About Last Summer

by Sandra Panting

[Leah]

When Sandra Panting sent me an email asking if I would like to review her debut novel About Last Summer, I took one look at the beautiful cover, took a look at the interesting-sounding synopsis and replied with a resounding yes. The cover is just so beautiful and makes me think of the fabulous summer days you see played out on American TV shows with lakes and boardwalks and all that wonderful stuff I wish I could do during the summer (but I can’t, cos I have to work and Tenerife only has sea, not lakes, boo). So I was quite intrigued to get stuck in, but unfortunately I actually found the book quite repetitive and a tad on the boring side, as not much happens.

The premise of the novel is quite an interesting one – two people, Natalie and Chase, who were lovers a year ago, find they have to share a house for a few weeks in the lead up to Natalie’s brother Patrick’s wedding. But they have to keep their hands off each other this time around, because them two being together is a big no-no. Chase is an apparent commitment-phobe and Natalie’s parents and brother would kill her if she got with a Malone. The Malone’s come with a very bad reputation, and it’s the last thing Natalie’s family want her messed up with, but it’s proving a lot more difficult than either Natalie or Chase have envisioned because everything they felt a year ago is still there, rumbling under the surface and it’s getting harder and harder to keep at bay…

I really, really wanted to like About Last Summer. I wanted it to kick me out of my rut that I currently find myself. A rut that sees me consuming more books than a library, but not actually fully reading anything, if that makes sense. I’m skim-reading more than I’m proper-reading, and nothing is grabbing my attention. I think I’m over-reading, if there’s such a word. But About Last Summer did not pull me out of my rut, because there just wasn’t too much going on. Natalie and Chase spend more time reminiscing about how their tryst was a year ago instead of living in the real world. What kind of life can you lead if you let your parents and brother dictate who you date, as Natalie does, with them deeming Chase a non-starter? I thought that was awful. Just because Chase’s father has a bad rep does not mean Chase automatically gets a bad rep, especially not when Natalie’s brother, Patrick, is meant to be Chase’s best friend. Some best friend that is, eh?

I just thought that if Chase and Natalie had actually spent two minutes having an actual, proper conversation then all of their troubles (and the book) would have been over by the end of that conversation. They spent far too much time dilly-dallying over their like for each other, and wondering what the other was thinking when surely two people who have known each other so long, and so intimately, would just have that honest conversation about where they stood with each other, it would all have been sorted out. Looking at the cover, I expected a whimsical, fanciful tale of a beautiful love affair during summertime (or something akin to that) and I just sort of got bored after a while, because Natalie and Chase are just super passive-aggressive, and seemed unable to actually talk feelings. I was disappointed; I wanted more from the book.