Book Review | Summer in the City by Emma Jackson

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Book Description

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Sometimes the one thing you’re looking for is right in front of you…

Stephen is on a very personal mission to find his father as per the wishes in their mother’s will. But he has no idea where to start, not that he’s going to tell anyone that… When Noelle, native New Yorker, daughter of a detective and desperate for a distraction from the novel she’s been struggling to write, offers to help, it feels like the perfect solution.

Except the last time she spoke to Stephen he thought they’d be seeing the New Year in together and instead she stood him up and sold him out! Stephen’s big enough and been around the block enough times to understand that all is fair in love and war, isn’t he? But when Stephen accepts her offer and they begin their search across the city, it soon becomes clear that the weather isn’t the only thing that’s heating up.

A heartwarming summer romance perfect for fans of Heidi Swain, Sarah Morgan and Holly Martin.

Purchase Link – http://bit.ly/SummerITC

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My Review

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Summer in the City is a pleasant summer read that will tug at your heartstrings and appeal to your sense of familial bonds.

What I Liked

I’ve always believed that people grow to be who they are as a product of their environment or in reaction to their upbringing. One of the two main characters, Stephen, is trying to figure out which of these is real for him by finding the father he never really knew or remembers. Once he does find him, he is anxious that he is just like his biological father. It takes Noelle to show him that he has grown into his own person, and though he shares a similarity in looks and mannerisms, that is where the similarity ends.

I enjoyed the fact that Noelle is a cozy mystery writer and the plotline of finding Stephen’s father, as well as the mystery of why his mother left his biological father a precise amount of money in her will. It gives this contemporary romance an extra layer for mystery lovers to grab on to.

I also loved the scenes with Noelle’s family. They felt so genuine and real, like walking into a warm hug. All the characters are multi-dimensional and add a layer of familiarity as the story unfolds.

The setting is lovely as well – all places that I could easily recognize. New York in the summer is hot, hot, hot, and that came through loud and clear in the story. How Noelle survives without air conditioning is impressive to me, as it is to Stephen, who quickly offers Noelle a better place to work on her book.

What I Wish

The story is told alternatively through Noelle’s and Stephen’s eyes, but their voices are not distinct enough for me to be able to determine who was narrating what I was reading quickly. I wish that the story had been told solely through one of their perspectives, and I think either could have been great. Telling it strictly from a male perspective could have even been an interesting twist to the typical romance tale.

To Read or Not to Read

Summer in the City is a lovely book to read while basking in the sun, whether it be at a beach, a pool, or in your backyard.

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About the Author

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Author of the Best Selling A MISTLETOE MIRACLE, published in 2019 by Orion Dash, Emma has been a devoted bookworm and secret-story-scribbler since she was 6 years old. When she’s not running around after her two daughters and trying to complete her current work-in-progress, Emma loves to read, bake, catch up on binge-watching TV programmes with her partner and plan lots of craft projects that will inevitably end up unfinished. Her next romantic comedy, SUMMER IN THE CITY, is due for release in June 2020.

Emma also writes historical and speculative romantic fiction as Emma S Jackson. THE DEVIL’S BRIDE will be published by DarkStroke in February 2020.

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