Summer's Road by Kelly Moran

Elements of this book resonated with me on a deeply personal level but it wasn’t because of that, that I found the book impossible to put down, that can be firmly attributed to the fact that this was a super read, very well written and with characters that were impossible not to care about.

Summer lied, she had been lying all her life, hiding the true extent of her isolation and misery. Cosseted beside the most destructive phrase in the female vocabulary “I’m Fine”

From the time her mother walked away until the time she lost her father to illness, she stood alone among her friends, surrounded by people who cared but didn’t get to see the whole picture, didn’t get to see the Summer that was falling apart on the inside.

But there is only so long that you can live with that volume of emotion bottled up inside before you have to start to change and for Summer that time is now.

Forced to face events, Summer has an opportunity to change her path, to take a new direction but who and what does she leave behind?

She has always had some staunch supporters, friends who have never waved, never faltered in their silent support of their emotionally reclusive friend but with Ian, she has a bond that has been unshakeable, in its devotion, unfathomable in its intensity and unimaginable in its magnitude. Summer has absolutely no idea just how deeply Ian feels for her but when the penny drops and she is inadvertently let into what has to have been the worst kept secret, she has to decide how to react.

Try to form, Summer did exactly what I expected, she tries to almost sweep it under the carpet!

I really enjoyed the retrospective glimpses that we get into Summer’s past and through those flashbacks we get to see the just how imbedded in Summer’s life Ian has been.

She hasn’t taken a single step without him either physically or emotionally by her side and he wouldn’t ever have wanted to be anywhere else. His place is with her, he knows it…he always has but can she open her eyes to see the love he has so willing given to her.

I was captivated by their relationship, but was glad that they had a lot of soul searching to undertake before they took that final step, they knew that them being together would impact more than them alone and I thought that the fact they too the whole situation into consideration was a pointer to the maturity with which the author was prepared to impart.

This was a beautifully emotional, almost coming of age read, but it had so much more it its back pocket that it was completely engrossing. I was heartbroken at times, with the depth of Summer’s emotional isolation but I completely understood where she was coming from and what she had to undertake to get where she needed to be.

To sum this up…a simply wonderful story told with the immense sensitivity and charm.