Friday, July 19, 2013

Blog Tour Review + Giveaway: An Endless Summer by CJ Duggan


The An Endless Summer blog tour is hosted by the awesome YA Bound Book Tours. Click here to see all the blogs participating in this tour.



An Endless Summer by CJ Duggan 
Series: Summer #2
Published: July 11th, 2013
Publisher: Self-published
331 pages (e-ARC)
Genre: Contemporary new adult
Acquired this book: Through the author in exchange for an honest review as part of the blog tour
Warning: Will likely contain spoilers if you haven't read The Boys of Summer 
{GoodReads || Buy this book: Amazon || Amazon CA || Amazon UK}

After a rebellious summer night that almost claimed her life, Amy Henderson – the Onslow publican’s only daughter – is sent away to suffer a fate far worse than any other punishment:

Boarding School.

Three years on, a now nineteen-year-old Amy returns to Onslow for the summer. What once was a cauldron of activity with live bands, hot meals and cold beers, the Onslow Hotel now lies dark, deserted and depressing. All fond childhood memories of loitering on the hotel stairs and eavesdropping on customers’ colourful conversations are in the distant past.

How had her dad let it come to this?

With the new threat of putting the Onslow up for sale, Amy reluctantly turns to a local tradesman for help: Sean Murphy, the very same Onslow boy who saved her life all those years ago. With his help and that of some old friends, the task is clear: spend the summer building the hotel back up to its former glory or lose it for good.

In an endless summer, Amy soon realises that sometimes in order to save your future, you have to face your past, even if it’s in the form of a smug, gorgeous Onslow boy.

 

After reading and loving The Boys of Summer, I couldn’t wait to read An Endless Summer. When I found out the book was set three years later and ‘starred’ Sean and Amy, my interest was piqued. I loved Sean in The Boys of Summer, but really disliked Amy, so I wondered how things would play out. While The Boys of Summer remains my favourite, An Endless Summer had many of the elements I loved about the first book: humour, romance, great character development, and real issues.

I actually liked Amy more than I expected to. She was stubborn, snarky, and sarcastic, things I normally don’t love in characters, but I kind of expected it from her with how she was in the first book, and I grew to like her spunk. She’d learned a lot over the three years since we last saw her, and even though she was infuriating at times, it was also easy to sympathize with her when all she wanted was to be taken seriously, seen as something other than ‘the publican’s daughter’, and treated like an adult rather than some dumb kid.

Possibly my favourite aspect of An Endless Summer was being reunited with characters from The Boys of Summer. Every time a familiar character was introduced, I literally yelled out their name and did a little happy dance in my chair. I loved them all so much and got so attached to them in the first book that it was like being reunited with old friends. Even though three years had gone by, it was like no time had passed at all between them, and I loved that. It was also amazing to see how they all came together when Amy needed help. Sean was really good to her, and he made it pretty much impossible not to like him. Even though he was a smartass and a jokester, he was patient while Amy figured things out, and it made me like him even more.

Since I fell in love with the Onslow Hotel in the first book - I really wish I had a place like that in my town! - I found myself rooting for that storyline as much as for the romance. I enjoyed watching everyone come together to rebuild the hotel and return it to its former glory, and my heart broke for Amy when she thought she was going to lose the one place she really considered home.

As for the romance, I really enjoyed it - I loved the banter between Amy and Sean, and the will-they/won’t-they anticipation, but I felt like it took too long to actually happen. I was beginning to think nothing would ever actually happen between them, and when it finally did it was so close to the end of the book I couldn’t help but feel a tad disappointed. I didn’t find myself swooning over their relationship the way I did with Tess and Toby in the first book, but that being said, there were moments between them that were so sweet, I came very close to crying. And I won't lie - I loved the sexy scenes too!

Funny and full of heart, An Endless Summer was a great follow-up to The Boys of Summer. It made me laugh, made me tear up, and had me cheering for the characters as they went through struggles that felt very real. A wonderful coming-of-age story, and a terrific summer read, I would definitely recommend An Endless Summer. CJ Duggan is an author to watch our for, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next installment of the Summer series. 

 

C.J Duggan is an Australian author who lives with her husband in a rural border town of New South Wales, Australia. 
The Boys of Summer is Book One in her Mature Young Adult Romance Series. 


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I loved The Boys of Summer so much that I’m giving away 2 ebooks with my review, here. Can’t wait to see if you win the giveaway? The book is on sale for just 99 cents during the blog tour! I definitely recommend grabbing a copy - this book is not to be missed!

1 comment:

  1. Onslow Hotel sounds nice! I'm glad you liked the romance even if it took awhile for them to get together. I can def see how that's frustrating. But aw to sweet moments. It sounds like a great read overall.

    ReplyDelete

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