The summer of 1977 was supposed to be the best summer of Summer, Autumn, Spring, and Snow’s lives. Friends since elementary school, the “Four Seasons” had big plans for the summer between high school and college, but they end up on probation as camp counselors in Tumbleweed, Oklahoma. But by the end of the summer, the Seasons are shattered apart by a secret and headed in four different directions.

Twenty years later, Summer Wilde is back in Tumbleweed, longing for the peace that’s eluded her since her summer at camp.

The book switches timelines and points of view seamlessly. The story is engrossing and the secrets are doled out skillfully enough to keep me turning the pages well into the night.

This story includes all the elements of a great Rachel Hauck novel: compelling characters, a fascinating story, and spiritual lessons with a special touch by God’s supernatural grace.

Rachel’s fans will gobble up (and love) this story. New readers will immediately look up her backlist books.
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I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, but that did not induce me to review it, favorably or not.

The Best Summer Of Our Lives is a Christian Contemporary coming of age story between the summer of ‘77 and the present day of 1997. The book is a raw and emotional story about four teenage best friends forced to become counselors at a summer camp after a harmless prank goes awry. Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Snow were called the Four Seasons, and their plans to have the best summer ever got ruined instantly. Twenty years later, it is apparent that they are no longer speaking to each other. Each woman provides a perspective about how they become distant from each other.

I felt like this was a good light read. As someone who does not read much contemporary Christian literature or practice Christianity, I did not think the spiritual aspects affected my view of the book. I enjoyed reading about their fate of that summer and the events leading up to their split of being the Four Seasons. Their decision when they were teenagers impacted them as adults, and that can ring true in real life. It was hard to differentiate between the POVs for most of the book. Constantly changing the POV made it hard to distinguish between them and enjoy their unique backstory entirely, but I did get the hang of it eventually. This book is a good beach read with a heartfelt message about trusting your faith.

Thank you to NetGallery and Bethany House Publishing for giving me a copy of the book

If you’re going to push a religious agenda in an otherwise mainstream book, you need to be upfront about that. Otherwise it feels sneaky and misleading and as though you’re trying to trick readers into swallowing propaganda.

This was billed as summer nostalgia and romance, but it pushes a pretty aggressive Christian agenda late in the book which was in no way conveyed in genre categorization or the publishers summary.

It’s fine for stuff like this to exist as I’m sure there’s an audience for it, but for a reader who doesn’t want to hear this kind of agenda pushing, it’s misleading not to label it as such. I obviously would have preferred that such agenda pushing be left entirely out of the narrative of what was otherwise a perfectly fine light read, but this at least needs to be transparent to potential readers up front.

The rest of the book is nothing exceptional but it’s fine, a perfectly good east read for when you want to feed the summer nostalgia urge. Without the sneaky stuff, it’s a three star read. With it and without upfront disclosure of that, it’s a one star read. Be honest and let readers make informed decisions about what authorial agenda they choose to be exposed to.

Rachel Hauck is a masterful storyteller. The Best Summer of Our Lives chronicles a group of four girlfriends their summer before freshman year at college. Though they all had a voice in the novel, Summer seemed to be the main character. I loved reading about life in the 70s again, so many flashback memories for myself! And because they went their separate lives after that summer, I appreciated that we also got to know the friends in current day. And there was a satisfying ending. I felt like I was right there with Summer, Autumn, Snow, and Spring, going through the trials and tribulations that fateful summer. Bravo Rachel Hauck on another amazing read!

I enjoyed The Best Summer of Our Lives for so many reasons. One, it has a wonderful nostalgic feel that brought back many memories of my own. Two, I adore dual-time stories! Three, I can relate to the group of four, belonging to a bestie-four group myself, and understood the dynamics (in a sense.) And there are too many more to list here.

This is a wonderful book to take on a beach vacation, especially if you lived during the 70s through 90s. What a memorable trip through the years. These four girls share their own unique personalities and I appreciate their growth. Perhaps one of the most valuable things in this story is the element of faith.

Told from different perspectives, each girl reveals a unique personality, (bossy, sad, smart, and displaced) offering so much flavor to the book. It took me just a bit to grasp who was who (at first) but it was easy to relish in each as the story progressed.

This is a delightful coming-of-age story focusing on friendship, romance, and faith.

#CoverLoverBookReview received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions are 100% mine.

A well-crafted, nostalgic story world set in the summer of 1977, this dual time novel splits the story of four female best friends who call themselves the Four Seasons and the stories of those same girls, now women, focusing on Summer Wilde’s character. Hauck’s voice shines through in this novel, with a matter of fact writing style that comes across mildly sarcastic at times, fitting the teenage angst and tensions of the timeline perfectly.

As the Four Seasons come of age, they face an onslaught of life-changing moments and milestones in their personal lives, their families and their friendship creating various layers of emotion, tension and angst. Hauck delivers these layers in a gripping way that was easy to read yet deeply felt (and I love a good story that makes me FEEL!).

I enjoyed witnessing this story unfold as secrets were harbored and then revealed, ramping up the drama between the four friends. I also was drawn to the true-crime aspect of a serial killer on the loose, adding a delicious taste of suspense and fear to the story.

The setting was fantastic with lazy summer, small town vibes and townspeople/camp workers as secondary characters who were delightful and memorable.

The first quarter of the story, I struggled to keep the girls’ names and stories straight as the points of view changed frequently while creating the girls’ backstories. About ⅓ of the way through though, I found a groove and enjoyed the constantly changing POV more.

This story held little faith based elements in the beginning but a large portion near the end. There is a strong and profound message about walking through the desert and knowing God is with you in that season, however Summer rejects God and follows her own selfish desires like so many of us do, making her character extremely relatable. I longed for her redemption and for her to find forgiveness.

That said, this book contains an unexplained apparition/mystical encounter with God, personified as a bell bottom dressed hippie. Readers can interpret that however they would like, but it was not something I enjoyed, finding it to be borderline misleading and bizarre. I felt the author missed an important opportunity to deliver a simple salvation message and demonstrate the act of repentance in a way that is believable, and attainable, for the person who is desperately seeking forgiveness of sins.

Overall, a well-written, multi-layered story of lifelong friendship, sisterhood and forgiveness with strong characters. Despite the moments of brokenness and harboring secrets, four young women share a life-giving strength in their bond. A good read for summer and readers who enjoy Women’s Fiction.

Content and Trigger Warnings: Teen pregnancy, divorce

*I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.

A story of four friends that were supposed to have the summer of their lives in 1977 after their senior year. Instead they have to do community service for pulling a prank that went awry. They end up being counselors in a run down camp for the summer. Little do they know, they are all harboring secrets that will lead to the end of their friendship as they know it. Fast forward 20 years later and they are all trying to come to terms with their current lives and wondering about their previous friendship. Can it be salvaged? Will the secrets from the past come back to get them? Where will they all end up? This is a great story with compelling characters. I enjoyed the style of going back and forth between 1977 and 1997.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy, & I give my opinion freely

This was a cute and sweet (bittersweet) coming of age story, about four girls who had all grown up together ad the best of friends. They were called The Seasons because of their names - Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Snow.
Teenage angst reached its peak the summer after they graduated high school, a big argument came to pass, and they couldn't recover... they all went their separate ways. 20 years later, we see how different all of their lives are. They are thinking more and more of their youth, their friendships, and would it be possible to get back to what they had?
The story is told from alternating perspectives, both between the girls, and between that summer of '77 and where they are 20 years later in '97. It seems Summer, the most hot-headed and temperamental of the group, is the main character, but you get a lot of insight in the others as well.
During the summer of '77, Summer has a vision or something like it and encounters a Preacher who tells her to sing for Him (representative of Jesus). She doesn't of course, she goes about life her own way, living entirely for herself. But in '97, she returns to Tumbleweed (the town where they had spent that fateful last summer together as camp counselors) and tries to start living her life better. She encounters the Preacher again, and he tries to redirect her back to living right. The other character came to find God along the way as they grew up too. I love the Christian angle, but I found it a little hard to relate to all the times the Preacher conveniently showed up and talked to her, I feel it could have been done more subtly.
In the end, it all works out, love wins and they all find their way back to where they needed to be.
A very sweet story, I especially enjoyed the friendship dynamic.

This book tugged at my heartstrings. I was so excited to read The Best Summer of Our Lives because the 1977 period was “my time,” (and the chapters even had titles from pop songs of the 70s). My favorite type of fiction focuses on relationships, with a thread of romance. Rachel Hauck brought all my favs to this story! The characters were so relatable with their flaws and strengths that they walked off the page and made me think about them even when I wasn’t reading. Full of angst, hope, loss, friendships, secrets (!), and faith, TBSOOL captured me from the very beginning. I love books that illustrate that our wounds don’t have to define us and redemption is possible.
And, yes. This book is my selection for my book club this month.

Many thanks to the publisher, Bethany House, and to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. I was not required to leave a positive review. The thoughts and comments above are my own I chose to share voluntarily.

The Best Summer of Our Lives by Rachel Hauck is an engaging dual timeline summer read. This Christian women’s fiction novel features The Four Seasons, a group of girlfriends each named for a different season during the summer after their senior year of high school and twenty years later. Hauck does a great job of weaving in some of the news stories during the summer of 1977, and I enjoyed reading about them. I recommend The Best Summer of Our Lives to readers who enjoy historical fiction with Christian themes and stories about female friendships.

Rachel Hauck is an author who I feel tells a very different type of story than any others in Christian fiction that I can think of. Yes, she has beautiful messages of faith and wonderfully written characters, but with an added element of spirituality that sets them apart. While in some ways, this felt a little different than others I have read from her in the past- in those ways, it was very much the same.

The Best Summer of Our Lives is a dual timeline set mostly in 1977, but with jumps to 1997 throughout. It tells the story of the summer of 1977 and how it changed a group of four friends- The Seasons- for life. Throughout the course of the story, it not only jumps back and forth between the years, but also between these four friends. I sometimes struggle when there are that many characters to keep track of, and this was no exception. As such, it took me a little bit to really get into the story... but once I was in, I couldn't put it down. There were times when I wasn't the biggest fan of how some characters reacted to things... but this definitely allowed for some growth throughout the story. This was more than anything a story about growing up, friendship and family... with just a little bit of romance thrown in, but certainly not the focus. And of course, it was a story about faith though I won't say too much about that so as not to give any spoilers.

Content to keep in mind: Looking at the cover, I definitely expected this to be a more lighthearted summer read... but it definitely was not that. While there were no graphic details given on the page, it does bring up the real-life rape and murder of three young girls at a summer camp in 1977. It also makes several mentions of Ted Bundy. The story also deals with grief and unplanned pregnancy. While these topics certainly may be heavier, they were handled with grace.

Overall, this was a beautiful read! If you're looking for a good coming of age story with Christian perspective, this is certainly one to check out.

**I received a complimentary copy for consideration. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars

This is another winner from Rachel Hauck. The nuanced, descriptive writing draws the reader into this nostalgic coming of age tale set in the summer of 1977, and again twenty years later when the main character Summer Wilde returns to the small town where she and her best friends were counselors the summer after high school.

I enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it, but there were a few things I didn't love. One was the character of Summer herself. She was immature and closed minded in 1977, and after having an experience of meeting "Preacher" she doesn't seem to change at all until she returns twenty years later. I didn't feel like her character arc was as realistic as the others, and she was a main character. And even though I love a good mystery element to a story, this one didn't feel necessary and had more of a tacked on feel. I would have liked the faith/spiritual storyline to have been stronger and the Girl Scout Camp murders/Ted Bundy storyline to have been less of an issue.

I was a child during the years mentioned, so the summer camp storyline was more relatable to me, I have fond memories of camp and everything about it so I loved that aspect of this book.

Overall, I think that many people will relate to Summer even when I did not, so I do recommend picking up this book for a nostalgic look at the past and learning to surrender to God.

I liked the main story of this book. I did not care for the length and detail of the backstory. I ended up skipping most of the back story and just reading the story in the present. Most of the detail in the backstory was unnecessary and could have been greatly shortened.

5/5 stars.

Rachel Hauck is one of my go-to authors for inspy fic, so I started this read with admittedly high expectations--and it did not disappoint!

_The Best Summer of Our Lives_ is a great read for exactly that: summertime. It brought back my own memories of childhood, young friendships, my one attempt at summer camp (LOL; I was not eager to repeat that one :D--let me stay home, thank you very much!), and summertime memories over the years.

I will admit, with four MCs, I struggled a bit to keep them each (and their storylines) straight at times, and two of the four definitely got more page time than the other two. But, I honestly don't know how I would have changed or done it differently! The book also felt like the right length; nothing felt superfluous, and I think if more had been added, it would have dragged on a bit.

So I don't quite know the right answer for getting these two characters' stories equally developed--maybe a book 1.5, LOL. The ending also felt a bit quick compared to everything pre-climax--but I still loved it.

Very highly recommended!

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This is another book I would give 10 stars. I have always been a fan of Rachel’s books but this one is my absolute favorite.

This book is about 4 amazing friends, The Four Seasons, and is split between 1977 and 1997. It is a story of friendship, secrets, coming of age, forgiveness, finding yourself, letting go, heartbreak, faith, loss, and love. There are a few twist and turns in the book that will surprise you. I felt an instant connection with the girls, and their struggles had me in tears multiple times. I didn’t want this book to end, blubbered like a baby when it did, then instantly wanted to read it all over again. It is definitely a must read book.

I was provided a copy of the book from the author/publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

I am still trying to decide what I think about this book.

Parts of it I really enjoyed and other parts not so much.

This book focuses on 4 girls the seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Snow) who have been friends since kindergarten. Now they are preparing to attend college at FSU but due to some bad choices they find themselves doing community services at a girls camp in Tumbleweed Oklahoma.

The year was 1977 but the author gives us a dual timeline 20 years later. At times this was interesting but at times very confusing for me.

I did appreciate the author weaving the murders of 3 Girl Scout campers that happened just 80 miles from Camp Tumbleweed. Having grown up in Oklahoma less than an hour from Locust Grove I remember that event vividly.

The story digs into the dynamics of 4 friends who are very different. At times it was funny and enjoyable to read at other times I had a strong desire to slap Summer. Her attitudes and actions grinded on my nerves.

Without giving too much away, there are some really good parts to this book. And to see how each of the characters developed by 1997 was heart warming.

Although I wasn't crazy about the book, I will definitely read more from this author. Her overall writing style was enjoyable.

Disclaimer: I did receive this book from the publisher but was under no obligation to provide a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I am a huge fan of @rachelhauck . I have read several of her books and she is on my auto read author list. I would call The Best Summer of Our Lives Rachel Hauck at her best. I absolutely loved that this story centered around The Four Seasons friend group Summer, Spring,
Autumn and Snow.

This one had a nostalgic feel and kind of reminded me of the movie Now and Then. Summer, Spring, Autumn and Snow have been friends since kindergarten. After getting in trouble for a prank they are sent away to camp where they are determined to have the best summer of their lives!

The book bounces between two time lines; 1977 where the majority of the story takes place and 20 years later in 1997. I absolutely loved the dual time line and how it was woven together to keep me turning the pages. We get to see the girls at camp and get inside each of their POV’s and friendship in 1977 as well as see where they are now in 1997, what brought them there and why their friendship has been broken apart. Rachel is a master at the dual timelines. I never felt lost and who they were in ‘77 and who they are now completely made sense for each character.

The entire story really captivated me.
There were several jaw dropping moments I did not expect and although the story focuses on the four girls friendships there were some beautiful romances as well. I especially enjoyed Summer and Levi’s story. I loved the theme of forgiveness and the faith message. It all wove together so well and came together with a beautiful ending.

To me this had everything it needed to be the perfect summer read. I enjoyed every minute of the book and it now has a spot on my favorites shelf.

Thank you to the author and Bethany House Publishing for the complementary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is hard to review. I liked the concept and a couple of the characters were fairly well fleshed out but that's about all the good I can say about this particular book. I've read others by Rachel Hauck that I did enjoy more.

The first thing that I didn't like was the misuse and mis-spelling of words. One that really stuck out was using "wit" instead of "whit" which, at one point, made the character sound stupid. Some might call me a grammatic police person but it really spoils a book with glaring errors. Especially when you have to read a sentence over and over. Sometimes the sentence seemed to be in the wrong place totally, or unnecessary altogether.

The second thing I didn't like was that her theology did not align with mine. And for this being Christian fiction, nothing was even mentioned until about halfway through the book. Last, I felt the ending left too much unfinished.

I would not recommend this book. I give it a generous 3 out of 5-star review. I was given the chance to read and review this book through LibraryThing. I am not required to leave a positive review, or one at all.

The Best Summer of our Lives drew me in and took me back to my teen years in the 70s, to the friendships, camp, fun, frustration, and confusion. It's all in there, the life of young women trying to find their way. Then fast-forward twenty years to find the four friends living different lives than they expected. Told through the lens of each friend, Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Snow the story goes through ups and downs, tragedy, and horrific news. But in the end, hope wins. Hauck has written an incredible story that will stick with me for a long time. I especially enjoyed all the 70s references and the chapter titles. If you grew up in that era, you'll love it. Once I started reading the book, I wanted to finish. I read it in two sittings, which never happens. I love how Hauck threads faith and hope through the story and the way she portrays the love of Jesus. Nostalgic and heart-felt, this is a book I'll think about for a while. This was a free to me copy with no expectations.

Interesting story to read for summer. The best summer of our lives follows four best friends in 1977 and we see the story through all of them and we see where they end up twenty years later in 1997. I've talked to many readers who are wondering about this story and I've encourage them to read it.