Rachel Hauck: The Best Summer of Our Lives

By Kelly Bridgewater

Summer Wilde is a wannabe country music star. But when her latest girl band abandons her in a motel outside Tulsa, she is forced to face the shadows of her past. Twenty years ago, the summer of '77 was supposed to be the best summer of her life. She and her best friends, Spring, Autumn, and Snow--the Four Seasons, 4ever--had big plans.

But those plans never had a chance. After a teenage prank gone awry, the Seasons found themselves on a bus to Tumbleweed, "Nowhere," Oklahoma, to spend eight weeks as camp counselors. Arriving with hidden secrets and buried fears, those two months changed their friendships and the course of their lives.

Now, thirty-something and with no direction for her future, Summer is at a crossroads. Returning to the place where everything changed, she soon learns Tumbleweed is more than a town she left and never wanted to see again. It's the place for healing, for reconciling the past with the present, and for finally listening to love's voice.

Celebrating the songs of our hearts, the joys of love, and the threads of friendship that tie us all together, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck's radiant story perfectly captures all the romance, heartache, and hope of the best summer ever.

 

My Thoughts:

The Best Summer of Our Lives by Rachel Hauck felt a lot like Now and Then, the movie. Four teenage girls that were best friends, but then one summer, everything fell apart. The story takes place in 1977 and 1997. As a reader, we see the summer of ’77 and learn from each girl what happened that summer and how they dealt with it. The characters were realistic and hurting. I did enjoy how well Hauck dived into the characters and their personal tragedies. Each character stood apart from the next teenager. I loved how they had a common path, but when the reality came, they wanted different paths. I went to summer camp one summer, so I vaguely remember that experience. It was not life changing for me. It was the summer after 4^th grade at a local church camp. The plot moved along nicely, but at times, I really wanted to know what was the issue that shoved them apart, so it took Hauck a while to dive into that aspect of the novel. I know she probably did that on purpose. A way to string the readers along and keep the tension tight throughout the entire story. Hauck does a good job at creating the mystical, yet spiritual element into majority of her stories lately. I enjoyed the Preacher aspect and how he affected Summer. I would like to know, personally, how Preacher affected her since the summer of ’77. Overall, The Best Summer of Our Lives by Rachel Hauck had great characterization, but the plot was not the greatest or best written story by Hauck. I have loved majority of her books.

I received a complimentary copy of The Best Summer of Our Lives by Rachel Hauck from Bethany House Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating:  3.5 out of 5 stars

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