Secrets of the Lost Summer (Swift River Valley)

You know what? I enjoyed this book. I read it in one night on my vacation. It was totally a speed read, the definition of a chick lit, but, I found myself caring about all of the main characters. I guess I just enjoy a good romance that had gorgeous settings. This is a great book to read during Spring. The author really had a way of drawing you into the suspense. I simply could not sleep until I found out what happened.
I guess I am suprised I enjoyed this as much as I did because I tend to read mostly horror/paranormal/bizarre/historical fiction.
I will read more of this author when I need a break from stress and would just like a FEEL MENTALLY GOOD sort of love story. :)
It also helps that I work in the mortgage industry and love show more hearing about historical sort of houses - LOL show less

Instead of copying what the author wrote on the back of her book or giving away parts of the story, I will just say how I felt about the book. I am a Carla Neggers fan and normally I get right into one of her books. The Secrets of the Lost Summer took me over 100 pages to care about the characters and want to continue reading. Not sure, if it was the story or just me having too much going on the week I was reading this. However, I did stay with the story long enough to become intrigued with the plot and I thought the story got better so I was glad I stayed with it. I didn't see the resolution of the plot coming at all. It was a surprise I didn't anticipate. I will be reading the next Swift River Valley novel to see what other adventures show more will happen in that valley. show less

After a friend's betrayal, Olivia leaves her graphic design job to move back to her home town where she has purchased an old Victorian home she wants to open as a small event center. But the abandoned property next door looks like a junkyard, so she contacts the owner to offer to get it cleaned up. This brings Dylan to town to check the place out. He knew nothing about this inheritance from his father. Dylan's father was a treasure hunter who died in Portugal, so Dylan wonders why he bought the house. Was there some tale of a treasure associated with the house? And what can he learn about his estranged father from the house. Nice story set in a picturesque landscape and an area with a lot of history.

Olivia has bought an old house in her home town at the edge of the Quabbin Reservoir; she plans to turn it into a meeting place and destination. She leaves Boston ahead of schedule when a friend steals her biggest graphic design client. The house up the road has been empty for two years and is collecting trash in its yard. The new owner didn't even know he had inherited it, but comes to inspect it when Olivia writes to him.

Low-key mystery and gentle romance, as Olivia and her mother and sister come to terms with their anxieties, and old secrets come to light.

AUTHOR: Neggers, Carla
TITLE: Secrets of the Lost Summer
DATE READ: 02/19/15
RATING: 4.5/B+
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS Fiction/2012/Mira/344 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE: #1 in Swift River Valley series
TIME/PLACE: Present/ MA
CHARACTERS: Olivia Frost/graphic designer; Dylan McCaffrey/ former professional hockey player
FIRST LINES: Olivia Frost dribbled water from a measuring cup onto herb seedlings lined up in tiny pots on the windowsill above her kitchen sink.
COMMENTS: This is my 1st time reading Carla Neggers…have been meaning to for sometime… This is the first in the Swift River Valley Series -- set in a small town in Western MA. Many of the residents of former generations lived in surrounding towns that are no longer around because show more a reservoir covered the towns to provide water for the larger populated areas to the East. Olivia has been living on her own in Boston and has a good job as a graphic designer/account executive and when a so-called friend takes over one of her accounts, Olivia re-evaluates her life. She likes her graphic design job and decides to continue w/ her work but on a free lance basis and from her country home. She has bought an older country home that she is renovating and going to use as a venue for teas and other events. There is an older home next door that has become somewhat of a junkyard and she writes the absentee owner out in CA. She believes this owner to be an older gentlemen who has not visited in awhile & will most likely pay her to have the rubbish removed. In truth, it is Dylan McCaffrey who has inherited this property and was unaware of it until he received her letter. And so… he is curious enough to visit and attempt to find out why his father the world-wide adventurer had this small cottage in a secluded area. I thought Neggers probed a little deeper into the characters than some of the typical lighter romance-fiction books and added some more developed qualities to some of the characters. Why Dylan inherited the cottage is linked to a long ago lost summer before the reservoir. show less

Olivia moves back to her hometown, intent on fixing up a historical house she bought into a destination meeting place. Only the house next door is literally a junk heap. So she contacts the new owner, who isn't the elderly man she thought, but his handsome, single son. Dylan isn't sure why his estranged father left him the ramshackle house, but he's sure there's some secret hidden. And it turns out their are two secrets - his father is the result of a love affair of the home's previous owner before WWII (and he is her grandson) and there are jewels hidden on the property.

This is an entertaining tale, with a unique storyline, but... I'm not sure what? At times, it lacks consistency in character tone and actions. At other times, it is sluggish. Bottom line, its premise is interesting enough that I wanted to complete the book, and given the chance, I would recommend it to most readers.