The Book Barbies: |Adult Review| One More Summer by Liz Flaherty

Title: One More Summer
Author: Liz Flaherty
Published: January 2nd 2012 by Carina Press
Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Goodreads summary:

Grace has taken care of her widowed father her entire adult life and the ornery old goat has finally died. She has no job, no skills and very little money, and has heard her father's prediction that no decent man would ever want her so often she accepts it as fact. But she does have a big old house on Lawyers Row in Peacock, Tennessee. She opens a rooming house and quickly gathers a motley crew of tenants: Promise, Grace's best friend since kindergarten, who's fighting cancer; Maxie, an aging soap opera actress who hasn't lost her flair for the dramatic; Jonah, a sweet, gullible old man with a crush on Maxie. And Dillon, Grace's brother's best friend, who stood her up on the night of her senior prom and has regretted it ever since. Dillon rents Grace's guest house for the summer and hopes to make up for lost time and past hurts—but first, he'll have to convince Grace that she's worth loving...

Racquel's thoughts:
Could a cover, summary, and title be more misleading? I picked this up while I was in NYC for vacation thinking it will be a quick fun read to pass the time but oh wow, NOT! This was one emotional, heartbreaking and moving read.

I really can't do this book justice but I will try my best. One More Summer is not the perfect book, it started slow for me, I didn't like how it jumped around at the beginning and a few other things. But why does all of that NOT matter? Because when you have a book with such a powerful story like One More Summer does, who gives a damn about grammar and spelling? (not that there are any grammar or spelling mistakes!) that's petty stuff! What matters is the STORY.

I want to know these characters in real life. My heart fluttered when there were sweet actions, I cried at the ugliness and unfairness some of theses characters had to go through and most of all I just I fell in love with these characters. They're completely realistic, not perfect in looks or personality (some might argue Faith is, but hello tattoo;D) the situations they go through are also realistic and I say that AFTER I thought a certain event that is mentioned in the book was a bit over dramatic BUT it hit me how my aunt and mom were talking about a very very similar ugly event happened to a distant cousin of theirs and I Googled a couple of statistics and oh wow, definitely realistic! (I will not mention the even because I don't want to spoil it for you!) I'm always asking for books about the other people, those people who we don't get to read their stories since MC's are always plain janes or written out destinies and I got my wish with Grace.

I loved to see the relationship grew between characters and how each one of them developed. I was just cheering for Grace when she accomplished something or got over a fear and the same goes for Dillon. The romance at first for me was too... weird. It happened too fast but I got over it because I saw it develop properly. Grace and Dillon have become some of my favorite couples even!

This review is so hard for me to write because I cannot put into words how good this book is. I look forward to rereading it even though it was hard at parts and I had to put it down for a little while to wipe away the tears but also, along with the tears I laughed and fell in love and it was a damn great ride. If you're a contemporary fan, this is one realistic read you don't want to miss. It's full of emotion, heartache and love and I'm so happy to have read this book. It's a great way to start off the year!

Rating: 5 hearts~ one of my new favorite reads!