Blog Tour + Giveaway - One S'more Summer by Beth Merlin
One S’more Summer
Beth Merlin
(The Campfire Series, #1)
Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: May 30th 2017
Genres: Adult, Contemporary
If you love Sophie Kinsella and Emily Giffin, you’ll love this heartwarming debut from a fresh voice in contemporary chick-lit that offers a lighthearted and fun take on friendship, love, and how to recover from past mistakes.
For twenty long years, Gigi Goldstein has been pining away for her best friend’s guy. She knows it’s wrong and it has to stop, but she hasn’t been able to let go ever since they all met on the bus to summer camp back when they were 7 years old. The same week that her best friends finally announce their wedding date, Gigi loses her high-profile design job. With all of her dreams unravelling, she runs to the last place she remembers being happy.
Taking the Head Counselor position at Camp Chinooka, Gigi hopes to reclaim the joy she felt as a camper, but the job isn’t all campfire songs and toasting marshmallows. Gigi’s girls are determined to make her look bad in front of the boys’ Head Counselor—the sexy but infuriating Perry—and every scrap of the campground is laced with memories.
When Gigi finally realizes she can’t escape the present by returning to her past, she’s forced to reexamine her life and find the true meaning of love. But will she be able to mend fences and forgive herself before she loses her one real shot at happiness?
I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of One S'more Summer provided by Xpresso Book Tours and the author. Thank you for the reviewing opportunity!
The thing about camp books, they always seem to have an essence of youth. While I've never actually been to a summer camp when I was younger, I've had my fair share of movies and books to familiarize myself with the setting. So everything about Camp Chinooka was fun and heartwarming, albeit being in the middle of nowhere. I was actually looking forward to what Gordy has in stores for us, the campers next! I liked the author's writing as she perfectly sets the mood for the story.
While I expected this to be a book about summer flings and second chances romance, I never once expected to be so invested and caught up in the depth of the story. Part of me was present in Camp Chinooka while the other part of me was entangled in the mess Gigi has gotten herself into in New York. The author does have a way in writing the plot that makes the flow comes so naturally, despite alternating between the two settings.
I also love the fact that the story wasn't the typical summer camp romance and it goes beyond that stereotype. I loved that it also focused on Gigi's friendship with Alicia and Joshua, how all of them struggled with the guilt, how Perry slowly opened up, how Gigi handled the kids, and most importantly, how everything felt so real.
All in all, I really liked the story. It wasn't over the top but just exactlyright.
Beth Merlin has a BA from The George Washington University where she minored in Creative Writing and a JD from New York Law School. She’s a native New Yorker who loves anything Broadway, rom-coms, her daughter Hadley, and a good maxi dress. She was introduced to her husband through a friend she met at sleepaway camp and considers the eight summers she spent there to be some of the most formative of her life. One S’more Summer is Beth’s debut novel.
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1 comments
Great review! This sounds like a super fun and cute read! I love how well written the characters and romance sounds, too!
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