A Summer To Remember by Sue Moorcroft

This was an okay read but somehow I never really felt immersed in the setting or found myself really caring about the cast of characters.  There was a bit too much relying on misunderstandings and happenstance in the plot for me and strangely, one too many plotlines straggling through made it overpopulated and somehow "bitty".  I'm all for complexity and depth but prefer this to come from my characters rather than the scenarios and with so much going on for, and around Clancy it all became a bit much.

Variously this book deals with the aftermath of a jilting at the altar, an affair that is revealed in a dramatic way, loss of a business, difficulties of rural living, same gender relationships, parental pressure, the dangers of gossip, new love, intrusive family and probably a lot more.  Certainly every chapter brings some new dilemma and seeks to address an ongoing one.  To be honest it all got a bit overdramatic and wearing by about halfway through.  For me this needed stripping back and the number of issues facing Clancy and, to a lesser extent, Aaron needed to be pared back to allow a fuller exploration of the themes.

The writing, as always, is really good.  Unfortunately, the story lets it down.  The plot is so all encompassing that the only pace is urgent and breathless as you jump here, there and everywhere without really settling and exploring any one facet.  The characters of Clancy and Aaron are quite well drawn but everyone else is almost a caricature (Alice - entitled and selfish, Hugo - scuzzy, Will - attractive and untrustworthy, Lee - frail and damaged) and it does distract the reader and detract from the overall story.

It would make a good holiday read where you tend to pick up and put down a book several times a day for brief periods.  The constant shuttling about and ever changing problems are less obvious that way.  The only thing that saved this for me was the warmth of the writing.