Wednesday 28 August 2019

Book Review - A Summer Reunion by Fanny Blake

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Title: A Summer Reunion
Author: Fanny Blake
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Orion
Publication Date: 13th June 2019 
Rating: 5 Stars


One perfect villa, four old friends, and a holiday that will change everything...

Amy, Linda, Kate and Jane were best friends at school. Now, years later, they have grown apart. When Amy discovers her husband has been stealing from her successful interiors business, and with a milestone birthday looming, she decides it is the time to reach out to her old friends once again.

So, she decides to invite the other three to her beautiful villa in Mallorca for a reunion weekend. As the four friends gather, secrets are unearthed, old scores settled and new friendships forged. Will this holiday bring them together or tear them apart? And will each of them grasp their second chance for happiness...?

After the first four chapters, one for each of the main characters, you could tell instantly that they all had secrets, and had an inkling they were all remembering the school year they were last together, aged 17, in a different light to each other. 

We get hints along the way, about Amy's side of things but she is keen in light of recent events to finally see if she could set the record straight about that incident, in order to help her accept her latest blows in her life. 

The ladies haven't been reunited until Amy invites them all out to her villa in Mallorca, and its clear early on that tensions run high, through these ladies in their sixties.  All of them have accepted the invitation more because they need an escape from a decision in their own lives, than any real desire to reconnect as a group. 

So it is rather interesting to see everything, from all the points of view, and get to know about Amy, Linda, Kate and Jane's lives.  It was rather hard to have any empathy at all for Jane, but the other ladies were all wonderful and I really did enjoy seeing their stories develop over the long weekend in Mallorca. 

Having worked two summer seasons in Mallorca, I feel I know the bare bones of the island at least, and although I don't know the area near Soller other than by name, nor the other areas mentioned just by name, everything did feel incredibly authentic and and very much Mallorcan.  

There are plenty of secrets in this book, and I couldn't get enough of our leading ladies.  I loved their differences and even Jane who I really wasn't keen on, did have some admirable qualities, and is probably more misguided in her actions than truly malicious! 

I'm not sure I'd want to spend a long weekend abroad with anyone that I went to school with, but it is a book that makes you think what you would do in that sort of situation.  

This is a book about 4 strong women, facing their next steps in life at an advanced age, and seeing just how they can cope with the challenges thrown at them, while trying to get resolution on their childhood at long last. 

I loved every moment of A Summer Reunion, and to me its easily one of Fanny Blake's most enjoyable and best books. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

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