweet and beautiful story about the amazing bond between two women.

I loved how the author so beautifully portrays how a friendship can drift apart from two people and somehow you connect again with one another as if nothing has changed.

I was very impressed with this debut by Amy Doan and this definitely won't be my last novel that I read by her! Put this one on your TBR for a light, sassy, and fun read for the summer! This is the perfect novel to cozy up with on the beach or in front of a fire on a stormy night. This is also a very easy and addicting read... I flew through this one in a day and a half :).

I have experienced in my life a time where I have drifted apart from a best friend and we reunited again.. but unfortunately we drifted apart again about 3 years ago. I still think about her and wonder from time to time... this story brought back some emotions for me. I love when you can connect on a deeper level with a novel and it surfaces emotions that you never thought you'd feel while reading it.

I would definitely recommend this one!

4 shining summer stars <3.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin for the advanced arc in exchange for an honest review.
Publication date: 6/26/18
Published to GR: 6/3/18

This was an interesting book on friendship and how it changes from childhood to adulthood. I had trouble really getting into this book but it covers an interesting topic. The landscape and setting was very beautiful.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I didn't realize it was a debut novel for the author. The narration is alternated with past and present, which is a technique I love to see, but is sometimes difficult to manage. The author did a good job, and I enjoyed this book a great deal.

Laura and Casey were the best of friends all through high school. They were inseparable, from the moment they met, as they swam and kayaked through the lake, as they planned their futures together, as they participated in scavenger hunts across their tiny town. They were practically sisters until one summer night, mere days before they left for college, Laura overhears a conversation tgat leaves her feeling so betrayed that she shuts Casey and everyone else out, including her first love. She leaves their tiny California town and attends college on the other side of the country, in Savannah. Laura and Casey go seventeen years without speaking, until Laura receives an invitation promising scavenger hunts and fun. She almost ignores the invitation but, at the last minute returns home for a vacation to try to mend fences. As they follow the scavenger hunt clues, each clue is based on their memories from high school, they find themselves growing closer again. Can their newly salvaged friendship survive the secrets from the past that are about to rear their ugly heads?

I was hooked on this sweet, dramatic story from the first paragraph. I loved reading about how the girls’ friendship blossomed from the moment they met. The story alternates between the present, and the past as Casey and Laura became friends and through their high school years, ultimately bringing us to what caused the implosion of their friendship and Laura’s decision to flee. Thrown into the mix is the story of Katherine, who we don’t really understand why she’s being included until nearly the end. I loved Katherine’s story but I was honestly baffled as to how she was a part of the story. I kept trying to guess and I figured out part of it around the middle of the book, but I definitely didn’t see that surprising twist coming! Truthfully, that completely threw me and I absolutely loved it! The story was absolutely amazing and the main characters were all incredibly well written. They were complex, damaged, strong, and all around amazing people. It was also interesting to watch the girls’ perceptions about their mothers as they grew older and started to understand the reasons for who they are and what they’re like. It’s something we all go through as we grow up and become women, ourselves, and completely changes the dynamic of our relationship with our mothers. All in all, this was an incredible book and I can’t wait to read more of this author’s work.

Wonderful coming of age book. The friendship between Laura and Casey comes along so sweet, it reminded me of my childhood and best girlfriends.

This book follows three timelines and it is easy to see how two of them connect and eventually readers realize how the third relates as well--though my first guess was wrong. Two of the timelines were dated--one in the present day when Laura and Casey are in their 30's and one in the '90s when they were teens. The third timeline is in italics.

As noted above, something happened to tear Casey and Laura apart but Casey has no idea what it is. Laura just left and never came back. Casey's mother had a reason for wanting the "girls" back together again and she tricked them into a weekend together, a weekend during which she set up a scavenger hunt for them--similar to the scavenger hunts she used to design for them and their peers when they were in high school. As they move through the clues they learn the truth about each other, their families and their friends, and, of course, themselves.

While I found a couple of the situations rather hard to believe, I enjoyed the story and recommend it. Grade: B+

Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley.

I was having a hangover once I read this book. It is such a trippy and wonderful ride with Laura and Casey. The years of growing up together were so deliciously fun and growing apart from friends and your love were so sad that I kept reading faster to know why the split happened. I liked Casey so much from beginning to the end. Her relation with everyone around her was so balanced and practical yet so full of emotions. This book has touched a lot of issues so subtly that it doesn't break the flow at all. Amazing book.

“I wanted to ask her if she felt like I did, if the years when we’d been friends still seemed more important than anything that had happened since.”


The Summer list is a sweet and endearing tale of two friends, Laura and Casey, who were once inseparable until an event one summer night drives them apart. Ahhh, there is no sweeter friendship than the friendship of youth. The people who grow up with you. The ones who know your secrets, your dreams, your wishes and desires. The ones who go on adventures with you. Our childhood friends often knew more about us than our parents did. How sad when an event occurs which drives a wedge between you and your friend.

Laura is on the lake one morning when she sees a swimmer in the water. Casey is new in town and an avid swimmer. She and Laura immediately hit it off. They become best friends and Laura is drawn to Casey's eccentric Mother, Alex, who she often wishes were her own Mother. The pair experience their teenage years and confide in each other their crushes on others. They go on wild scavenger hunt and have many adventures together. Laura has finally landed her first love, J.B., and thinks life is pretty sweet. Casey, J.B. and Laura plan to all live in Los Angeles and continue to be in each other lives. It pretty much looks like that is going to happen until that fateful night.

Now around 35 years old, Laura receives an invitation in the mail. To come back to the lake for another scavenger hunt. She toys with not going but eventually does. There she is reunited with Casey and together they decide to go on the scavenger hunt and see what is waiting for them at the end. The scavenger hunt is like a walk down memory lane - some memories are good, some are not.
Their hunt takes them to the skating rink owned by J.B. and brings him into their hunt as well but more so as an observer and helper not as a participant.

Along the way there are bumps in the road, revelations, and growth. I really enjoyed this book. I found myself thinking about this book and it's characters when I could not sleep at 3 a.m. one day. I think most have that one friend we wonder "what ever happened to him/her?" Most have a friend they were close to and then drifted apart, some may have a friend who betrayed them, some may have had a friend steal a girlfriend/boyfriend, some may have had a friendship diminish or fall apart over a misunderstanding. That is what works for me in this book is that it is so relate-able.

What would happen if you could reconnect with that friend? Would you take it? That is what occurs in this book. The story is told by looking at the present and going back into the past. There are also passages where I wondered "Who is this about?" but it becomes very clear in the end.

This book reminded me of the movie Beaches to some degree. I loved that I did not know what drove them apart until the end. I made various speculations while reading and was wrong. I enjoyed how her characters acted and reacted in ways in which I think most people would. Nobody is perfect and our actions and reactions are not perfect.

I found this book to be well written and I was drawn into these two women's worlds. I found all of the characters to be like-able and I was invested in what would happen as they finished their scavenger hunt. Another thing I appreciated was the lack of filer - thee were no unnecessary scenes. Everything in this book was needed for the telling of the story. The pacing was spot on, nothing felt rushed or drawn out. I look forward to reading more books by this Author.

This book is about friendship, family secrets, connection, second chances and love. A relate-able, heartwarming and endearing book about the ties that bind, acceptance and love. This is a beautifully told debut novel!

Thank you to Harlequin Graydon House and NetGalley for providing me with a copy for this book in exchange for an honest review.

07

Nov. ’17
The Summer List by Amy Mason Doan. Published by Harlequin

This is a moving story about a woman returning home to make amends with a childhood friend after years of hurt and betrayal. Laura and Casey used to spend every waking moment of their lives together until the summer night that send Laura running from her best friend and the boy she loves. Almost twenty years later, Laura returns and the two women try to find a way past the lies and deception that split them up so long ago. This is the kind of book I like to read when the world doesn’t make sense (and there’s a lot of that lately), a book where the characters find a way to get beyond their problems and start over. A lovely book for world weary readers