“A Forever Summer” by Havelah McLat

If you are looking for a book that will gently stir your imagination rather than unceremoniously attack you with harsh revelations, „A Forever Summer” by Havelah McLat is a perfect read for you.

Katherine has enough emotional baggage to deal with when her father dies and leaves her and her sister an unexpected inheritance. A house in a small beach resort town. Katherine is a practical young woman, and her first impulse is to get rid of the property she sees as a burden. But circumstances force her to spend some time in that house, and with every day she spends there, she finds out unexpected things about herself and her past.

Our memory sometimes plays tricks with our minds, protecting us from the traumatic events making too much damage. But the time inevitably comes when we have to face what happened to move on with our lives. That is what Katherine has to reconcile with. Still, some memories are too painful to deliberately try to revive them.

While reading, I was curious about Katherine. She seems to me the kind of person whose character remains a mystery to those around her. Even the people she loves and who love her don’t really know what’s going on in her head. When I meet such people in real life, the question I always have is if there is hidden depth in them or if their inner world is as calm as their appearance.

When Katherine meets Jason, it becomes clear that she won’t be able to continue living as before, hiding in the shell she’d built around herself after her mom’s tragic death. It is more than the attraction between the two young people; it’s the secrets they have to reveal to each other about their shared past. The past Katherine doesn’t remember.

Set in a charming small resort town, „A Forever Summer” is a pleasant story to read on the beach or, if the summer is over, with a cup of hot beverage, in your favourite chair, reminiscing on the sunny hot days.