Saugatuck Summer, Amelia C. Gormley

 

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Saugatuck Summer, Amelia C. Gormley
Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

I’ve read and enjoyed Amelia’s co authored books – The Professor …. – sexy but short – and at first assumed this was also a short. It’s not, its a great length at 326 pages, and lets the reader get fully immersed into Tophers problems…and boy does he have them!
At first I found him irritating, he’s the narrator and he’s quite snippy, and in-your-face gay, but as we got to know him better I felt this was a long held defence mechanism, sort of get in first and premept the critisisms. The more the story goes on the more we learn about just how difficult his life has been, his family are not supportive, he’s been pushed from pillar to post, constantly critised even before they knew he was gay – that’s just one more stick to beat him with, and he seems to have spent so many year on medications and in therapy that this is what passes as normal for him. I really felt for him – underneath the bravado was a scared biy just wanting to be happy.

Then there’s the problem of the affair with his friends dad…that has disaster written all over, but we see how it plays out, unintentional and not pre-emtped by him, and I felt once again for poor Topher, no family support, now no best friend and place to live for the summer either. Luckily though there’s some people who can help, and the delicious Jace…I loved him, he was so understanding – knowing when to push and when to sit back and listen, and not afraind to apologise when he got it wrong.
It’s a very emotional read, happy finally – for a while anyway – but its a long, tearjerking haul to get there and so many things to mull over. So much drama, so many lives affected. It’s not just a sweet, sappy romance but a deep thinking, emotionally dark at times read. If you like books that are more than one person falls in love with another, want people with real problems, life with its ups and downs then ths book is for you.
Stars: five.
Arc supplied via Netgalley.