Review: Last Summer

Last Summer by Holly Chamberlin

Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 352
Published: June 5, 2012
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Fiction

My Rating: 3/5

Summary (from chapters.ca):

The town of Yorktide, close to Maine's beautiful beaches and the city of Portland, seems like the perfect place to raise a family. For Jane Patterson, there's another advantage: her best friend, Frannie Giroux, lives next door, and their teenaged daughters, Rosie and Meg, are inseparable. But in the girls' freshman year of high school, everything changes.

Jane always felt lucky that she was able to work from home, to be there to nurture and protect Rosie. But has she been too protective? Rosie - quiet, shy, and also very pretty - attracts the sneers and slights of a clique of older girls. Over time, the bullying worsens. When Meg betrays their friendship, fearful that she too will be targeted, Rosie suffers an emotional breakdown. Blaming both Meg and Frannie, Jane tries to help Rosie heal while dealing with her own guilt and anger.

In the months that follow, each struggles with the ideas of forgiveness and compassion, of knowing when a friendship has been shattered beyond repair - and when hope can be salvaged, one small moment at a time...

Review:

To a young girl, trying to swim in the huge ocean that is high school, not being a target is everything.  What happens when your best friend becomes one... do you jump ship or throw out a life raft?

This is only my second book my Holly Chamberlin and while the covers draw me in and the stories sound wonderful, I find that there is something lacking in the overall story that leaves me feeling a little disappointed. 

Last Summer has a storyline that so many young girls will be able to connect to.  Chances are, you were either bullied or a bully in high school... there is very rarely a middle ground.  Bullying is such a hot topic these days that I commend Holly Chamberlin for choosing to write about it and allowing her readers to know that there are better things out there for you.

For me, I found that the characters lacked a certain something that drew you in.  It could have been the fact that the story changed perspectives too many times or maybe with too many characters but I wasn't able to connect with anyone like I usually do.  Sure, I felt bad for Rosie and even for Meg but not enough that I really cared.  Jane was a good mom but not a great mom and Frannie was 'meh' in the parenting department.  Honestly, no one was very memorable.

I feel bad for this book (as weird as that sounds) because it really could have been a powerful story and it just missed the mark.

Overall, I sit at a mixed feeling for Holly Chamberlin but do have a few more of her titles on my shelves so will read her again.