5 Smooches!

Synopsis

We all remember our first love, that one affair that took custody of your heart and never really let it go. Readers around the world were touched by The Summer Remains, a heartbreaking and inspiring novel about one of these romances – but Cooper Nichols, the enigmatic young man at the center of the novel, was largely silent on the matter. Until now.

“I just can’t believe it’s over between you guys,” my best friend said as we walked down the pier. “You two were supposed to last forever.”

I stared out at the blue sea. “Oh, trust me, it’s not over. I am going to see that girl’s face in every crowd I look into, forever. And maybe a few forevers after that…”

And so begins the tale of young writer Cooper Nichols. Left in ruins after a tragic summer romance, Cooper is afraid the sun may have set on him for good – until his mother discovers a copy of Cooper’s journal he kept of that summer. As he reluctantly slips back into his own past in the pages of his notebook, Cooper starts to rethink everything he thought he knew about life, death, and all the love that can bloom in between – and what follows is a thrilling and breathtaking journey back to joy that will sink into you and stay there for the long haul.

Illuminating, romantic and soul-stirring, Invincible Summer is a testament to the miraculous power of love, in all its immortal glory and everlasting majesty. If you have ever found yourself drifting back to a long-lost romance during a quiet moment, prepare to be pulled under all over again.

“That one summer. Everyone’s got one, that fleeting season that rearranged you and imprinted itself onto your soul forever. You were mine. I swear I’ll never forget your hazel eyes. I swear I’ll never forget those few months when the winds roared. I’ll always think of you that way. And if you can, please come back to me. At the end of the day I’m just a boy who wants to get back to his first love, and I miss you. Just find a way back, please. I’ll be waiting.
Until then, I’ve got nothing…”

Review

‘This is a second chance romance.’

And it is in a sense.  Invincible Summer picks up right after the devastating ending of The Summer Remains and I was apprehensive, I admit.  I didn’t know how Cooper was going to move on either.  I just couldn’t imagine him with someone else.  It broke my heart all over again to think of him continuing on without Summer.  But this book.  It was inspirational, uplifting, and was completely different than what I expected it to be.  It is one of those books that you read and know that you are better for it.  That you learned a little something that could make you more.  More in a sense of being better or greater.  Invincible Summer just wowed me.

“‘This love…this life…was just…beyond words.”

This is not your typical romance.  Invincible Summer is really a book about grieving the loss of someone you love and I definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone who has lost someone and has a felt a grief so incredibly profound that you just don’t think you can go on, read it.  Seth King does an impeccable job of making us feel Cooper’s loss so acutely and it is heartbreaking but also just so beautiful that he loved Summer that much in the first place.  I do not want to ruin one iota of this amazing book for you and there are quite a few surprises but I will tell you that I ran through every emotion.  I laughed, I cried, and I grieved right along with Cooper but most of all I felt hope.  This book was just loaded with it.  It is full of the kind of hope that makes you believe that love trumps all.  Even death, jealousy, heartbreak.  This underlying hope the whole book makes you feel that love really does conquer anything.  It is a beautiful thing to feel this when reading a book about grief.

‘The world was filled with love stories – ours killed me, and it was still my favorite.’

Even though I finished this book over a week ago, I still find myself thinking on it occasionally.  Wondering about what does happen after the people we love pass.  I do love Seth’s take on it in this novel, though.  It makes me feel good and happy.  It makes me wonder and be hopeful that maybe there are a couple of Summer’s up there watching out for me and mine.  It is a heartbreaking and wondrous thing to think about and feel.  Thanks for that Seth.  Sometimes we need to take a minute to appreciate all we have and the people who have passed through our lives to help give us all of that.

This book is magnificently written.  Poetic and sing songy in the way of old writing that just somehow feels MORE romantic and whimsical.  If you thought you got all the feels with  The Summer Remains, you ain’t read nothing yet!  This man’s books just keep getting better and better and my eyes just keep getting wetter and wetter.  😉

~Amie

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