The Summer Without You

Great story. Shows how you can become so dependent on someone and lose who you are. Enjoyed. Worth a read

I've always been a real fan of Karen Swan's wonderfully atmospheric Christmas novels but haven't before tried any of her other novels. I chose "The Summer Without You" hoping for as much of a summer vibe as she gives to her Christmas based stories to get me in the summer mood.The first I noticed was the sheer length of this book, it's a hefty 420 pages well beyond other books within this genre. It's a book clearly packing lots of story in, and this proved to be the case if sometimes to it's detriment.The story of Rowena, a self employed photographer whose boyfriend Matt chooses to run off for 6 months to Asia, putting their relationship on pause rather than proposing leads us through a chance encounter to a house share in the exclusive Hamptons where Ro hopes to spend time doing the photography she loves and counting the days till her boyfriend comes home and she can pick up her life again. With her lively housemates Hump, Greg and Bobbi she is soon drawn into the exclusive and wealthy Hamptons lifestyles.She meets town councillor and campaigner Florence who is trying to save the sand dunes which are being massively erroded by winter storms and which are needed to protect the properties along the shoreline. Florence though is receiving expensive gifts from a stranger and there's talk in town about the $3 million black hole in the council budgets and Ro doesn't want to believe her friend is guilty of wrongdoing.There is also her new age yoga teacher friend Melody and her powerful older husband Brooke. They seem to be uber rich and although they are unwilling to share information about precisely what his job is. There is much of this book given over to strange attacks on Ro and Florence, even to the extent of a murder of an entirely useless character. There is a huge conspiracy thing going on that I found a little bit of a sideline that wasn't necessary. I truly kept skipping bits because it all seemed a bit of a surplus story that started well but got a bit melodramatic for my tastes.The true heart of this book and the story that deserved to remain front and centre was the story of Tedd, the man Ro meets the moment she steps out of the can in the Hamptons. Shocked when he demands she deletes photographs she has taken of her two children, even to the point he threatens to destroy her camera she is shocked when later he asks her to take on a commission doing what he seemed so upset by. her photographing his two young children.As Ro goes through home videos of Tedd's children she begins to question why their mother is no longer in their lives, why the perfect dream family has grown apart. She grows chose to Tedd but remains wary of him suspecting him of being less than upfront with her friend Florence. She is drawn to the two children and aware of her growing feelings for their father. Her fiance is on the other side of the world and she wants to believe he will propose when he comes home but what if it's not what she wants.This is the true heart of the book, or should have been, but there was so much other padding put in it got lost at times. Had we dropped 50 pages and focused purely on this relationship it would have been a much better book. It would have felt more like I'd have established an emotional connection with its true story rather than it being sandwiched between bits that didn't matter so much.The authors real fault was trying to capture the wealthy Hampton lifestyles when a story of a summer on a beautiful beach in a lovely town spent with a damaged family would have said so much more

This is the first book I've ever read by Karen Swan.At first the book was quite difficult to get engaged in, but as I continued reading with persistence, I found it quite engaging. I usually just read the first two chapters to see if I should continue the book. But somehow felt that I should give it a chance. And I am glad that I did!Ro has a very interesting personality. It takes time to figure out who she really is. But its not long after I felt that although the book is written in a third person perspective - everything really feels like it is in the perspective of Rowena. This really gives one a chance to really understand her.All the characters in the book are so different from each other. Each one of them have a mystery to them. As you keep reading, you see that each one of them have unique qualities which really entice you to keep reading to really find out what purpose they have in the book.The story gets interesting once Ro starts living in the Hamptons. It is a completely different life to her, which she is not used to. You see her really get out of her shell by breaking bad habits, becoming courageous of taking chances, growing her confidence in herself and mostly, making new friends. The story seems to ramble when you read about the politics about Hamptons. So if you are interested in small town politics, you should definitely give this book a go! The book is quite long - so you can sometimes find the story being repetitive and long! But what I found very interesting was - Ted! He is such an interesting character and has an absolute mystery to him. You really get to know know him here - Swan does a great job in changing the readers perspective on this character.I would definitely recommend this book as a summer read, which reminds you of what summer really entails - sun, sand, new challenges, meeting new people, solving mysteries, learning about the luxurious lifestyle of rich people and adapting to a completely new place.

I really enjoyed reading this book - I loved the group of friends and the fact that it made me feel summery, Hump and Greg were lovely and I found myself sneaking a few pages to get a sun fix!Ro was a nice character - not confident but throws herself into her summer adventure, I did despair slightly of the fact that in true "romance" style she went off on the occasional misguided rant (I think having done it wrongly once that even a moron would learn to perhaps think before speaking)There were some plot twists that I did not see coming, in fact there were some red herrings that I well and truly fell for. I have marked it down by one star as it felt very rushed at the end - although it ended in the way that I wanted because there was no build up to it I perhaps did not feel as invested in the outcome as I could have. It wasn't as light and disposable as true chick lit but still didn't touch me as much as a really good romance would have, which is a massive shame as it was almost there!

This is the story of a girl, Ro who heads out to Hamptons, Long Island when her boyfriend, Matt of 11 years puts a pause button for 6 months while he heads out on an adventure holiday to Cambodia. As Ro gets into Long Island Beach life and makes new friends living in a house share, her life starts to evolve and she starts to change and grow. Its then that she meets the handsome long story islander. Will she be able to head back to her life in England with her boyfriend after 6 months? Read this book to find out. I absolutely loved this book and it had me really caught up in Long Island beach life to the point the next time I am in New York I'll head out there and see what its like for myself. Mesmerizing.

Amazing. Delivered on the day that it said. Book completely new no, when I contacted the seller was fast and kind professional message. No complaints here whatsoever.

A good read. Excellent. Value for money.