Monday 14 January 2019

One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon Book Review

After reading Five Years From Now last year, Paige Toon quickly became one of my favourite authors. I know I go on and on about that book but it honestly broke me and since then I've been desperate to read more from her. I reviewed Pictures Of Lily not too long ago too but today's post is a review of the third book I've read from Paige, One Perfect Summer.
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon book
A Dorset summer, a chance meeting, and Joe and Alice, both 18, fall into step as if they have known each other forever. But their idyll is shattered as quickly as it began. Joe leaves without warning; Alice heads off to Cambridge University and slowly picks up the pieces of her broken heart. Years later, when she catches the attention of gorgeous, gifted, rich boy Lukas, Alice is carried along by his charms and swept up in his ambitious plans for a future together. Until news of Joe reaches her once more, but he's out of reach in a way that Alice could never have imagined. Life has moved on, the divide between them is now so great. Surely it is far too late to relive those perfect summer days of long ago?

My review

I sort of knew what I was letting myself in for with One Perfect Summer as Paige's books do tend to be quite similar (or so it seems from the ones I've already read). From two people who can't be together to will they/won't they stories, they all seem to go down the same sort of route but Paige just writes that kind of love story so well. I was fully prepared to feel all sorts of emotions with this book, and that I certainly did.

The book starts off with Alice who has just arrived in Dorset for the summer with her mum. It's there she meets Joe, a boy with a troubled past and turbulent family, and it doesn't take long for them to fall for each other. It's the perfect summer romance but it all ends too quickly when Alice has to go off to university and Joe disappears after a fight with his family. Whilst they have every intention of being together and finding one another no matter what, they soon discover life isn't quite that simple. After years of waiting for Joe, Alice eventually lets herself move on and this is when we're introduced to Lukas, who I wasn't a big fan of from the start. Not because I was just rooting for her and Joe, but because I just didn't find him likeable. In Paige's previous books I've felt for any other partners who have been involved and got hurt but I found Lukas to be quite selfish and even a little controlling. Though Joe eventually comes back into Alice's life and is just as in love with her as he always was, it's certainly not a clear cut decision and the book actually ends on a cliffhanger. Normally I'd hate a book to end like this, especially a love story where I'm rooting for the two characters so much but luckily Paige has a kindle follow up, One Perfect Christmas which I'll get onto in a minute.

Like with all of Paige's books, I really couldn't put this down. I know I say that in most of my book reviews but with stories like this, I get so invested in the characters and I can't stop until I know how it ends. I just wanted everything to work out, even more so because I genuinely liked Alice and Joe. I went from smiling like an idiot to wanting to cry when reading their story because like with any of Paige's books, it all felt so real. She writes in a way which makes you feel as if you're there too experiencing the same emotions and you can't help but put yourself in their situation and think about what you would do too. I'd say One Perfect Summer on the whole maybe wasn't quite as gripping as the books I've previously read from Paige just because I did feel there was quite a lot of filler when it came to Alice's life at uni so I found myself getting a little bored at times. Whenever it was about her and Joe though, I was 100% hooked and desperate to see if they would end up together.

If you're a fan of romance then any of Paige's books are worth a read. I promise you will fall in love with each story. Just make sure if you read One Perfect Summer, you get One Perfect Christmas to read straight away afterwards too. I found that little sequel answered any questions I had and wrapped the whole story up really well. I actually wish there were more books about Alice and Joe though as I think they're such likeable characters and One Perfect Christmas leaves it in a way that definitely offers up some ideas of what could happen in the future.

Have you read any of Paige Toon's books?

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