Sam lives by the mantra that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.After the tragic loss of her husband, Sam built a new life around friends, her cat Coco and a career she loves. Fending off frequent set-ups and well-meaning advice to ‘move on’, Sam is resolutely happy being single.But when Sam gets seconded to her firm’s Boston office for the summer, it is more than … the summer, it is more than her career that is in for a shake-up. A spur of the moment decision to visit the idyllic beaches of Cape Cod could end up changing her life forever.
One thing is for sure, Sam won’t finish the summer the same woman who started it…
For fans of Holly Martin, Debbie Johnson and Lindsey Kelk, this is the unmissable beach read for 2019!
What readers are saying about A Summer to Remember:
‘Heartwarming and hopeful – a slightly irreverent, sometimes laugh-out-loud look at life after loss. Just perfect’ Rachel Burton
‘Uplifting, funny, romantic and charming … The perfect summer read’
‘Kept me hooked till the last page … Recommended!’
‘Heartwarming with a lovely romantic storyline and fantastic characters’
‘Cosy romance that I read in one sitting’
‘Could not put it down … A nice summer read’
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Two heart broken people who believe they have found their soul mates, only to tragically lose them, and have decided that life alone, without a live in love, is to be their fate. They are each OK with that.
Sam has thrown herself into her work and has her eye on the coveted prize of a three month assignment in the states working on a major PR project. Year after year she is rejected for this team but she never gives up. When she finally achieves her dream, she finds herself assigned the role of girl Friday, fetching coffee and doughnuts. She feels invisible and frustrated.
Ethan was always a family man, loyal and kind, and doing what he believed was right. So why did this English woman, who keeps turning up in his life, uninvited, irritate him so much?
This novel will grab you by the heart and make you feel warm and fuzzy. The characters feel so real and the situations are equally sad and funny. The writing flows smoothly and once you begin, you find yourself looking forward to beachy weekends and new friendships.
Don’t expect things to end all sweet and pretty within the three month parameters of Sam’s dream job. Life doesn’t work that way.
This is a novel about healing and forgiveness and finding oneself and ones potential, both in work and in love.
A Summer to Remember is my first book by Victoria Cooke, and it did not disappoint. This novel is a deep heartwarming romcom about a heartbroken woman who has lost her husband in a tragic accident and is trying to move on with her life. Sam seems to be doing well, she is working, she has friends, and she landed the summer trip to Boston for her firm which she has coveted for the past 7 years.
When Sam accepts the job, she couldn’t be happier, a chance to see and do new things, and get away from the friends and life that seem to want her to find a “significant other” to prove she is ok. But once she gets to Boston, her happiness fades when she finds that her dream position is run by a sexist boss who refuses to let her contribute to the team. When she takes a weekend to get away, Sam finds Provincetown, a remote rural beach town where she makes friends and feels relaxed, and suddenly she starts to feel a lot more feelings than she’s emotionally ready for.
Most romcoms are light and airy, and yes, this book is too, but it also has some deep undertones to it as well. My husband called it a rom – drama – com. Named so because it has just a touch more unresolved past emotions that need to be worked through and gave the reader that apprehensive “OMG” feeling almost as if you weren’t sure everything was going to work out in the end. (And you know everything has to work out in the end in our beloved romcoms)! It was this unsure, anxious feeling that Cooke’s writing gave me that kept me reading nonstop until the very end, because there was no way I could put this book down until I knew what happened. (Nope, not going to tell you).
This book gets an easy 4 star rating from me. Victoria Cooke’s characters were likable, relatable, real, and Ethan’s description was downright sexy. Cooke took a simple romance and mixed some very serious yet common personal family topics into the bowl, and came out with a winning recipe. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to more of her writing in the future.
Thank you so much to Victoria Cooke, Rachel Gilbey from Rachels Random Resources, and Harper Collins Publishing / HQDigital for a copy of this book for my honest and unbiased opinion.
*sighs*
Memories can be funny things, can’t they? You can recapture a cherished moment in time. Evoking all the thoughts and feelings that come with that specific memory.
But memories also hold the power to work against you. Even though we don’t mean for them to, they can hold us back. Where nothing and no one can live up to people or times past.
This is the limbo that Sam Butterfield finds herself in.
Losing her husband irrevocably changed Sam’s life. As it would have *shrugs*, but in trying to cope with her grief and forge a new way of life she has placed an ‘Out of Order’ sign on her heart.
Ugh! This hurt so much to read. No matter how Sam tried to pretty it up, her decisions made at that time echoed hurt and sadness through the page.
We may have to push her kicking and screaming, but… bring on the light! *rolls up sleeves*
It’s funny how a change of scenery and pace of life can help lead to a large dose of introspection. Especially when you transport a quintessential English rose to the US of A! I know I wouldn’t pass up a summer working in Boston *snorts*.
Can’t you just feel that sun?! Ahhhh… come to mama *makes grabby hands*.
Now, I have to be honest and say Sam annoyed me a couple of times during this story. I loved the friendships she made but found myself facepalming when her default setting was to lash out rather than admit how she truly felt.
Especially when it was aimed at my two special guys. What special guys you ask? Well, read it and find out *smirks*.
Don’t worry, I didn’t hold it against Sam for long, lol. Let’s be real here, the first flutterings of romance after all this time are bound to be a scary time for her.
Moving on does not mean having to let go…
*sighs* (again!)
Victoria Cooke has become a firm fav of mine since I ‘discovered’ her books last year. As a reader she makes me feel. Whether you’re laughing, crying, getting a tad annoyed or feeling mushy and gushy – her stories just get to you. And ASTR is the perfect example of this.
I wonder where she’ll take me next on her travels!
Favorite Quotes:
I try to ignore the fact he’s incredibly attractive, because beauty comes from within, and there’s a gargoyle residing inside him.
It’s as though his mother went to the gene-pool buffet when she was making him and had first dibs on all the good stuff.
‘You stand here.’ Absentmindedly, I place my hands on his shoulders to manoeuvre him, and the shock of their firmness and sheer size jolts me and I almost recoil. Touching a man is such uncharted territory for me. It’s been such a long time that I feel like I’ve reached out and grabbed a forbidden sculpture at the Louvre or something.
As much as I’d like to stay here forever, England is my home. I can’t just emigrate at the drop of a hat. Besides, don’t you need the blood of a fairy godmother, half a shooting star and the wispy hair of five baby pixies just to get a green card to live here in the States?
It can take people a lifetime to figure out what makes them happy. At least you’ve figured it out while your jowls are tight and you don’t have cataracts.
My Review:
I enjoyed Ms. Cooke’s wry wit and clever humor as well as many of her secondary characters and story threads, although I waffled in my opinion and enjoyment of this book during perusal as the main character of Samantha wasn’t as endearing to me as I would have preferred; I struggled with her selfishness and deceit. I was increasingly impatient for her to gain some self-awareness and pull on her big girl panties and was more than exasperated with her immature and avoidant behaviors by the time her epiphany finally came. But this is but one of my personal pet peeves; I probably need a trigger warning for extended angst.
A cozy beach read!
Sam is assigned to work in Boston for the summer. But her summer assignment isn’t everything she hoped it would be, so she escapes to Cape Cod for the weekend and encounters delightful new friends. A light hearted story with lots of laughs about love, loss, family and starting over.