The Summer Deal by Jill Shalvis (Review by Valerie Bennett)

Rating 4/5 Stars

Brynn Turner is ready for a fresh start. After a crushing heartbreak and betrayal in Long Beach, she heads home to Wildstone to recover and begin again. While the door is always open at home with her two warm and loving moms, Brynn’s need to stand on her own feet prompts her to take up an offer to rent a cheap room from Eli Thomas, an old summer-camp crush. The only caveat? Moving into Eli’s beach house means also living with fellow campmate and enemy – and Eli’s best friend – Kinsey Davis. 

While Brynn comes to terms with living with the “mean girl”, Kinsey has her own matters to deal with, including a rejected kidney transplant, the ensuing dialysis three days a week, and the bombshell of a secret she’s been hiding from Brynn for nearly 15 years. Roping Eli into keeping the secret with her until she can work up the courage to tell Brynn herself, Kinsey unintentionally drives a wedge between Brynn and Eli’s budding romance. And the idea of her illness causing her to abandon her loved ones also enables her to frequently sabotage her own romantic pairing with the hunky male nurse, Deck.

This is the fifth book in the contemporary romance Wildstone series by Jill Shalvis, but fret not if you haven’t read one through four; The Summer Deal reads as a standalone novel. Easy and entertaining, The Summer Deal delivers humour, drama, and steamy summer romances, in true Shalvis fashion.

Shalvis develops characters that feel authentic and real in that the main characters certainly aren’t without their flaws and fears, which we see influence their actions throughout the novel. There are secrets, lies, and denial causing tension and pain in nearly each – romantic, friendly, and familial – relationship in the story. But with all the drama, there is also unconditional love, forgiveness, and growth within the characters individually and together as a chosen-family.

The Summer Deal is a perfect summer read: light and fun with just the right amount of melodrama and heat, so shake out your beach towel (beach optional, of course), slip on your sunnies, and get ready to enjoy this breezy book.