Book Review & Giveaway: One Perfect Summer

Synopsis:

When Serenity Alston swabbed her cheek to have her DNA analyzed by 23andMe, she joked about uncovering a dark ancestral scandal. The last thing she expected was to discover two half sisters she didn’t know existed. Suddenly, everything she’s always known about her close, loving family is drawn into question.

Meeting her newfound sisters may be the only way to get much-needed answers about their parentage and history.

The women decide to dig into the mystery together at Serenity’s family cabin in Lake Tahoe. While there, Reagan navigates romantic politics at work back in New York City. Lorelei is staring down what appears to be the inevitable collapse of her marriage. Serenity is still reeling from the ramifications of revelations that destroyed her own marriage and plans for motherhood.

All three women are converging at a crossroads in their lives. Before the summer ends, they must confront the past and determine how to move forward when what they previously believed to be true has been proven a lie. But the future is easier to face with family by your side.

Some families we’re born into.

Some we find for ourselves.

Review:

Bestselling author Brenda Novak was inspired to pen One Perfect Summer when both one of her best friends and a family member discovered “secret” sisters through DNA testing. Novak says she became intrigued by the “‘what ifs’ the people involved faced,” and saw similar stories in the media so frequently that she wanted to explore the topic. In addition to other research, her husband had his DNA tested and she conferred with the family member who learned about a previously-unknown sibling, so she was able to gain an understanding of the process.

A resident of Sacramento, California, Novak set the novel at beautiful Lake Tahoe. More specifically, most of the story unfolds at the cabin on the lake owned for decades by Serenity’s family. Serenity grew up in a stable home with a younger brother and two younger sisters. She is a true crime author who has experienced writer’s block for the past eighteen months and missed the deadline for her next book. Her life fell apart when she discovered shocking information about her husband that ended her once-happy marriage just as she and Sean were ready to start a family. As the story opens, Serenity is struggling to regain her equilibrium. “It’s as if Sean blew a huge hole through me. I’ve lost part of myself. My innocence. My security. My trust in others. Something. And I can’t seem to get it back.” Her circumstances have not been helped by learning that she has two half-sisters, both of whom are close to her age.

Reagan, an only child, was raised by her mother — a workaholic — after her father’s death. She has always felt unloved and unwanted by her mother, and compensated by working hard to establish herself in the advertising industry. A partnership with her prestigious New York firm is now in jeopardy because of a rash mistake. She consummated her longtime flirtation with Drew, one of the partners, and is so ashamed of her behavior that she has fled the workplace. She is convinced that she must resign, but the prospect of starting over with another firm is daunting and disheartening.

Lorelei has flown from Florida to Reno with her four-year-old daughter, Lucy. Like Serenity and Reagan, she needs to make major decisions about her future after discovering that her husband, Mark, betrayed her. Lorelei has no relatives other than her husband, daughter, and Mark’s large family. She grew up in a series of foster homes after being found wandering alone at the age of two. How she came to be lost remains a mystery, along with the identity and fate of her birth parents.

The three women connected on Facebook six months ago. Serenity only submitted to DNA testing “to see how it all worked for the sake of her writing” but the results have “upended everything she’s ever believed she could rely on.” She has not confronted her parents, worried that questioning one or both of them could result in the destruction not only of their long, happy marriage, but her relationships with them and her siblings. Reagan, likewise, has not asked her mother about the test results, fearing her mother’s reaction and confident that she will not be forthcoming, anyway. Serenity’s parents have no idea that she has invited Reagan and Lorelei to the cabin for a week for the purpose of getting acquainted and attempting to untangle the riddle of their familial status.

Novak has crafted an engrossing story about three women who find each other at a crucial time in each of their lives. Ironically, each of them is facing the biggest crisis of her life and confronted with choices that will determine the course of her life. In addition to deciding whether and how to approach her family with the information she has learned, Serenity must get her writing career back on track. And has been actively resisting her feelings for Sean’s stepbrother, Sawyer, who stood by her during the ordeal with Sean at the expense of his relationships with his stepmother and extended family. Reagan must find a way to forgive herself for being reckless and deal with the consequences of her lapse in judgment. And forgiveness is the key theme of Lorelei’s conundrum, as well. She contemplates what her life will be like if she has the capacity to forgive Mark and return to the life they’ve built together in Florida. And dares to ponder what it would be like to move forward an an independent woman for the first time in her life, always with Lucy’s best interests guiding her decision-making.

The pace of the story never slows as Novak injects various romantic and domestic complications. The three women get off to a rocky start, but are soon getting along well enough that they decide to spend not just a week, but the entire summer at the cabin. Part of the impetus is the arrival of Finn and his two brothers who are renting the cabin next door for the summer. Lorelei and Finn are drawn to each other, and Finn’s brother, Davis, is recovering from a devastating and life-changing injury which gives Lorelei a purpose for remaining and risking her husband’s ire.

Novak believably depicts the burgeoning relationships of the three women, including — typical of sisters — their disagreements and frustrations with each other. They decide to have one perfect summer together before they must each make final decisions about their lives and circumstances. As the days pass, they learn to confide in, rely upon, and help each other. And as the summer progresses, their investigation into the identity of their father proceeds, as well. The tragic truth is eventually revealed, but the focus of the book is squarely on the development of a bond that, as Serenity observes, becomes “powerful and meaningful. . . . Something beyond friendship. . . . A defensiveness toward those who weren’t treating her sisters right. A hope that they could overcome their struggles. The desire to help them do so. If that wasn’t a testament to genetics, Serenity didn’t know what was.”

One Perfect Summer illustrates that technology has the power to reveal secrets that were meant to remain hidden. The fallout from such disclosures can be devastating and destructive, or bring people together, creating and expanding families. When, like Serenity, Reagan, and Lorelei, people find the string, tug on it, and unravel their whole history, they choose how to react to and deal with the newly-discovered information. Novak’s One Perfect Summer is a feel-good story. For her characters, finding answers simultaneously brings closure . . . and possibilities. Their journey is both entertaining and satisfying.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one electronic copy of One Perfect Summer free of charge from the author via Net Galley. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.