The Summer Without You

I've just finished this and it was a bit of a struggle. Positives for me were the setting - as usual for Karen Swan you could just take yourself right off to the setting. The Hamptons in this case sound fantastic if you like that kind of thing. Ok, so the rest of the book went downhill for me - it turned into a bit of a murder mystery, which I was not expecting but the circumstances surrounding this was pretty boring. Sometimes i feel with Ms Swan that she almost goes into too much detail to show how thoroughly she has researched her subject. I would have preferred to have more of a love story with this, but was such a small part of it that we never really got to know the hero (?). My kindle version was poorly edited and the story jumped all over the place. making it hard to follow and losing interest along the way. First Karen Swan I've been disappointed in.

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.

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

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!

What a fantastic read this is. I read it on holiday and lived every page.Rowena's fiance decides they need a break before settling down, this takes her by surprise as she had their life together planned. She is invited to spend the summer on the beach in the Hamptons with three very different housemates. Having plucked up the courage to go she finds herself in a very different world.I loved the characters in this story, especially Rowena and Humph, they were brilliant.As with all Karen's stories, it is full if unexpected twists and turns, leaving you not quite sure what is going to happen next.I loved every page and thoroughly recommend it.