book bruin's Reviews > The Summer We Fell

This was quite the angsty ride. I knew it would be messy, but I still wasn't fully prepared. Elizabeth O'Roark crafted a story that was so compelling that I couldn't put it down. Yes, there were red flags galore and the tone of the book was very, very depressing, but I had to find out what happened. The book switches between the past and the present, slowly revealing how things began and ultimately fell apart between Juliet, Luke, and the Allen family. I know the author set things up for readers to justify the cheating, but all the relationships were so toxic. I sympathized with Juliet and my heart broke for how she struggled, but I was also annoyed by her repeated attempts to "fix" everything (which often messed things up more/was illegal) and suffer in silence. So much time was spent teasing out the major conflict that the ending felt extremely rushed. The book really would have benefited from also having Luke's POV (versus only Juliet) and I wish there had been more chapters in the "now". I never felt like Juliet and Luke had an honest conversation with each other about what happened and every time it seemed like they might, they had sex instead. I also wanted more joyful moments in general in the book to balance out the hopelessness and sadness. Overall this was an addictive read, but I didn't love it.

Even though the book isn't dual POV, the narration is duet style, with Teddy Hamilton voicing all the male characters and Samantha Brentmoor voicing all the female. I really love this style of narration and both narrators did an incredible job. They balanced all the characters well, but there were a few times during scenes involving multiple characters that I wasn't sure which character Teddy Hamilton was voicing (Danny? Luke? One of the other guys?) The audiobook was really well done though and kept me listening way past my bedtime.

Audiobook Review
Overall 3.5 stars
Performance 4 stars
Story 3 stars

There are too many CW's to list, but the main ones are: sexual assault and rape by a family member, grief, trauma, assault/violence/fighting, financial and housing insecurity, parental abandonment, death of loved ones, toxic relationships, on page cheating

*I voluntarily listened to a review copy of this book*