One Summer, 1949, a country house, a group of friends and family and a time that would change everything. This is the second book in a trilogy, following on from ' The Summer House Party'. Enjoyable, family saga with credible characterisation, well written, evocative and well developed. An engaging read.

I would say this book was a saga that followed the lives of three main characters. Avril is a young jealous girl when this story begins. She is a character you will love to hate and feel sorry for at the same time. Laura is the character who you will feel like wanting to jump into the book to give advice. Max's character is troubled. I found the end of this story ending with many questions. Is there going to be a sequel?

I was given the chance to read this book by the publisher for an honest review. This is the first book I have read by Caro Fraser but really enjoyed how it was written. The book tells the story of Max, Laura and Avril and their family. There are family secrets which affect the lives of all 3, the decisions they make from early teenage years and beyond.

This book was really well written with an enjoyable storyline which kept my interest throughout. I would recommend this book.

It was only upon submitting my review did I realise that this book is a sequel to Caro Frasers 'The Summer House Party" I had not realised as it was such a well written and engaging read that it more than sufficed as a stand alone book although having said that the ending was left open so hopefully there will be another book to follow as I become so engrossed in the 3 main characters (Max, Avril and Laura) lives that I am keen to find out more about their future lives. I found the main characters to be memorable, but not necessarily likeable characters but that only added to the enjoyment. The book was set in the post war period from 1948 - 1963 and gave a fascinating insight into social class along with societies expectations and prejudices. The book explores the different types of relationships and the complex emotions within them of love, hate and loss. All made for a very enjoyable historical fiction story.

Summer of Love by Caro Fraser is a sequel to The Summer House Party. It is August of 1949 when Meg, Dan, Sonia, Laura, Avril and Max gather at Harry Denholm’s home, Chalcombe in Kent. Meg has spent the summer decorating the house for him. They are out enjoying a picnic, when Avril tells ten-year-old Max a secret about his mother, Meg and stepfather, Dan. This one events leads to a tragedy that will change their lives. Laura, Avril and Max grow up in the 50s where decisions and actions made by their parents and relatives affect their lives. Avril resents Laura and will do what it takes to achieve her goals. The lovely and ingenuous Laura is looking for love and finds it with someone unexpected and unaccepted. Max nurses his resentment and anger as he grows up. Discover what happens to them in Summer of Love.

Summer of Love is a sequel to The Summer House Party, but it stands on its own. The past is never really in the past. The actions of others as well as our own continue to haunt a person throughout their life (especially in this digital age). The story takes place from 1949 through 1963 in England. I thought the Summer of Love was well-written and an engaging book. The book has a steady pace and the transitions are smooth (as you switch between characters). The author created complex characters whose lives are interwoven courtesy of their parents. Avril is a resentful woman who dislikes the attention her mother pays to Laura. Laura is raised as Avril’s sister, but her mother was their nanny. Max is a happy kid until a cruel girl reveals a secret that forever changes his life. The characters are not necessarily likeable (they are relatable), but I was drawn into their stories and wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. Summer of Love is a character driven novel. We follow the characters in their life’s journey as they face love, heartbreak, happiness, grief, success and failure. I like how the author worked in the happenings of the 50s and 60s into the story and into the characters lives. Some of the issues/events mentioned are racism, drugs, homosexuality, birth control, changing fashions, and unwanted pregnancy. I also liked the inclusion of music from the era. While many of the storylines are wrapped up in the book, the ending is left open. I wonder if Caro Fraser will continue their stories in another novel or has she left their outcome up to our imagination.

Summer of Love kept taking turns I wasn't expecting and that left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied. It follows a group of people from shortly after WWII until the late 1960s, and how their lives keep intersecting in different ways. Emotionally abusive relationships, affairs, and drug use abounds.

Summer of Love is billed as a standalone sequel to Caro Fraser’s earlier book, The Summer House Party. It definitely can be read as a standalone but if, like me, you still have a lovely copy of The Summer House Party sitting unread on your bookshelf, be aware that the opening pages of Summer of Love reveal a lot of what transpired in the first book. For this reason I would recommend that, if you intend to read The Summer House Party, you read it before Summer of Love.

The book opens in a country house in Kent in a seemingly idyllic setting. However, somehow you know that the complicated history of those gathered there and the secrets some of them possess mean all will not end well. Early on in Summer of Love, one of the characters remarks, ‘The past is the past.’ But how easy is it to consign unpalatable events and actions to the past? Not easy it turns out because before long a comment made in a moment of cruelty reveals a secret from the past that sets in motion a chain of events that will end in tragedy. This will open up wounds that seemingly may never be healed, setting a pattern for later events in which actions have unintended consequences creating rifts that will endure for years.

The main focus of the book is the younger members of the family – Max, Avril and Laura – as they navigate life beyond school and family and the transition from childhood to adulthood. The dynamic between the three of them is complicated and has a bearing on what follows. In wider society, times are changing although, in certain aspects of life and social attitudes, rather slowly it seems. Laura is the character most directly affected by this and it is her story that I found the most compelling.

The author skilfully evokes the London of the 1950s and 1960s but focused on a particular section of society. It’s a world of drink, drugs, increasing sexual freedom, wild parties, avant garde art and basement jazz clubs. I loved the references to and occasional walk-on parts by now well-known figures in the world of art, poetry, music and film.

I can’t say that I found myself caring about the main characters in Summer of Love, except perhaps Laura who came across as the most likeable. I was also shocked by some of their attitudes and prejudices and the decisions they make as a result, which reflects perhaps how far we have come as a society since the events depicted. However, I was certainly gripped by the stories of their lives and eager to learn how events would play out for them.

Summer of Love is a compelling depiction of how secrets, even those hidden for years, will eventually find their way into the light. As one character in the book perceptively observes, ‘Pretending was the worst part. A lie happened on its own, but pretending – pretending went on and on.’ It shows how small actions, albeit well-intentioned, can have unintended and long-lasting consequences. And it asks the question: “Must people go on suffering for their mistakes for ever?”

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Head of Zeus, in return for an honest and unbiased review

After the shock towards the start of this story, I wondered whether I was going to like it as much as The Summer House Party (or whether to continue at all). I should not have worried. Superb continuation of the saga and I can thoroughly recommend it.

Fans of intelligent, grown-up and sophisticated fiction are going to love Caro Fraser’s latest spellbinding novel set in the 1950s and 1960s, Summer of Love. A must-read for fans of Mary Wesley and Elizabeth Jane Howard, Summer of Love is a wonderful tale of loyalty, passion, friendship and the ties that bind from an outstanding storytelller!

In the summer of 1949, the weather is warm and balmy and England is slowly but surely emerging from the darkness of war and trying to forge ahead in a new world that is free of conflict and full of possibility. A new dawn beckons yet secrets from the past threaten to emerge and cast gloomy shadows over the lives of those with something significant to hide and nobody knows this more then the group of family and friends who have gathered in Kent at Harry Denholm’s country house. One of the guests is Meg Ranscombe who is accompanied by her son Max and her husband Dan. Although Max isn’t Dan’s biological son, the two enjoy a very close bond and have a very good relationship, but all that is set to change when one of the other guests, Avril, reveals a shocking truth to Max that puts in motion a series of shocking events that looks set to change their lives forever.

Avril is an unhappy young woman struggling to find her own place in the world. Deeply troubled Avril has always been jealous of Laura, the girl her mother Sonia had brought up as her own. Unlike Avril, Laura is beautiful and has a sunny disposition that endears her to everyone she meets and that charms whoever crosses her path which causes Avril to resent her and hate her even more. Having waited years to take revenge upon the girl she despises more than anything else in the world, Avril finds the perfect opportunity to humiliate and hurt Laura when Sonia dies. Avril stops Laura’s education and begins a campaign of torture and harassment that causes Laura to leave the only home she has ever known and seek solace in the arms of a jazz musician.

As the years go by, Laura continues to search for love while Avril is relentless in her pursuit to get her hands on what she deems to be hers. However, it is wealthy Max who holds their destinies in his hand for he has the power and capacity to undo it all. But will happiness ever be within their reach? Or will they continue to be held hostage by the shocking events of that fateful summer?

An engrossing and addictive saga that will hold readers in thrall from beginning to end, Summer of Love is a gripping and compulsively readable historical tale set during the mid 20th century that I found absolutely impossible to put down. Caro Fraser is a wonderful writer who hooks her readers in effortlessly from the very first page with her nuanced characterization, exquisite period detail and subtle and immersive exploration of the human heart.

Summer of Love is a book that will force readers to put their lives on hold as they find themselves completely and utterly entranced by this novel. Heartwarming, enchanting and an absolute tour de force, Summer of Love is first class storytelling at its unputdownable best!

I'm rather fond of books set in the post-war period - perhaps because it's a time I haven't lived through, and this lived up to my expectations. It's a very appealing read.

Harking back to different days, this is a novel which takes us through the transition in society from the post-war formal times with household staff to the swinging sixties. Covering several summers, we follow Laura, Averil, and Max from childhood through to full adulthood, but this is more than a coming-of-age story. It's the tale of family and friends entwined and entangled, with love, lust, desire, secrets, lies and hate all rearing their ugly heads from time to time.

Time passes quickly in this book; it's a character led tale. The individuals are all from privileged backgrounds at a time when changes meant that young women were no longer expected to just find a way to spend their time until a suitable (wealthy) young man snapped them up for marriage. It's a charming and delightful portrayal of the time in which it is set, as well as being a very engaging read. There is a good mix of characters and a few eye-opening events which certainly gave me food for thought.

If you enjoy a good post-war family saga, this is a read I would recommend. It is true to the period, and the story heads in several unexpected directions.

My thanks to publishers Head of Zeus for approving my request on NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.

Summer of Love follows Max Avril and Laura in their adulthood during the years 1948-1963 and is a thrilling book about life, love loss and overcoming adversity in London and other areas of England during these years. The images and descriptions are faultless and the pace is so quick yet easy to follow. There is a book before this, The Summer House Party, which I also have the ARC of, but it is not essential to read them in order. Avril was the character I found hardest to like. She only wants things for herself and was never concerned about Laura or her life.

Max seemed to have developed into someone who was able to move his life forward after tragedy when he was yonger. Avril and Laura also experienced the same but in different ways. Of the three, I liked Laura the most and her relationship with Ellis, a black jazz player from the States, was engaging, realistic and drew me in. Max seems sensitive and honest towards Laura's life decisions. All the characters are strong- minded in what they want in life though.

The atmosphere in London, the housing the clubs and social haunts was very realistically portrayed. I was hoping that things would work out for the characters and felt included in their individual plights for happiness and fulfilment in life.

I adore the cover of this book, it has such a refined vintage look to it. Don't be fooled by the title. I thought at first (just from the title) that the book would just be a romance, but there are so many more layers to the story. Summer of Love is about secrets, learning to move on whatever reality you live. It is about overcoming criticism and society's expectations as well as how you deal with the opinions and actions of those closest to you. It's about finding the best life you can for yourself. There are year-long family secrets and scandals which appeared when Max Avril and Laura were young but the consequences of which they have to live out into adulthood.

As I was listening to this, I felt like I was living it and that, to me, is the mark of a historical romance that is nothing short of amazing. Summer of Love never drags and there are so many twists and turns that I finished it in a few hours. 5 sparkling stars!

Thanks to Caro Fraser and Aria, Head of Zeus for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review and an opportunity to take part in the blog tour for this title.

Such an atmospheric book, immersing you in the post-war decades of the 1950s and 1960s. 'Summer of Love' is the sequel to ' The Summer House Party', which I haven't read but it is a complete story, and there is an adequate backstory to make this read well as a standalone.

A tragedy, a mystery and oodles of deceit and passion make this an absorbing story. The vivid setting provides the perfect backdrop for Avril, Laura and Max to find out who they are as adults.

Avril is the least empathetic character, she has a dark nature, which threatens to blight both hers and Laura's lives. Laura lacks self-esteem, a symptom of her parentage and upbringing as the 'poor relation', in the Haddon household. Her lack of self-worth coupled with naivety makes her vulnerable to manipulation. Max discovers a secret that changes his life, reaching adulthood, he is confused about his identity and who indeed to love.

Full of fateful decisions, decadence and prejudice, the story vividly portrays Avril, Laura and Max's Summers of love, against the evolving times of the 1950s and 1960s. Their character development is believable, and although flawed they are compelling and make the reader eagerly turn the pages to find out what they do next.

A perfect escapist read for the summer.

I received a copy of this book from Head of Zeus via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I have been a huge fan of Caro Fraser’s books for years, her Caper Court series being books I return to time after time for unbeatable plotting and characterisation so I was delighted to be offered the chance to review her latest novel Summer of Love. This is in a different vein from the contemporary Caper Court books being, as the title suggests, set in the post-war period from 1949 until the swinging sixties.

The book centres around the lives of Max, Avril and Laura from their childhood until their coming of ages. The tragic events of one sultry summer day in 1949 leave a mark on each of them and their relationship to each other that continues to affect them all in to adulthood.

This book is an affecting exploration of how the circumstances of our birth and childhood and how our parents choose to raise us and what they let us believe about ourselves can have unforeseen consequences that ripple out endlessly throughout our lives, affecting all of our future decisions and relationships. The ideas raised are absorbing and thought-provoking and I know it is a book I will continue to think about long after I have closed the pages and placed it to one side in favour of something new.

The characters in this book are multi-dimensional and complicated and quickly draw he reader into their world, making us eager to know and understand them. Not all of them are likeable – one of the main characters is largely downright unpleasant – but are written in such a way that we still want to try and work out what has made them that way, what makes them tick and realise that their behaviour is perhaps holding them back from making them as fulfilled and contented as they could be.

The main draw of this book for me is the time period in which it is set and the frenetic and complicated social change taking place in that era. The years from just after the war to he mid-sixties was a time of immense transfiguration in Britain as the country rebuilt itself after the war and decided where its future lay. The younger generation were sometimes at odds with their parents, shaking off the shackles of propriety and restraint and searching for freedom and expression but there were still boundaries that could not be crossed, certain types of behaviour that would not be tolerated. This book explores brilliantly the contrast between the freedom and experimentation the youth were indulging in by way of new art and ideas, drugs, music and casual sex and the stigma still attached to homosexuality, inter-racial relationships, unmarried mothers etc. In this novel, Caro adeptly demonstrates how confusing it was for the people trying to navigate this uncertain time period when all social boundaries were being tested and where rejecting guidance and discipline from the older generation lead not only to freedom but also a sense of being alone in any plight the exercise of those freedoms brought on themselves.

The setting of he novel, between the quietness and staidness of the post-war English countryside and the grittiness of urban London emphasised this contrast and the author brings both settings vividly to life through enticing and eloquent descriptions. There is also a demonstration of the beginnings of the blurring of class distinctions during this period, with modern art and music encroaching on the upper crust echelons of the art world and the upsurge in popularity of fashion and music paving the way for the lower classes, who were making their mark in these fields, to mix with the monied set. It was a time of huge opportunity and this book manages to embody all the excitement and potential, as well as uncertainty that people must have felt at that time. For those of us too young to have lived through it, it is an enticing peek in to a world long gone but one that has paved the way for so much of what we take for granted today.

This book is not only a beautifully written and complex story of family relationships and personal exploration but also an intelligent snapshot of an exciting period of social history. The writing makes you think and leaves you with a feeling that you have gained a huge amount from the time investing in reading it and maybe a slightly better understanding of a huge stepping stone on the way to the society we have today, together with some ideas about how much further we may have to go. I revelled in every word of it.

This novel picks up the story begun in ‘The Summer House Party’. The war has ended, and the families left are beginning a new life in peacetime. Focussing on the younger generation, who were children during the war, the story illustrates their lives in the 1950s and 60s. The wartime generation grow older and the young are living life to the full, but the consequences of decisions taken during the war come back to haunt them and will have a huge impact on all of their lives. I enjoyed the first novel in this series, and this second book is just as good. The author’s descriptions of the tangled relationships that people make are excellent, and kept me reading, keen to discover what would happen next. Overall, an excellent read and I’m hoping for more to come!
Thank you to #Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy.

The Summer of Love covers the years 1948 – 1963 and follows the lives of Max, Avril, and Laura as they grow from teenagers to adults and have to face that they have all been lied to by their parents about different things. When I started this book I didn’t realise that Caro Fraser had written a previous book to this focusing on the lives of the parents of Max, Avril and Laura and the secrets of the past. You can read The Summer of Love as a standalone, the history of the characters and previous events are explained so you miss nothing.

Max is eleven at the start of this book, his father died a hero in the war and his mother Meg, has remarried Dan who Max has a fantastic relationship with, until Avril interferes. Avril tells him his mother and Dan were in fact having an affair before his father died. This destroys Max’s world and has devastating consequences for nearly twenty years.

Avril is a cousin to Max and a very unhappy and troubled young woman. Her father was a famed artists who died when she was young and she was brought up by her mother Sonia. Sonia also took in the child of their nanny, after she fell pregnant, and brought her up like Avril’s sister. Avril resented Laura as she was pretty, had a loving nature and was everything Avril wasn’t; but this caused jealousy and resentment. After her mother’s death she takes her revenge on Laura, she feels Laura got all the love and attentions that she deserved as her biological daughter so deprives her of what was rightfully hers.

Laura only knows the her mother was the nanny and nothing about her father but Sonia has brought her up like a daughter, which causes the jealousy of Avril. After Sonia’s death Avril stops her education, and makes life very difficult for her. Laura is a person who needs to be loved and false in love with Ellis Candy, a coloured Jazz Saxophone player and moves out. Laura’s early adult life is spent looking for love and falling in and out of some very dubious relationships; she wears her heart on her sleeve. Of all the characters it is Laura who touched me the most. She has a big heart and is treated very unfairly in life by Avril and in a way by Max himself.

Caro Fraser writes with ease so the prose is fluid and meanders along at a steady place, following each character as they face the trials of life; love, death, sadness, happiness. Her detailed descriptions and research give a wonderful sense of place and make the characters and settings very natural. There are some very difficult issues raised in the book that were very relevant in the 1950’s 1960’s; racism, drugs, unwanted pregnancy, homosexuality. All are dealt with realism and empathy, and in keeping with that period of history.

Summer of Love is a beautifully written, engaging and intelligent read. The characters were memorable and drew you into their stories, and the plot had me engrossed. The ending left a lot of open ends but I presume this is because Caro Fraser is going to write the next chapter in the lives of Max, Avril and Laura. An atmospheric and encompassing read, perfect for those summer holidays.

Summer of Love continues the saga that begun in The Summer House Party, this time setting the drama in the 50's and 60's and with two very different daughters at the central characters. The supporting cast of characters are varied, interesting and well drawn and the feeling of the period is effectively established through some of the issues that the characters encounter. I am hoping there will be a further book to continue the saga!

Wow. I really loved this book. A fictional story set in post-war London and surrounds, it tells the story of an extended family whose lives over the following 15 or so years are caught up in secrets, scandals, love and loss. I felt immersed in 50's and 60's life and loved reading about the jazz clubs, the parties and the lifestyles from that time. I liked all of the characters and at various different times was probably rooting for them all over one incident or another.

This is absolutely my favourite genre and I devoured it, reading it over a couple of days. I understand this book is a follow on book to The Summer House Party, which I haven't read. That said it absolutely didn't hinder my enjoyment of Summer of Love, and I will definitely go back and read The Summer Party. A 5*+++ from me. A terrific read.