February 1, 2024
Liv is fresh out of college and home for the summer in Cornwall, England. An aspiring sculptor, she has big plans and they're not in her small town. She soon gets romantically involved with Finn, an alluring singer. Their happiness is short-lived, however, abruptly shattered by a tragic event that roots Liv to her town and forces her to give up her dreams of London. She also has to bid farewell to Finn, who is returning home to Los Angeles. They make a pact--he will visit every summer, and if they're both single, they'll be together for the season. Each summer that follows, Liv and Finn spend a couple of blissful months together, marred by their eventual separation. After seven years of this, Liv, brokenhearted and tired of putting her life on hold, meets Tom, a tourist with an obscure background. As the summer approaches, she falls in love with Tom and has to decide whether to make a life with him or Finn. VERDICT Set against the stunning backdrop of the Cornish coastline, Toon's (Only Love Can Hurt Like This) atmospheric romance, full of longing, mourning, and growing up, will appeal to fans of slow-burn novels.--Migdalia Jimenez
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March 18, 2024
This heart-wrenching romance from Toon (Only Love Can Hurt Like This) jumps between seven summers in the life of Olivia “Liv” Arterton. In the present day, Liv, who feels stuck in her small hometown on the Cornish coastline, finds herself drawn to her elusive new summer tenant, Tom Thorton—then a man from her past, Finn Finnegan, returns. Six summers ago, when Liv and Finn first met, life was different. Liv, who still dreamed of an art career, was immediately taken with Finn, an aspiring musician from L.A. Their connection was magnetic but slow-burning, culminating in a steamy night at summer’s end—a night that ended in personal tragedy for Liv, derailing her plans. With Finn returning to the States, they made a pact to reconnect every summer, as long as they’re both still single. Now Liv is caught in a gut-wrenching love triangle, forced to choose between her past with Finn or a potential future with Tom. The emotional roller-coaster of Liv and Finn’s relationship is made more intense by Toon’s nonchronological storytelling. Liv coming into her strength and recovering from grief is given equal weight to the romantic story line, but the relentless pain and tragedy of her life makes this not for the faint of heart. Readers who like their romances on the angsty side will want to snap this up.
May 1, 2024
A Cornish woman with dreams of becoming a sculptor grows into herself over the course of 14 years. Olivia Arterton moved to St. Agnes, Cornwall, with her parents when she was 13. Her beloved grandmother, one of the reasons for their move, died just two years later, but she always supported Liv's dream of being an artist. After graduating from the Edinburgh College of Art and then studying sculpture on a four-week course in Florence, Liv comes home for the summer, fully intending to move to London in the autumn. But her joyful holiday--complete with a romance with burgeoning singer-songwriter Finn, whom she's known since they were in school together--comes to an abrupt halt when she has to suddenly take on the mantle of adulthood and support her older brother, Michael, who has Down syndrome. The story unfolds from Liv's point of view, beginning when she's 28 and starting a new relationship with Tom Thornton, a one-time search-and-rescue pilot from Wales, and covering the preceding six summers she spent with Finn, who comes home for a few months every year; then it stretches through the ensuing seven summers. We follow along as Liv earns money by working at a beach restaurant, renting out half her home, and cleaning summer rental properties while finding time for sculpting; she's there for her brother as he lives his life with his own home, friends, and job; and she moves forward with her dreams of making it into the Royal Society of Sculptors. A beautiful story of love and loss, experiencing and overcoming grief, and finding oneself--and joy--in the process.
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