Review: The Boys of Summer by C.J. Duggan

The Boys of Summer

Author: C.J. Duggan
Series: Summer, #1

It seemed only natural to nickname them the ‘Onslow Boys’. Every time they swaggered in the front door of the Onslow Hotel after a hard week’s work, their laughter was loud and genuine as they settled onto their bar stools. I peeked through the restaurant partition, a flimsy divider between my world and theirs. I couldn’t help but smile whenever I saw them, saw him... Toby Morrison.

Quiet seventeen-year-old Tess doesn’t relish the thought of a summertime job. She wants nothing more than to forget the past haunts of high school and have fun with her best friends before the dreaded Year Twelve begins.

To Tess, summer is when everything happens: riding bikes down to the lake, watching the fireworks at the Onslow Show and water bomb fights at the sweltering Sunday markets.

How did she let her friends talk her into working?

After first-shift disasters, rude, wealthy tourists and a taunting ex-boyfriend, Tess is convinced nothing good can come of working her summer away. However, Tess finds unlikely allies in a group of locals dubbed ‘The Onslow Boys’, who are old enough to drive cars, drink beer and not worry about curfews. Tess’s summer of working expands her world with a series of first times with new friends, forbidden love and heartbreaking chaos.

All with the one boy she has never been able to forget.

It will be a summer she will always remember.

Warning: sexual references, and occasional coarse language.

Being that it's Summer-time, I figured I should catch up on my Summer reading. As in, reading books about summer. The Summer series by C.J. Duggan focuses on that feeling you get as a teenager when the summer just begins and you've got this insane excitement coursing through your body and you're thinking of all the ways to make THIS SUMMER the most perfect summer EVER. And most of the time it doesn't turn out just the way you planned, but then you realize that's okay.

I started off the Summer series earlier in the year with That One Summer, the story of Tammy and Chris. I fell in love with the feeling that C.J. Duggan's story left me with, as well as the Onslow Boys and of course Chris. Seeing as this series is one of those that you can read out of order, I decided to pick up the first of the series. The story of Tess and Toby. They were side characters in That One Summer, but in The Boys of Summer they are the main focus. And I absolutely LOVED it. It had its ups and downs, and a few events that left you with your mouth hanging open. It's the perfect tale of a shy, introverted girl who takes a Summer job that's a bit out of her comfort zone to appease her two best friends and ends up gaining all the confidence she had been lacking, as well as falling in love with the boy of her dreams. And it's just the story you need for summer time. One that brings you back to the days of your youth and first loves, new feelings and new adventures.

I'm definitely going to be finishing this entire series this summer. And probably revisiting That One Summer along with it. And rereading it every summer just because I can. ;)

I rate this book:

The Summer Series

Novella