Customer Reviews

Still Summer

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This is my first Jacquelyn Mitchard book, and I can't say I was blown away. The fascinating premise of ordinary women trying to survive at sea was really hampered by some pretty stereotypical characters: the bratty teenage girl, the self-sacrificing mom, the self-absorbed beauty, the sexy Frenchman.

All of these characters (along with others, who are very thinly drawn for the most part) are on a yacht trip in the Caribbean. Three of the women (Tracy, Holly and Olivia) are lifelong friends; the other is Tracy's daughter Cammie. There are also two crewmen. As they sail, they meet with a series of accidents that put them in increasing peril and show what the women are truly made of.

While the story itself was interesting, I found myself repeatedly annoyed at the characters. One of the women is portrayed as an experienced sailor, yet she doesn't know to take the sail down during a heavy storm and is surprised when it gets torn up. Seriously? I've never sailed a day in my life and even -I- knew that. Also, how on earth did it take Tracy 20 years to realize what a worthless excuse for a human being Olivia was?

In addition, I saw one major "plot twist" coming about 100 pages before it was revealed. (I won't post it here, in the unlikely event that it would spoil the surprise for others.) This is notable because I'm notorious for not being able to spot plot twists, so if it surprised me, it must be pretty dang obvious!

This is the sort of book that a hotel would do well to keep by the pool for guests who want a fast, interesting read. But it's not the sort of book those same guests would go home and buy a copy of for themselves.

I have been a fan of Jacquelyn Mitchard's writing after reading The Deep End of the Ocean so I looked forward to this novel with great anticipation.
Although I read it completely through, it did not "grab" me or give me a sense that I really knew the characters, not in the same way other books of her had.
My main issues with this book:
1. I felt it took a long time to get going. Focusing on three high school friends- Olivia, Holly and Tracy -and their reunion after Olivia's husband dies, the author spends a great deal of time setting up the introduction to the main action. It was hard to see where this was going and how everything would connect, let alone lead to a critical turning point.

2. Sloppy proofreading. On p. 73, the word cinnamon roll is spelled "cinnamon role". Of course, this will be a way to tell the first edition from later editions as I hope this mistake will be corrected.

3. Lack of detailed characterizations. I did not have the sense that the author was passionate about this book. Again, I admit I may have a bias because of the quality in The Deep End of the Ocean, a book I have reread many times and which grabs the reader from page one and never lets go.
I've noticed others here gave the book 4 and 5 stars. I admit my expectations may have been high based on The Deep End of the Ocean.

There are story tellers and there are story tellers. And then there is Jackie Mitchard who first captured millions with her debut novel The Deep End of The Ocean. (The first Oprah pick!) Who could forget the poignant story of a mother who loses her young son? Mitchard followed her initial success with almost a dozen novels for adults, young adults, and children - each penetrating, thought provoking in its own way, usually dealing with human drama or dilemma.

Drama takes center stage in Still Summer, a story of friendship, the camaraderie and affection shared by three women- Tracy, Olivia, and Holly. They were an inseparable trio in high school and that closeness has stood the test of time. Some twenty years later Olivia is a widow, having lost her well-to-do Italian husband. As Olivia arrives in the United States, we hear: "Two skycaps trailed behind Olivia, like yoked oxen straining to push the teetering towers of Olivia's turquoise Henk van de Meene luggage. Olivia stuffed their hands with crumpled wads of dollar bills and gave them a smile so candent that they felt something more than a tip had been bestowed.."

She has that effect on people. So, for that reason and others she was and is the leader of the group. Olivia wants to be with her friends again, suggesting a get-together, a luxurious one on a sailboat navigating the Caribbean. They do just that, including Tracy's 19-year-old daughter, Camille or Cammie. The boat's crew consists of a captain and his young mate. It's not a great surprise that Cammie and the mate are attracted to each other. The shocker is a sudden storm that leaves the boat without power, sail or radio. And, perhaps worst of all without a crew.

Thus, the women are left bobbing in shark infested waters at the mercy of a burning sun, and modern pirates.

Mitchard comes to the fore as she documents their days adrift, skillfully revealing how much or how little friendship can mean when lives are in the balance. This mixture of revealed emotions and suspense makes for high drama as each woman faces the ultimate danger in her own way.

Narrating this tale, embracing a variety of voices would be a challenge for most voice performers, but not for Susan Ericksen who is more than successful in reflecting each character as she copes or combats or both. An actress who has recorded more than 100 audiobooks, Ericksen has a clear, distinct voice that makes her presentation more than enjoyable.

- Gail Cooke

This book is one of the most contrived, superficial and silly "suspense" books I've ever read. All males in the book are idiots, criminals, selfish, threatening or just plain non-human, and all the females are thoughtful, caring, conflicted, confused and/or threatened. The narration is choppy switching from the story line to background, back to the story and sometimes involving two characters in one paragraph! The amazing thing is after numerous pages telling you who these people are, you really don't care. When the one semi-human male gets killed, you think, "Oh, well." and go on to the next chapter. A waste of time to read this thing.

I read Deep End of the Ocean and thought it was great. I did not like
this book. I wanted to,but couldn't. Several times I was so annoyed
I just wanted to toss it without finishing it. I found it too "wordy"
at times. I'd read and re-read sentences just to make sense of them.
And one thing kept coming to mind... SPOILER ALERT... if you haven't
read the book yet... you might not want to read this...
Why would they NOT TIE up the pirates after drugging them?! I found
that to be sooooo frustrating.

I did manage to read the whole thing but found myself annoyed and
frustrated at times.

This book does not live up to its hype. As several other reviewers have already mentioned, the editors did a terrible job. Words are misspelled and occasionally the wrong character name is used. It becomes pretty confusing at times. The lost at sea drama is far-fetched and drags on way too long. The characters are superficial and boring. I read the entire book hoping it would get better or an unsuspected twist would develop and I was sadly disappointed.

Long after you put it down, you'll be thinking about this book. Surprisingly, it's not the life-threatening forces which converge in a "perfect storm" out of the (literal) blue that are so compelling, but the ordinariness and familiarity of the characters. You will know all of these women, they are drawn in such honest detail that you will recognize them as your friends...or at least as friends who have never been tested. And these women are tested here - what begins as the most idyllic of weeks becomes, almost overnight, the most harrowing. This book will ask you to question the safety and stability of your own life and value the quality of your relationships. The magic of Jacquelyn Mitchard's stories is that they show us the redeeming grace of ordinary human beings thrown into extraordinary situations, and allow us to measure ourselves with compassion along the way.

Stereotypical characters, unbelievable scenarios, superficial and choppy narration. This book seems as though the author needed an excuse to write a quasi romance novel and mother/daughter heart to heart and and found it with a overall bad "stranded at sea" story. There was no worthy payback toward Olivia's character (if you're going to make her into a uncaring sub-human b*tch then give the reader some juicy vengeance). Tracy's husband cheats on her and yet there's no mention of it at the end, almost as though she sweeps it under the rug and pretends like it never happened. This audiobook was a waste of 10 hours...

I am really stunned and fairly insulted by the lackluster quality of this book. I know Mitchard can do ten times better than this. Yet, she doesn't. The dialogue is redundant and often cryptic. The pacing (at least in the first half) is sluggish. The characters are either boring or downright mean. Some paragraphs read like first-draft jumbles that I have to re-read two or three times to understand.

All this and I haven't even finished it yet. I don't think I will.

I'm sad that she didn't try harder to edit this and make it more reader-friendly. When spending $15 on a brand new book, I expect someone's best effort.

I was expecting great drama on the high sea's, what I got was a book with contrived and boring characters, a plot full of holes and horrible editing and spelling. This book wouldn't even make a good "LifeTime" movie, it was that bad.

I can't recommend this book to anyone and am ashamed of myself for wasting not only my time, but my money on this garbage.