Every Summer After

Watching these two characters grow up, fall apart, and then find their way back to each other was touching. I loved seeing them ascend into adulthood and grapple with feelings beyond the childhood friendship they’d been comfortable in all their lives. I also liked that, even as things were falling apart in the past, readers could see them reconciling in the future.

I thought this book was the perfect example of how messy young love can be and how, in the heat of the moment, people make mistakes that can change everything. 

If there’s one thing I especially love about ‘now and then’ fiction, it’s how I get to read about the characters meeting as teenagers, developing a friendship, growing, changing, and understanding each other more as the years progress. In this book, a summertime relationship blooms between Percy and Sam. They’re only 13 when they meet, but they quickly develop a deep friendship that eventually, despite some terrible mistakes and complications over the years, leads to happiness.

The story switches between past and present, tempting me with snippets of the irresistible attraction between the characters. Swoon!

I found Every Summer After while looking for dual-timeline books. I was not looking for an opportunity to cry. Or to giggle, or to have my heart racing out of anxiety. But this book gave me all the feels.

Meeting a young girl and watching her grow into a closed-off woman afraid of anyone getting too close (and how she got there) was painful, heartbreaking, and relatable—the same for a young boy who grew into a man with his own joys and pains.

The reward of their return to each other made me want to gobble up every word this… show more.