The Summer I Dared

Ambientada numa ilha paradisíaca, de onde os lagosteiros partem de todas as manhãs e onde os vizinhos se reúnem à noite para comemorar a produção do dia, Ousadia de Verão, de Barbara Delinsky, é uma história comovente da busca arriscada, mas compensadora, do que existe de mais sublime em cada um de nós, na qual sobressaem o instinto de sobrevivência e a capacidade inesgotável do espírito humano de se recuperar de uma tragédia e criar uma vida nova. Julia Bechtel, Noah Prine e Kim Colella, os únicos sobreviventes de um terrível acidente de barco na costa do Maine, em que nove pessoas morreram, são assombrados por uma indagação: o que acontece logo após o momento que mudará sua vida para sempre?

So, I thought I would never finish this book. I know, so why did I give it 5 stars? It's long. I stalled in the middle of the book thinking it was just going nowhere and read about 4 books before picking it back up. The second part flew by from that point. I loved the relationship growth on so many different fronts. Fathers and Sons. Mothers and Daughters. Sisters. Friends. And I learned along the way about bunnies and lobsters. I think the stall for me was that I didn't get there fast enough. Maybe because there were so many storylines being addressed? What can I say? The middle portion was like slogging through a bog for me but after I took a break and came back I loved the book.

What happens after the moment when your life is forever changed? This is the question that haunts Julia, Noah, and Kim - the only survivors of a devastating boating accident off the coast of Maine, that claimed the lives of nine other people. What follows is an emotionally intricate story of three lives irrevocably changed by a single tragic accident.

Julia, a forty-year-old wife and mother, has always taken the path of least resistance. Careful to never shake up the status quo, she has always done exactly what others expected of her. Characterized by her controlling family and increasingly distant husband as "loyal" and "obedient"; in the aftermath of her brush with death, Julia suddenly realizes that there is more to her - and to the show more world around her - than she ever imagined.

Feeling strangely connected to Noah, the brooding, divorced lobsterman who helped save her life, and to Kim, a twenty-one-year-old whose role in the accident and subsequent muteness are a mystery, Julia begins to explore the unique possibilities offered by the quiet island of Big Sawyer, Maine. Suddenly, the things that once seemed so critical lose significance, and things that seemed inconsequential, now take on a whole new meaning and importance. With each passing moment, each fresh discovery, Julia grows ever more sure that - after coming face-to-face with death - she deserves more from life.

Overall, I found this book to be quite good. The story was somewhat predictable - and I may have learned much more than I actually ever wanted to know about certain subjects - but other than that, I liked it. I give this book an A! and hope to read more from Barbara Delinsky in the future. show less

Another "I shouldn't have listened to the abridged version" audio book, though I'm not sure I should have listened to this at all. Delinsky was a favorite author of my mother's and I'm missing her a little, so dared the book. For car "ear reading" it was okay, though I just wanted to shake Julia and make her be a grown up. But when she and Noah finally get around to acting on the quivering liquidity they feel inside whenever they're near, I did shout out, "oh come on! Get real", making the driver next to me think I had road rage. I believe the exact turn of phrase that made me shout was, "cushioned by the mist, they made love against the side of the truck." Bet that produced some pretty bruises on the backside.

If you like pastels, identify with women who have never thought for themselves, can tolerate 40-year olds still crushed by the indifference of their parents and agonizing over every decision, and love "happily ever after," this book may work for you. It does have some interesting drama, and condensed to about 1/4 its size, it would probably even be good reading.

Twice I read the first paragraph of this book, put it down and chose something else to read. I just didn't think I could get into a lobstering book. The next time, though, I read a few pages in, and then I was hooked. I wanted a book to escape into, and this did it for me. I have so many "issues" that it can be hard to read books without getting mired in thinking about my own life, and I really didn't want that. The heroine has issues, to be sure, but, well, it was still light.

Despite my initial worries, I was never bored by lobstering (or angora rabbits) and I never put it down because I'd got to a too-boring part or out of frustration with the actions of the characters. I enjoyed escaping into the world Ms. Delinsky created for me.

Great beach read (exactly where I read it). Quaint location, quaint characters. I thought that the murder mystery was an unnecessery addition to the novel. The lobstermen and fishing village backdrop was quite interesting and could have been used to develop the main, as well as the secondary, characters better. All in all the book is an easy quick read with an ending that is palatable. The book does it's job.