Last Summer

Yorktide, Maine #2

by Holly Chamberlin

The town of Yorktide, close to Maine’s beautiful beaches and the city of Portland, seems like the perfect place to raise a family. For Jane Patterson, there’s another advantage: her best friend, Frannie Giroux, lives next door, and their teenaged daughters, Rosie and Meg, are inseparable. But in the girls’ freshman year of high school, everything changes.

Jane always felt lucky that she was able to work from home, to be there to nurture and protect Rosie. But has she been too protective? Rosie—quiet, shy, and also very pretty—attracts the sneers and slights of a clique of older girls. Over time, the bullying worsens. When Meg betrays their friendship, fearful that she too will be targeted, Rosie suffers an emotional breakdown.

Blaming both Meg and Frannie, Jane tries to help Rosie heal while dealing with her own guilt and anger. In the months that follow, each struggles with the ideas of forgiveness and compassion, of knowing when a friendship has been shattered beyond repair—and when hope can be salvaged, one small moment at a time…

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Ebooks, Summer Reads, Family, Adult

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Holly Chamberlin is a native New Yorker, but she now lives in Portland, Maine - the aftermath of stumbling across Mr. Right at the one moment she wasn't watching the terrain. She's been writing and editing - poetry, children's fantasies, a romance novel or two, among many other genres and projects - her entire life. She has two cats, Betty and Cyrus, and when she's not writing her hobbies include reading, shopping, and cocktails at six.

Reviews

[Trisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

In the last 10 years I can name the 3 books that I have put down without finishing, thi si one of them. It was difficult to get into, I didn't like the characters, I found the writing style confusing. I don't mind an Author focusing on a character per chapter but she started with one ended with another, sometimes it was a journal entry. I did not like this book.

[Beth Hiken]

First book I have ever stopped reading part way through

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the looks of the cover, I thought this book was going to be a nice beach read about a family or relationships. Needless to say, you really shouldn't judge books by their covers. This book ended up being a really serious story about a girl who is bullied and how her family deals with the aftermath.

Bullying has been a popular topic to write about, just like Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti, and it's definitely a very serious topic. In this story, Rose and Meg are best friends until Meg spills Rose's deepest secret to the mean, popular girls at school. Rose endures tormenting and can't handle school anymore. Not only are people at school mean to her, but she's lost her best (and only) friend. Meg and Rose's moms have to deal with their daughters' decisions and depressions that lead to dangerous actions.

I understand that this is a very serious topic, but I just couldn't really get into this book. I was not in the mood for a serious book, and it felt like this book was basically all thoughts and no actual action. And the entire story was told after the bullying happened and was retold through journal entries every few chapters. I liked Rose's character well enough, but the big secret that Meg had told wasn't that big of a secret. They're almost sophomores in high school and the secret was that Rose had wet her bed until fifth grade. Who cares?? That happened almost 5 years ago, so why would it even be that big of a deal? Yes, it was very wrong for Meg to tell those girls that secret when they're the ones bullying Rose, but I didn't feel the emotions the author wanted the reader to feel.

So overall this book had a really good message, I just wasn't really that into it. It's very serious and a lot of talking about emotions and thinking about life. If you want a serious book, then you'll like this one. If you're in the mood for a fun beach read, then this is definitely not the book for you.

[Seana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would give this book zero stars if I could. Seriously one of the worst books I've ever read. EVER. A very lame lecture poorly disguised as a novel. Total garbage. Don't waste your time. Ugh. Oh, and NOBODY talks like the characters in this book. Not moms, not dads, and especially not teenagers. Brutal read.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am giving this book two stars because it was easily read in an afternoon, but it was a pretty bland and stereotypical account of one of today's hot topics, bullying. First, this book is the afterwards..we don't see what rosie goes through, we just hear about it afterwards in diary entries as Rosie struggles with whether or not she should fogive her best friend for spilling the scret that she was a bed-wetter until fifth grade. Really???? In high school this would bother you that much? There was only one real incident that happened to Rosie which was disturbing..when her tormentors corner her and cut her hair, which is a physical assault. The rest of it is petty nonsense that all girls weather. Preteen and teenage girls are bitches...and it's alawys the pretty girls who take the blunt of jealousy, unlike how the media tells it. The characters in this book however were annoying, particularly goody two shoes Rosie, her snobby OCD mom...and teh way the author portrays poor people! OMG....it's beyond obvious that the author looks down on those with tattoos, people on food stamps, Catholics and anyone who disagrees with homosexuality. All in all, not a very good book on the subject of bullying. i like when Rosie wrote in her diary that she read a study that bullies aren't successful as adults..really? Actually, studies show that 65% of cops were bullies in high school. Bland book, bland characters, topic that I am sure we'll see a thousand more books about in the next year or two. Wait for one of those.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really had trouble getting through this book and only kept reading to see if the girls that bullied Rosie felt any remorse or regret.
The book is supposed to take place in modern times, but it read as being from an earlier decade. I don't really know why I felt this, but it just didn't seem like Rosie and Meg were actually like any 14 yr old girls I knew or know.
I found the writing to be confusing, the story is told from the viewpoints of Rosie, her mother, Meg and her mother. I was confused as to why Rosie would refer to her parents as Mr. and Mrs. Patterson at one point in the book, why not Mom and Dad? I also wondered why Meg's absent father had more of a presence than Rosie's own father.
As for Rosie's diary, I had trouble deciding if she was so depressed because of the bullying or if she was already depressed before it started. The bullying was never really explained in full, except for a couple of incidences, which I'm sure were horrible, but enough to make a girl almost commit suicide? I don't know. I had no sympathy for Rosie's mother at all, and thought that her shunning of Meg's family was ridiculous and petty.
Maybe I just didn't "get" this book. I understand that bullying is a hot topic right now, and it's horrible what some children go through, but I don't think this book really shed any new light or offered any new solutions to this problem.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a slow read. I turned to my mother, who read it before me, and said about halfway through, "Is there a huge twist coming up?" Her negative response and look told me she felt the same way I did about the novel. It was just plain. There was not some huge breakthrough; I thought it was a bit flat.

[Aubrey Lively · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like I was reading an anti-bullying information booklet, thinly veiled as a fiction novel. Slow writing, too many attempts to teach me about the ins and outs of bullying, instead of allowing a strong plot and characters do that on their own. I couldn’t even finish the final journal entry by the main character, as it was more of the same, and at that point I was over it.

[Darleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

i hated the whiney, self righteaus (sp?), boring, crazy mother in this book, so it ruined the entire book for me. the book was written almost in a juvinile tone........i went back to make sure it was an adult novel......

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Last Summer has an interesting plotline. Two women, Jane and Frannie, are best friends and next-door neighbors. Their 14-year old daughters, Rosie and Meg, are also best friends since toddlerhood. When Rosie becomes the victim of bullying at school, things dramatically change in an instant. Meg betrays Rosie by revealing an embarassing secret to the bullies. The book shows how this incident effects not only Rosie and Meg, but all their family members.

I found Rosie to be really annoying - too sweet and perfect and timid. Also really annoying, her mother, Jane - too scared of life and rigid. We begin to see how Jane's personality has made Rosie who she is.

I found the whole book to be too preachy for my taste. I do think it might be better received by a younger audience; perfect for an anti-bullying group to read together and discuss.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I recieved this book from a giveaway.

Last Summer deals with bullying. Rosie's best friend, Meg, is tired of seeing Rosie get bullied and not stand up for herself. One day, Meg sees the group of girls that bully Rosie and, unbelievably, decides to tell them Rosie's biggest secret. The next day, everyone in school knows. Rosie is humiliated and stops going to school. She even goes as far as cutting herself. Now Rosie has to see a therapist every week. She is being told that, in order to cope with everything that happened, she should forgive her former friend, Meg. But will she?

Maybe I'm not old enough to really enjoy this book. I would say parents are more likely to enjoy it than teenagers. It just rubbed me the wrong way for some reason-maybe because I'm not the target audience?
Not sure, but I did not finish the book and I doubt I will ever pick it up again.

[Montserrat Bouvier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was fooled by the cover: thought it would be a light summer read but turned out to be about a serious and sad issue...bullying. Even though the message is strong, the characters were weak and the storyline not compelling. A disappointment.

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Felt way too much like author wanted to show off the research she did on bullying. Multiple characters quoting the same article while thinking to themselves felt forced and awkward. Dialog between the teens was super-stilted. Not a fan.

[Jill Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a message book, with very overt messages and filled with infodumps. If I wanted to read what google said about bullying, I would use google myself.

[Dee Scocos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read over half of book & could not finish. Too preachy !

[Amanda Hughes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept waiting for something exciting to happen in the book and it never did. You only hear about the bullying after the fact. Not a winner for me.

[Mindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Since I have nothing nice to say about this book, I am going to say nothing at all. :( Except, thank heavens it came from the Library and I didn't actually buy it!

[Tammy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible. It read like an anti bullying brochure mixed with an after school special.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it was easy to get through, I felt like the story was for an afternoon special about bullying. The numerous cliches were annoying too.

[Maggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Last Summer features Rosie, a teenager who's been bullied severely, cut herself, and pushed over the edge by the betrayal of her best friend, Meg. Jane is Rosie's mother, and feels guilty knowing the way Rosie was raised--sheltered and over-protected--was to blame for her inability to stand up for herself. Meg is trying to understand why Rosie won't forgive her after all of the apologies and countless attempts to fix her mistake. She is figuring out what she's going to do this summer without Rosie, and has several flashbacks from the last summer (giving the book's title), wondering why she had done such a thing to ruin all of the joyful memories. Frannie, Meg's mom, is desperately trying to mend the friendship between Rosie and Meg, as well as herself and Jane's, and doesn't know why Jane is blaming her for Meg's mistake.
First with what I didn't like:
I found myself to be annoyed with Jane's character; she was so unwilling to forgive, focused on only herself, and very snobby and judging about other people and strangers. Rosie was a little better, but the author made her out to be more grown up that even the most mature 14 year old would be. I thought Meg and Frannie were much more realistic and likable. This did not jeopardize my feelings towards this book, though, perhaps because it was obvious that this is how Rosie and Jane were supposed to be... I just think their personalities were overdone, to the point of seeming fake.
The storyline was VERY slow, so anyone who is impatient or prefers action-packed, fast plots would probably not enjoy Last Summer very much. In fact, even I was very bored until the last hundred pages or so. People like myself, who like faster plots but can tolerate a slow story for awhile, will most likely forgive the author by the end, which I thought was very strong. That's the thing, though. I don't think any reader should have to forgive an author for errors in a book. If a story is "good" there isn't going to be much you think the author should have changed. This is a big part of the reason I gave this book only 2 stars.
The other thing that needed work was the dialogue between Rosie and Meg. It was not believable because they talked to each other like adults, meaning they had great grammar and didn't ever use the "gonna" and instead always said "going to". In an idealistic place this would be how all young people would talk, not just adults, but unfortunately the USA is not at all like that and the fact that neither of the girls used any words remotely slang stroke me as odd.
" 'Doesn't your therapist tell you to report them?' 'That's not how it works," Rosie said with a smile, 'therapists don't tell you what to do.' 'Well, doesn't she suggest you report them?' 'We discuss my options and the possible ramifications of these options," Rosie explained, "and then I make a decision.' " This is only a small part of one of their conversations, which I definitely think should have been reviewed to sound more like teenagers, not adults.

Onto the things that I did like:
The message of Last Summer is very moving. Bullying is a large issue right now for kids and teens, and Rosie's story was a perfect representation of how cruel some people can be. First she was cornered by a group of girls, and they grabbed her braid and cut it right off (an example of physical bullying). Then, the leader of the pack sent a text from a blocked number to a guy in their school, claiming to be Rosie (an example of cyber bullying). The last thing, what really pushed Rosie over the edge, was Meg cracking and telling the group about an embarrassing secret from Rosie's childhood (an example of both verbal and covert bullying). The story also featured Rosie's cutting. She explains all of her emotions when doing it (Last Summer has a sort of in-between chapters that are Rosie's diary entries from the months she was bullied), which may help some readers understand why people cut: because it lets them feel in control. Also, towards the end, a boy the same age from a local town attempts to kill himself--it doesn't work--and that is also talked about between the families. The information about bullying in this book is incredible, and the amount of sympathy I felt for Rosie was overwhelming.
The setting was very well described. From Rosie's house, to the shopping center, and several of Maine's beaches, the attention to detail was impecable and absolutely the strongest part of the writing.
"Twenty minutes later, riding side by side again, the girls cycled into Yorktide Memorial Park. They got off their bikes next to an old-fashioned wooden bench with elaborate black iron arms at either end. The park was pretty big for a fairly small town. Besides large sections of grass where people could picnic or sunbathe, there was a playground with a jungle gym, a slide, a sandbox, and swings. Right now the playground was crowded with mothers and small children. Meg couldn't help but smile at the gleeful shrieks of the kids as they chased each other around the jungle gym or shot down the slide. A few of the kids were sitting more quietly in the sandbox, transferring sand from one plastic pail to another. Meg remembered how she used to love playing with the sand as a kid, especially on the beach. Maybe it was a universal thing, she thought now, kids and sand, like dogs and dirt and cats and mice." I absolutely love this excerpt from the scene where Meg and Rosie first try to mend their relationship.

Overall, I liked this book just as much as I disliked it. For me, it would be 2.5 stars. Right in-between. I would recommend this to people who have a lot of time, and like very laid-back, slow moving books. Anyone who likes action and quick pace I would not recommend this to. For someone in the middle, like me, it has to be their choice based on the pros and cons I've listed. If I could go back in time and choose to either read it or not read it, I think I would, because for me the message is very important, and this book was very powerful in that sense.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I read this book because it was required reading for an education course that I am taking. The fact that a professor choose it as required reading says a lot, I think; and I did find the story to be very thought provoking. I was extremely glad that I read it. It was one of those stories that caused me to assess my beliefs and to examine my actions -- as a mother, friend, and educator. The very last pages of the story gave me inspiration for things that, perhaps, I can do in my own community in response to the tragic problems of bullying, self cutting, and teen suicide. For the reasons I've just mentioned, I do recommend the book. Having said that, however, I am not going to give the book five stars. From a literary standpoint, the story is lacking in several different ways.

[Hanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book very upsetting. The bullies were never reported to anyone, not the school, not the parents, not the police. The bullied girl's mother was a compulsive perfectionist who recognized her poor mothering might have played a part, but outside of one or two private sessions with her daughter's therapist at the very start of the girl's healing she did nothing to grow and change. And the ending, where she helped organize families to help a family whose son had been bullied, is thoroughly inadequate because there too no action was taken against the bullies. The self-centeredness and unwillingness to get involved and protect children modeled here is almost criminal. This is an absolutely dreadful book in my estimation.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book about a very important topic facing our society but most importantly our young ones. It goes to show that bullying has ripple effects throughout not only the immediate family affected, but throughout their friends and it moves outward. The cover of the book makes it appear to be a beach read, but I hope that potential readers don’t get discouraged when they find out it’s not. I highly recommend this book to all, whether you have kids in school or not. Good lessons for all of us. To hear.

[Autumn Duncan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only finished this book because I have never been able to not finish a book. I keep reading in the hopes that it will somehow get better. in this case it did not.
I really like the authors books & am surprised by this one. it was supposedly set in modern times but just didn't feel like it. The clothing descriptions sounded awful! And the speaking style seemed dated.
I detest bullies and am sad this wasn't better written on the topic.

[Adeline Kam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice cover, title and synopsis but the storyline is very boring. I skimmed through the pages since I have bought this book. I was hoping the author will put in more dramatic scenes into the storyline. I think the only interesting part of the story is about Frannie's life and family. Jane's character is very lame. Overall, this book is just okay. First time I am reading a book by this author and I am quite disappointed actually.

[Jean St.Amand · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, bullying is serious. I get that. We all get that. But this book. Only a few pages in I was rolling my eyes. The characters all seemed like caricatures to me. Rosie's family and their house were soooo perfect. Meg's family and her house were just.... poor. Really, Meg was the only one that came across as believable. I had to skim through the vast majority of this book to get to the end. Don't waste your time. Surely there are better and more believable books out there dealing with bullying.

[Cami Misch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book to read. Early on I almost put it down. It was really hard to get into the book. I even skimmed a few parts. The author could have scaled back some of the descriptive parts, maybe for more dialogue. But as the book went on I decided I wanted to finish it and about 60% of the way through, I really started to enjoy it. I mean, it’s hard to enjoy a book about teenage bullying; but there were many important insights in this book and a lot of meaningful reflections.

[Coffeedog · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept waiting for something, ANYTHING, to actually happen. Instead, it’s all thoughts and basically meaningless conversations and a lot of sighing, hand wringing and “oh woe-is-me, I’m a bad mother” utterances. The topic is bullying but it’s so one-dimensional you can’t even feel sorry for the victim. Sure wish I hadn’t wasted my time on it.

[Mary Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ended loving really liking this book even though I wasn't sure I was going to like it at all. The characters took some time to get to know. And once I did I didn't really like some of them that much.
The subject of the book, bullying, was interesting and at the same time sad to learn about. I do like how it was explored and presented in this stoy.

[Linsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I really enjoyed the plot of this book. I also loved the characters Rosie and Meg. I loved how as the book went on they reconciled their relationship and became best friends again. I will be reading more books by Holly Chamberlin in the near future.