For the Love of Summer A Summer Beach Read

Families can be complicated but love finds a way!

This was an amazing book. Erica was a strong, hardworking woman that became a success despite many hardships. Whom she helps in a very desperate time will amaze and shock you. Every page was exciting.

The best I have read this summer. Loved the characters and the emotions involved. Made me smile and care about the characters.

Books by Susan Mallery tend to hook me and I don’t put the book down until I’ve finished it. This was me, hooked again.Although the book has summer in its title, it’s not really about summer the season, but Summer, the daughter of Erika and her ex-husband Peter. She has a huge heart and Erika absolutely would do anything for Summer.Summer loves her half-brother Jackson and her father’s second wife, Allison. She will do anything to help them through the crisis caused by Peter. In Summer’s eyes, Allison, Jackson and soon to be born Bethany, are her family as much as her mom and grandmother are. A crazy plan, that benefits all of the women and Jackson, is hatched and to the amazement of them all, it works.This book is about relationships, heart, and how people completely at odds with each other when they begin, can become the close knit family that they all need. Loved it!

As the owner of Twisted, Seattle’s best salons, Erica knows that the sharpest cuts come from the people we love. She’s terrified that she’s losing her teen daughter, Summer, to her “other” family, especially to her stepmom, Allison.All it takes to blow up Allison’s happy life is one collect call. From prison. Her beloved husband, Peter, has been arrested, leaving Allison pregnant, broke, scared and alone with a toddler. But when her stepdaughter ferrets out the truth, the teen rushes to the last person Allison wants to ask for help—her husband’s battle-ax ex.Erica would do anything for Summer, even take in the woman her daughter loves like a second mom. Allison feels intimidated by Erica—a woman who would never let herself become so dependent on a man. But the more time they spend together, the more Allison realizes what Erica truly needs is a friend. Can two women who married the same man move beyond their complicated past and rethink what it means to be family?My Thoughts:As I began For the Love of Summer, I was immediately captivated by the characters, from Allison, Summer, and Summer’s mother Erica, to her grandmother Mara, and even to Peter, the man that let them down.An intriguing tale that showed what friendship, family, and unexpected support could look like. I also enjoyed the Seattle setting and how we are offered a peek into glorious homes.I loved how the characters grew as the story unfolded, and even felt a deep warmth for how giving to others could add something wonderful to one’s own life.I couldn’t stop turning the pages in this 5 star read.***