We are getting to beach reads time, my friends, and what a great way to start off the season: A Summer to Remember by debut author, Erika Montgomery.
Erika Montgomery
May 11, 2021
St. Martin’s Press
Blurb: For thirty-year-old Frankie Simon, selling movie memorabilia in the shop she opened with her late mother on Hollywood Boulevard is more than just her livelihood―it’s an enduring connection to the only family she has ever known. But when a mysterious package arrives containing a photograph of her mother and famous movie stars Glory Cartwright and her husband at a coastal film festival the year before Frankie’s birth, her life begins to unravel in ways unimaginable.
What begins is a journey along a path revealing buried family secrets, betrayals between lovers, bonds between friends. And for Frankie, as the past unlocks the present, the chance to learn that memories define who we are, and that they can show us the meaning of home and the magic of true love.
Experience the salty breeze of a Cape Cod summer as it sweeps through this sparkling, romantic, and timeless debut novel tinged with a love of old Hollywood.
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As Frankie is going through her recently deceased mother’s files, she finds an envelope addressed to people she doesn’t know and a picture that her neighbor tells her is of famous movie stars, Glory Cartwright and Mitch Beckett and her mother. Looking closer, Frankie realizes that it is a picture of her mother at an age even younger than Frankie is now. After researching the year the picture was taken, Frankie wonders if this movie festival and its Cape Cod location could be the key to discovering who her father was and what affiliation her mother had with these people.
Erika Montgomery has created a wonderfully intriguing read in A Summer to Remember. The characters are lovingly depicted. Frankie and Gabe could have been an antagonistic, push-and-pull couple, but instead they are drawn to each and fall into an easy relationship, although Frankie keeps thinking that this is not a movie and they might be moving too quickly. On the opposite end of the spectrum are Russ and Louise who after so many years have begun to have issues as Russ faces retirement. They were friends of Glory and Mitch and may have the answers that Frankie is seeking–and more.
I appreciated the movie references, of which there are many, and imagine that anyone who has ever been starry-eyed over movies would feel the safe
A Summer to Remember had more substance in it than a typical romance novel so probably falls more easily into being a women’s fiction novel. Some of the themes brought up include search for identity, trust in relationship, and the sacrifices people make in relationships. Despite some heavy duty themes, I found this to be a perfect summer read and could feel the salty breeze that Montgomery describes so ably. And, I loved the flirty romance between Frankie and Gabe.
This might be one to add to your beach read tbr list.
I received an ARC in exchanged for an honest review.
rating:
4 butterflies and a ladybug out of 5 butterflies