The Summer Escape by Jill Shalvis (Review by Sara D’Onofrio)

Rating: 3.9/5

“If anything about your era of stupidity- or mine, because trust me, you weren’t the only one- brought us together for this, then I’m grateful for what we’ve been through.” I don’t often earmark pages to come back to a quote, but I did a few times with this book! The men in this story were everything. Owen is the absolute sweetest, and the stability he provided in this book was swoon worthy. Instead of trying to force Anna into something before she was ready, he met her where she was at and let her go at her own pace. Hayden had such a small part, but I loved him so much! The support he offered Wendy, the small humor he brought to the story, and the way he accepted the sister bond was perfect!

This is not the first book from Jill Shalvis that I’ve read, and I’ve definitely noticed a theme with my reviews. The second half of the book is ALWAYS much better for me. It takes me at least 100 pages to really feel like I’m starting to get invested in the characters, and that makes it take a lot longer to read. It took me five days just to get through the first half of the book, and that’s because I felt like it couldn’t really hold my attention. Even though I wanted more spice, it seemed like certain situations and scenes just popped up out of nowhere. They went from their first meeting to all of a sudden him being interested, and the first time they were intimate was so out of nowhere and when she was in a vulnerable state. With all that being said, I did enjoy the storyline, I just wished I could be pulled in a little earlier in the story!