Review: One Perfect Summer

 

One Perfect Summer

About the Book:

When Serenity Alston swabbed her cheek for 23andMe, she joked about uncovering some dark ancestral scandal. The last thing she expected was to discover two half sisters she didn’t know existed. Suddenly, everything about her loving family is drawn into question. And meeting these newfound sisters might be the only way to get answers.

The women decide to dig into the mystery together at Serenity’s family cabin in Lake Tahoe. With Reagan navigating romantic politics at work and Lorelei staring down the collapse of her marriage, all three women are converging at a crossroads in their lives. Before the summer is over, they’ll have to confront the past and determine how to move forward when everything they previously thought to be true was a lie. But any future is easier to face with family by your side.

My Comments:

Have you every wanted to take a vacation from real life?  Have you ever gone through a time in your life where it was apparent that life as you knew it had to change, a lot?  Put those two things together with an unexpected result from a DNA test and you have One Perfect Summer.   

Serenity, Reagan and Lorelei all took at DNA test for different reasons, and through it, found out that they were half sisters.  While Lorelei knew nothing about her family or family history as she had been found wandering the streets as a toddler, the other two, Serenity and Reagan have always known where they came from--or did they?  

The women decide to meet for a week at Serenity's family cottage to get to know each other and try to figure out how they could be half sisters.  As luck would have it, all three undergo significant life upheaval after they plan their trip, but before they meet, and so are dealing with important life choices, as well as their relationship with each other.  

During the course of the story, the women deal with ghosts from their past, men in their lives and the secret that brought them together.  However, there is an old saying that if you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras, and to me, the most likely horses about why they are related (sperm donor fertility treatment or adoption) never seem to be considered, and yes, in the end, they do find a zebra but to me it just sort of fell flat.  

The story also gives each woman a love interest in the book and, in the end, there was no real resolution there either.  Maybe that's how real life is--there is a hint of happily ever after, but no real resolution of that plot line.

I'd like to thank the publisher for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley.  Grade:  B.