Stardust Summer

by Lauren Clark

[Leah]

Lauren Clark is an author I very much enjoy. I really enjoyed her debut novel, Stay Tuned, and I absolutely adored Dancing Naked In Dixie when I read it last year. So I was really chuffed to see Lauren’s third novel was finally being released. It wasn’t Pie Girls, which was meant to be Lauren’s third novel but which is delayed until later on this year (yay), instead her new release is Stardust Summer, and although I didn’t enjoy it as much as Dancing Naked In Dixie, it is still a novel that I’d recommend.

When Grace Mason’s father dies, she finds herself leaving her Mississippi home and heading to New York for his funeral with her son, Evan. Grace and her father, along with his wife Kathleen, haven’t had the best of relationships but she’s devastated to not have been able to say a final goodbye. Grace only plans to stay in New York for a short time, but she ends up staying the entire summer after spending more time with her step-mother and although she’s not entirely able to forgive Kathleen, she understands that Kathleen now feels lost without her husband and Grace and Kathleen’s next-door-neighbour Ryan, a doctor, try to help Kathleen move forward. When the time comes for Grace to head home again, will she be able to pull herself away from New York and its beautiful lakes?

I really liked the plot of Stardust Summer, I liked the fact that it delved into Grace’s past and I spent a lot of time wondering just what Kathleen and Grace’s father Henry had done to make their relationship so strained. If I’m being honest, Grace’s anger was a bit unfair. When all was said and done, I felt she’d treated Kathleen a bit meanly, and I was sort of hoping for them to have a one-to-one to properly air their grievances, or, rather, for Grace to air her grievances as it was Grace with the issues. A lot happens in the novel – think of every bad thing that could happen to multiple people and they all happened to Grace and Kathleen during Grace’s stay. At times, it was a bit much for one family to cope with but I admired how Grace and Kathleen coped.

I thought the setting of the novel was spectacular. I wanted to move to New York, next to the lake with a beautiful cottage. I wanted to swim in the lake, and see the beautiful sunrise and sunset. One of my favourite people in the novel was definitely Doctor Gordon, he was an ace character, someone I felt so sad for when we learned about his wife leaving, but I loved how he and Grace clicked. I really, really liked the book. I love the title – Stardust Summer, isn’t it beautiful? The cover, too, is stunning. I can’t wait for Lauren Clark’s next novel, she’s a really good storyteller, and I love the stories she weaves and the characters she creates. Pie Girl’s can’t come soon enough and Lauren Clark is definitely on my list of authors whose books I must read as soon as they’re released.