28 Summers

Elin Hilderbrand

By the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Summer of ’69: Their secret love affair has lasted for decades — but this could be the summer that changes everything.

When Mallory Blessing’s son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he’s not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It’s the late spring of 2020 and Jake’s wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election.

There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?

Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother’s bachelor party. Cooper’s friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere — through marriage, children, and Ursula’s stratospheric political rise — until Mallory learns she’s dying.

Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

(4 / 5) This was cute, sweet and so immensely frustrating! Let me explain. In reading the blurb, I’m not going to give anything away, but Jake and Mallory meet every year for a 3 day affair. Yes, you read that right, no matter what is going on in their lives, they meet for this weekend each year and love each other. It sounds so odd but it is beautifully written. The characters are well-rounded, and you get to know them well. But regardless of marriage or relationships or kids or anything, they keep their “same time next year” promise.
These two people love each other, immensely, but they choose other lives instead and other loves instead and I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. They didn’t have to do it this way, they both chose to. They met at a time they could’ve made it work. But instead they pine for each other 362 days of the year.
Regardless how frustrated I am at this book, it really was a great listen and I was entertained throughout. It was longer than I felt it needed to be but I didn’t wish it over. The end was sad but good and it was a good ending– if it didn’t make me so mad!

The content was minimal in language and intimacy. There was sex but the steam factor is low with very few details. There are a few sad moments of deaths and accidents that are hard to read but done well.

Thank you to Libro.fm and Hatchette Audio for the chance to listen to this ALC. This book comes out June 16, 2020.

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