A lovely fresh look at a summer through the eyes of two people falling in love. A perfect beach read or a light-hearted look at love for young adults new to romance.

Great fan of Melissa Brayden's work and this one is certainly lifting up to her usual standards. Love that the romance, though largely predictable, flows at a very believable and natural pace. While there is drama and angst, the main characters feel very real and easy to relate to. The way their story is being laid out, it just makes you want to root for them.

Such a lovely book and recommending for anybody who wanted a light read, with sweet romance.

Melissa Braden is a favorite of mine and this book was no different. The characters are so believable with a sweet romance. Braden really has her formula down and it shows.

*thanks to the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I may be late to the Melissa Brayden party but I'm so glad to be here now. Loved this book, the characters and every single vibe 'Strawberry Summer' was giving out. Definitely recommend.

*~~*ARC kindly provided to me for an honest review *~~*

- Review to come

Review originally posted on my blog with added content on Mikku-chan / A world full of words

liked it

'NetGalley ARC provided by The Publisher in exchange for an honest review'

**'Books must be written,not talked..It's always a part of a writers' purpose as a storyteller to first create characters that the readers will be anxious for..'

Decent read!
An interesting and romantic story:- good structured,from the page layouts to the narration,then the account of both leading character (Margaret & Courtney) whether in their past and present,is an excellent exposition of unreciprocated teenage love and angst --: making their emotions and actions feel both real & raw. There were few missteps,regrettable comments and questionable relationships that the author included in the storyline but i choose not to dive into it will rather let readers feather through while reading because some of the details were a bit detracting from the real root of what i think readers should know about them which eventually did show how they felt naturally,their heartwarming energy,unapologetic,unshakable love,incredible chemistry and their dash of heartache that led both to one another. This journey was encouraging to both leading character along the way with their friends and precious family who all saw where they will go into their future lives -- a well written book. Highly recommend to everyone!

An enjoyable read, but not the author's best. The main character, Margaret, is well developed and likeable - I very much related to her and rooted for her. Courtney on the other hand, is not very likeable and I struggled with the ending as I felt there should have been bigger consequences to what she did to Maggie. The topic itself has been done to death and there was nothing new. Not my favourite book by this author.

First of all, I want to say that Brayden is my favorite author and I love all of her works. But I feel sorry to say that this book is not one of them. I can't even make myself to finish this book. The humor is still there but some depth of the story is just missing

Sometimes it is safer to read a book with your eyes and not listen to it for the first time in audiobook format. When you read a novel, your imagination fills in the visuals and the voices of the characters. You are not influenced in any way by the interpretations of others. My first impression of Margaret Beringer was influenced by the voice actor’s interpretation and hers is now the voice I hear when I try to reread the story. The choppy, abrupt way Maggie speaks to Courtney when they first meet conveys her nervousness and immaturity. It works in their teen years. I could easily identify with the awkward, self-deprecating Maggie in all her brainy, nerdy glory. I loved the scene at the beach house, that first kiss with Courtney. Sweet, poignant and oh so endearing. With one kiss maturity smacks Maggie between the eyes. What happens next and over the next few summers could not compete with this one moment and this one scene.

I’m not a big YA fan or reader. Maggie conveys many of the reasons I have no desire to revisit my youth and that is a tribute to the author’s massive talent. In Strawberry Summer I found myself loving the chapters in the past and annoyed with the present day interactions between Maggie and Courtney. It didn’t help that the voice actor kept Maggie’s clipped, almost petulant voice pattern from her youth. It made her sound mean-spirited and made the adult Maggie hard to like. It also made the reader struggle to understand why Courtney would try to reconnect with this brittle woman.

Not my favourite novel by this author but no denying her skills at pulling emotions from her readers and giving us memorable characters. I will never forget the love and acceptance shown by Maggie’s family when she comes out to them. “What’s another word for thrust?” from her romance author mom kept me laughing for days.

ARC received with thanks from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley for review.

I'm not sure what happened here. I normally LOVE LOVE LOVE Brayden books. I've read the soho loft series multiple times. This one was a little disappointing. It was still enjoyable, but just didn't have that Brayden pizzaz I'm so used to.

The book is set in two timeframes, the past and current. It spent too much time in the past explaining and describing the two main characters teenage summers spent together. I would have much rather read more about who they are now and have the book develop the way they come back together a little bit more.

It was still an enjoyable read, just no spark. Maybe I'm just too spoiled with all her other books

This is a charming sweet romance of discovery, lost love and re-found love. It is my first book by this author so I had no preconceived ideas regarding it's content. What I got was a mind blowing wonderful story about love being discovered in high school, the world getting in the way and losing that first love. Then the reconnecting after many years apart finding that their love and honesty of that love still existed strong and true.

I am not going to tell you anything else because I will let you discover that on your own. What it did was take me through several powerful emotions. Yes I did I cried for not only their love lost but the deeper loss when you lose someone. I also laughed a lot as well. But also parts made me angry, frustrated at times but at the end I gave a huge sigh of relief.

It is an extremely well written book which once started I could not put down.

Yes I would recommend this book without a doubt. All I'll say is enjoy!


*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1957461996


https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RLS2C3A8SOH7A/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Margaret ‘’Maggie’’ Beringer has a troubled past with Courtney Carrington, heiress of Carrington’s retail store. The two were madly in love during their teenage years, yet they parted for a poignant reason. Now, Courtney comes back into Maggie’s little town known as Tanner Peak. Will their love survive the issues of the past or crash once again?

I picked this book on NetGalley as soon as I saw it was a lesbian romance. I had never read one and I think it’s cute; unfortunately, there are not enough of them around without being erotica. Plus, the description of a past love and now they find themselves still in love yet struggling against those past issues is just perfect to me. Of course, I had to request it and I was more than thrilled to see the publisher had granted my request.

There are so many good points about this novel that I don’t know where to start yet I’ll try to do my best! The most prominent one is how much emotional it made me in general and how much I cared about Courtney (mostly) and Maggie. I wanted them to have a happy ending and I could barely put this book down–I yearned to learn what next would happen with them! Another point worth mentioning is how I couldn’t find typos or mistakes of any kind in the writing. That got me quite pleased as many of the ARCs and even some published books are full of them. But not this one so it’s a bonus. The sarcastic and humoristic main character (Maggie) makes for a welcome touch of humour. I have found her humour to be really funny, which made it all the more interesting to read.

I swear this bittersweet romance has got me in for highs and lows (ouch, my poor heart!). I bet it will no doubt do the same to you. The romance is also playful and teasing, which is highly amusing for us. There is a good and cute evolution of Maggie and Courtney’s relationship–it is even adorable, I have to admit. I’d also like to remark that Maggie knows and accepts she’s a lesbian which I love, even though there is a funny scene of her coming out. In fact, I thought this part was plain hilarious! The MC (Maggie) is strong, and the writing is vivid–it comes to life. Some scenes in this novel made me think I was a teenager again with how Maggie was acting in certain flashback chapters. The author, Melissa Brayden, has a knack for making the teens pop and look real on the page. The feelings of high school and popularity were realistic (up to a point where most of the popular kids befriended Maggie) along with a realistic account of life and diverse people in it.

As for characterization, it is present and good but it takes a long while to take effect. I still haven’t figured out if it’s because of Maggie’s personality or the author wrote it that way. I am still struggling with that one… Nevertheless, it was there and mostly brought about by friends and family members towards the end. Do you want to learn something fun? There are some twists in this story! I enjoyed them, actually. There was even one I hadn’t seen coming, which is so rare with me (I always figure out plot twists well in advance). I had to add that the drama is well built-up, a point that I genuinely adored! I’m one for angst in stories (even my own) so I thoroughly enjoyed the drama in this one (I even cried out of sadness AND cuteness overload later on).

The timeline was impeccable and shown to us in a clear manner. I’ll forever be grateful for that. Another point I appreciated is the fun and developed insight into the MC’s thoughts. I just want to say that I loved Courtney Carrington. I know she isn’t the main character, but she is so sweet and caring! I couldn’t help but root for her during all the book. Seriously. Both characters were well-done, of course, but let’s say I prefer Courtney because of her kindness. On another note, there are many events (which reminds me of a good adventure or fantasy book thanks to the action), which is quite surprising in a romance novel (and much appreciated on my part, too). I didn’t find any long, boring parts, which is a relief. Lastly, we get to read about every important character’s life (where they are now and what is their job and relationship status) and the epilogue is a nice follow-up. It is like a neat little bow on top of a present!

Here come the bad points. There were too few descriptions and not enough insight into Maggie’s emotions–it was more telling than showing although one could guess through her humoristic and sarcastic lines. But it was not enough. I wanted to feel what she was experiencing. I could never truly connect with Maggie because of that; I always felt like a nosy neighbor knowing all about her life. It’s sad because I wanted to connect. Also, the popular kids are perhaps too nice to Maggie (most of them, that is)–it’s usually not how it works in high school with popularity (and I experienced it first-hand). Last but not least, I believe the sex scenes are not spaced enough–there were about four of them in less than 60 pages! Fortunately, they are short (just a few pages, if not a few lines sometimes) and sweet in a way. Even though I understand the focus on sex at such a young age, I’d have preferred the emphasis to be put on their feelings and emotions, mostly Maggie’s because she seems to me like lacking in that department.

I would love to tell you what types of fans this book is perfect for but this is the first lesbian romance I ever read. However, I can assure you that if you love a good emotional roller coaster ride and cute but poignant romances, Strawberry Summer by Melissa Brayden is for you!

I give Strawberry Summer a rating of 4 out of 5 because of how emotionally invested I became with this novel and because it made me cry (I love it when I cry because of books, that means they get to me), and the lack of emotions on Maggie’s part – or so it seems. I was delighted to win this ARC and I must say it hit home with me. I recommend it in a heartbeat!

This book fulfilled a few firsts for me: my first book by this author and my first F/F book. Because of that, I went into it with a fair amount of apprehension. I was a little worried that (despite the fact that I’ve had no problem reading M/M books in the past), I would have trouble connecting with the love story, that I would feel left out of it somehow. To be honest, F/F fiction has never really even been on my radar. Then a friend of mine read Strawberry Summer and said it had my name written all over it, and so I decided it was time to check it out.

You guys. This book was a delight. Not only did I completely connect with the love story, but I felt like I had a love story of my own going on with just about every single person in this book. It’s written in a down-to-earth easygoing manner, despite the fact that it packs a few pretty gigantic emotional punches. On top of that, there’s this sort of charismatic wry humor laced within dialogue and observations and I found it completely irresistible.

I loved Maggie and Courtney’s story. I love how it spanned over several years – and we got to experience their romance at every stage. They were adorable together, their banter playful, their exchanges heartfelt, and everything about them completely endearing to me.

It’s possible that I loved Maggie’s family, and all the other residents of Tanner Peak even more than I loved the love story. It felt like a love story within a love story – a different type of love, obviously. But just as touching and meaningful to me as the feelings between Maggie and Courtney.

Overall, this is basically the whole package. There are some slower times where I felt things dragged a bit – I did some light skimming over those, but ultimately don’t feel like they had a negative impact on my reader experience. And those slower times had nothing on some of the moments that literally took my breath away. I did not come away from this book without bruises (and man, sometimes it huuuuurt), but it was absolutely worth the dings to my heart to get to know and spend time with this amazing cast of characters

This was the first book by Brayden I've read, but it will not be the last.

The characters and storyline are touching, heartfelt and sweet. Reminded me of that one sweet special love, when you forget the world exists out of each other's arms. Maggie, a hard working farm girl with a fantastic sense of humor, and Courtney, the daughter of a snobby mean spirited rich man, who turns heads everywhere. The two of them together are beautiful and sweet. The rest of the characters are also well written, taking place in a small town.

I definitely recommend this book and author

I loved this book! I own and have read all but one of Melissa Brayden's novels and have loved them all so it is no surprise to me that I loved this one as well. She is in my top 5 favorite lesbian romance novelist's.

I have never lived in a small town and I've never thought that I could live in a small town but I found myself thinking that Tanner Peak sounded like a great place to live. I wanted to live on that farm and pick strawberries and hang out with Maggie's mom and dad. Play together on game night and get to know Travis and Berta and Clay.

I fell in love with both Maggie and Courtney and thoroughly enjoyed watching them fall in love with each other. I loved Maggie's sense of humor and Courtney's light and sunshine and unending optimism despite her uneasy family dynamics. The chemistry between Maggie and Courtney was off the charts. I read a lot of lesbian romance novels and not a lot of author's can convey such sexual tension and wonderful love making scene's so well.

I hated seeing how Maggie's brother's death changed Maggie. It's totally understandable that she would fall into depression and withdraw from the world after such a devastating event but I found myself being angry at her for the things she said and the way she lashed out at Courtney. My heart broke for the two of them.

Of course I'm a sucker for romance and I love a happy ending so I loved how the author ended the book and I only hope that she will write a sequel to this one and let us in on the continuing lives of Maggie and Courtney and the rest of the gang in Tanner Peaks.

I was unable to finish the book because it archived to quickly. I am very sorry.

Amazing! Best romance I've read in a long time. Can wait to read it a second time. Melissa Brayden I quickly becoming my favorite author.

I have a hangover of the worst kind. My heart is aching, my mind is spinning, and nothing I tried could quite get rid of it. I may need a little hair of the dog, so my next home remedy will be snagging Melissa Brayden's backlist and dosing myself appropriately.

Poignant and unforgettable, Strawberry Summer gracefully captured the essence of a true first love. The awkward flirtations, the endless butterflies, the fears, the inhibitions, and the magic moment when it all gets carried away with the moment.

"Courtney. Wait. Wait. What are we doing?" "I think we're winging it," she said against my mouth and pulled me back in by the lapels of my jacket. I could get behind that.

Maggie was an easy character to slip into the life of. She was every girl, flawed yet loveable, awkward and beautiful. As for Courtney, how could I not fall madly in love with her when seeing her through Maggie's eyes? The mystery and decadence, insecurities and confidence.

The cover was pretty and the synopsis intriguing. I hoped it would be a decent read. What I didn't expect was to devour each page, gush to everyone around me about this book they just have to read. To feel so strongly the push and pull of young love, the heartbreak of growing up, and the magic of finding that one person, the other half of your heart, your completion. Absolutely beautiful. ~5 Stars

"And you love me?" "And I love you. Desperately. More than the Beatles. Way more."

*2.5 stars*

Everyone has a lot of love for this book and this author, so perhaps my feelings of "meh" about Strawberry Summer are just my issues and my issues alone. However, I found the story to have a lot of flaws that really detracted from my enjoyment.

At this point, I'm just about desperate to find a F/F that I like. I've read over half a dozen lesbian romances, and I haven't been enthralled by any of them. I'm not sure if the problem is me or my expectations, but I had a lot of hopes riding on Strawberry Summer.

The story is told in an interesting format. We meet the two MCs in the present... and they are NOT together. There is a lot of tension between them, and we just know that some ish went down in the past. Then, the story hops back a number of years and we get to see how things began and where things went sideways.

I'll admit, this isn't my favorite way of telling a story. There kept being these foreshadowing lines and dialogue that I knew would come back to haunt the MCs, and we as readers had to keep guessing if this was the convo or chapter when things would go horribly awry.

That feeling of impending doom made it hard for me to engage in the story. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Also, I like my stories to have a lot of buildup before the MCs get together. Here, they are together very soon after they meet, and then we sort of get the narrative of the ups and downs of their relationship. My personal taste is more of a slow burn, but that isn't what this book is about.

However, my main issue was that I found Maggie to be really dull as a main character. She didn't captivate me, and I had a hard time seeing her appeal. I get why Courtney was more enticing, but I felt like Maggie was lackluster and underdeveloped.

Overall, though I liked the small town setting and the second-chance romance, I had a really hard time engaging with this one. My expectations were really high based on glowing reviews and a lovely cover, but they weren't quite met. I'll try a different book from this author in the future and hope she can make my F/F dreams come true.

*copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

So far I have loved all Melissa Brayden books, and Strawberry Summer is certainly no exception. MB has the knack of always writing a lovely enjoyable story, that you'll find it difficult to put down once started.

Maggie and Courtney are lovely characters and were very easy to care about, and the story was top notch.

The flash back was a great way to write a book and then brought in to present day, as a fan of The Beatles I absolutely loved the references to them through out the book

I highly recommend this as a great read and again looking forward to MB's next one.