Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for One Day In Summer by Shari Low. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to participate in the tour and to Boldwood Books for my review copy via NetGalley.
You can read my review below. Do also check out the posts by my tour buddies, Pam at Books, Life and Everything and Tizi’s Book Review.
About the Book
One day in summer, three lives are about to change forever.
After two decades of looking after others, this is the day that Agnetha McMaster is reclaiming her life. It’s her turn, her time but will she have the courage to start again?
Ten years ago, Mitchell McMaster divorced Agnetha and married her best friend, Celeste. Now he suspects his second wife is having an affair. This is the day he’ll discover if karma has come back to bite him.
Thanks to a DNA test, this is the day that Hope McTeer will finally meet her biological father. But will the reunion bring Hope the answers that she’s looking for?
Three people. Twenty-four hours. A lifetime of secrets to unravel.
Format: ebook (324 pages) Publisher: Boldwood Books
Publication date: 11 June 2020 Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Find One Day In Summer on Goodreads
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Amazon UK| Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme
My Review
With books such as This Is Me, Shari Low has perfected the art of the multi-character storyline and achieves the same feat with One Day in Summer. It has the same structure as previous novels, such as One Day in Winter, with the events taking place over the space of one eventful day, albeit with the occasional trip back into the past.
Set in Glasgow, like many of the author’s other books, readers familiar with the city will have fun spotting places and landmarks mentioned in the book. Those who have read previous books will be pleased to see return appearances by a few characters. And all readers should look out for a couple of ‘close encounters’ between characters in the different storylines.
After recent traumatic events, Agnetha has many reasons to be thankful for the situation in which she finds herself. She has two lovely daughters, a successful business, a support group who understand exactly what she’s been through and the possibility of a new man in her life. She deserves today, her forty-fifth birthday, to be a good one.
One would have to be in a generous mood to wish her ex-husband, Mitchell, the same, although I did start to feel less hostile towards him as the book progressed. At least, he has the humility to be aware of his own shortcomings and to recognise the concept of karma. I wish I could say the same about Mitchell’s current wife, Celeste. You may, like me, have a wish to develop the superpower that enables you to shoot invisible laser darts that will set hair extensions on fire, explode face fillers and pierce silicon boob implants.
More serious issues are woven into the storyline, such as family breakdown, illness and bereavement, but never in such a way as to overwhelm the message that you should never give up the hope of second chances in life.
As the day draws to a close, like pieces of a jigsaw, things finally slot into place. But will it show the picture you were expecting? In the epilogue, which cleverly echoes the prologue, the reader finds out whether Agnetha decides to forgive the mistakes of the past and respond positively to the plea, “take a chance on me”.
As one character observes, “This was the most bizarre day. One minute stressful, one minute sad, then funny, then loving, then easy, then hard…” One Day in Summer is the ideal one day binge read; a skilfully crafted story of love, loss and new beginnings.
In three words: Romantic, engaging, heart-warming
Try something similar: A Wedding in the Olive Garden by Leah Fleming
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About the Author
Shari Low is the #1 bestselling author of over 20 novels, including One Day In Winter and My One Month Marriage, and a collection of parenthood memories called Because Mummy Said So. She lives near Glasgow.
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My Buchan of the Month for June is Homilies and Recreations, a collection of essays first published by Thomas Nelson & Sons in September 1926. The book was dedicated to Viscount Astor in a return gesture for his naming one of his racehorses after Buchan. A later revised edition was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1939 which omitted six of the essays but included three new ones. The latter is the edition I have so my eventual review will only cover the contents of that version.
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