Have you ever read a book so poorly written you just want to break through years of reserve and upbringing and swear like a sailor? I didn’t throw Summer Lovin’ by Carly Phillips across the room…but I came close. I didn’t finish the first book in this series, Under the Boardwalk because the insta-lust overwhelmed any half-way interesting plot point 10 pages in. Summer Lovin’ kept me interested long enough that I figured I should just finish…a decision I regret. Summer Lovin’ tells the story of Zoe, a former FBI agent from a large Greek family, and Ryan, a lawyer from upper crust Massachusetts. (And I do mean tells the story. Using an overabundance of adjectives and adverbs and not nearly enough action.) Theoretically the storyline follows their relationship with Sam, the girl Zoe’s family is trying to adopt who is also Ryan’s biological niece. In reality, the novel drags through Zoe and Ryan’s insta-lust and contrived emotional upheaval with a whole bunch of totally random conflict shoved in the last 1/4th to make some sort of riveting plot line. It fails. First, khakis are not sexy. Light blue polo shirts are not ultra-masculine. 30 year olds should seriously consider before donning miniskirts. While I can understand the author wanting to somehow give Zoe “character,” I got real tired of her miniskirts and skanky blouses. What kind of FBI/security agent was/is she? And would a woman who dressed like that really find Italian suits that attractive? I got very tired of hearing about Ryan's “sexiness” (which could be another rant. The English vocabulary has many wonderful alternatives to sexy. Why not broaden the vocabulary some?) when he simply walks around in something Jake from State Farm would wear. Second, the most annoying part of this book was the writing. I cannot even begin to express it. The author rarely tells something. She bludgeons you over the head with it, and in case you missed it repeats the process twenty times. The novel dies a slow and painful death at the hands of an abundance of entirely generic adjective and adverbs. You’re told everything and yet can picture nothing. People “paused on purpose” (as opposed to pausing not on purpose?), “asked affronted,” or perform actions like “shuffling papers on his desk for no apparent reason” (maybe the papers needed shuffling?) The majority of the writing is dialogue but even this is disappointing. It is so wordy and slow that no living person could actually have a conversation that way – the characters have to stop and consider everything, both out loud and for the reader. How about this: Zoe accepted the picture and glanced down at the photo of the teenager, frozen in time at around the same age as Sam. Zoe sucked in a startled breath. “Wow,” she said, staring at the eerily familiar features and blond hair. “You weren’t kidding.”He shook his head. “Starling resemblance, isn’t it?”“My thoughts exactly,” she said, placing her hand over his. “I’m so sorry.” He met her gaze, his eyes warm and grateful. “I appreciate that.”“Why didn’t you show this photograph to me before?”He shrugged as he placed the picture back into his pocket. “You didn’t ask.”She shifted uncomfortably in her seat….Third, the plot drags out over several hundred pages and rushes into the ending much too fast with little real resolution or sense. (view spoiler)[ Sure, it comes as a shock that the one upstanding and loving figure in Ryan’s life is a total jerk who drove away his sister and stole from everyone…good thing no one considers that what he did was TOTLLY ILLEGAL. He should be going to jail. Not calmly continuing on and working out those issues with his family. I totally did not buy his work with the mafia. I did not buy his interaction with his niece. Was he evil? Wasn’t he? Self-motivated? Genuinely trying to help? The novel muddles through that section and the only real implications to his behavior seems to be that some small business owners had higher insurance….but he’s probably evil because he set a mobster on a 14 year old girl…why again? To find a safety deposit box thing he knows about how? In order to find something that is probably not there? Which no one would have thought to look for if he hadn’t drawn attention to it? Way too much contrivance that did not fit well together. (hide spoiler)]
Meh - it was ok, but definitely nothing to write home about! As far as romances go - it was neither interesteing enough nor steamy enough. As far as characters go - they were not fully developped and annoying most of the time. As far as the mystery went - what mystery!? Zoe had zero reasons to be afraid of commitment and zero valid explanations for it, so her "running away" and excuses of "i'm not cut out for this" just seemed neurotic... It was extremely annoying to see her running away from a "perfect" (albeit boring) man, using the excuse that he was in the upper class (it's not the middle ages - jeez!!) and that she was not the "relationship type"...I also wasn't sure why they were constantly mentioning how Zoe's parents are con artists?! Did i miss something at the beginning (or didn't read the last book)?! How are they con artists and on the other side of the law?!?! I thought they had a beauty parlour... (view spoiler)[ Finally, the mystery was useless! Ok so the uncle was stealing from the company...and knew why and where Ryan's sister ran away... But, so what?!?! Nothing ever comes of this! The uncle isn't really a villain and conflict is resolved when everyone forgives and forgets and "changes for the better" - the end! Very anti-climactic.... (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Summer Lovin' (2006)?
Contemporary romance with unprotected sex. They DO have a conversation about birth control & sexual health. This is the 2nd in a 2 book series. 15 chapters with slightly larger than usual print. Copyright 2006. I actually bought this book when it first came out & I didn't like it much. Now, years later, I reread it & it's OK. I don't know if this is considered a "good" Carly Phillips book. I was never tempted to buy another to find out if she's written better. Zoe & her family are welcoming a foster child, Samantha into the family. It turns out Sam's deceased mother was a runaway & her mother's brother has finally caught up with Sam. Ryan is relieved Sam is in safe hands, not living a horror filled life. Now they have to decide where she's going to live. The problems seem to pop up & then go away. This isn't a literary masterpiece. Just a fun beach read to pass an afternoon.
—Cindy
I always seem to enjoy Carly Phillips books because they are so easy to read. She has a nice style of writing, good flow and structure. She fits into that nice middle-ground in her style of writing that makes for good readability. Some authors these days seem to go way overboard with complex sentences to the point where you have to read the sentence more than once to try and figure out what the point of the phrase it. It's a real pain to read a sentence like this: She walked toward the window, i
—jenjn79
After reading other reviews, I expected to be disappointed with this book after really enjoying Under the Boardwalk. I'm not going to write a plot summary but it does continue the family sagas of the Costas family started in Under the Boarwalk. I just enjoyed that this is a quick read. No it's not Carly Phillips' best book, but it still is enjoyable. I already loved a lot of the characters and feel this is why a lot of other reviewers didn't like it because it builds on what was already established. I didn't feel a great connection with the male lead and his family and maybe wasn't supposed to but the rest of the characters do connect. I thought the attempt a mystery half way through the book kept it from becoming a really good book. It's almost like it was an after thought in Phillips' mind and she didn't fully develop it. However I do recommend this book. I think it's a good beach book or a book for someone looking for a quick light-hearted read.
—Samantha
