Book Review: The Best Summer of our Lives by Rachel Hauck

 

The Best Summer of Our Lives - Rachel Hauck - 4 Stars - A great coming of age story with all the summer camp vibes!

I am so glad I read this book! The Best Summer of Our Lives by Rachel Hauck is a raw, beautiful, coming-of-age Christian contemporary story. The story is dual-timeline, taking place primarily in 1977, with glimpses of 1997. 20 years. 4 best friends. Many secrets. Encounters with Jesus. I really enjoyed learning all about the 4 seasons friend group and look forward to reading more of Rachel's books in the future, as this was my first read by her. 4 stars!

This book is following 4 women - the 4 seasons as they're known - Summer, Autumn, Spring and Snow. We are following their journey right out of high-school as they're forced to become camp counselors during the Summer of '77 in Tumbleweed, Oklahoma because of a prank they pulled in high school. Little do they know, this summer will bring many eye opening events, truths to the surface and walks with God. We see each girl's perspective as they go through this new camp experience. Then we have the 1997 timeline, 20 years later, and you know for some reason early on, the girls had a falling out. We get bits and pieces of where each woman is in their life 20 years later and quickly get back into the '77 timeline to see what happened during that summer that got them to where they are today. 

My favorite part of this story was the ending. I have a hard time with multiple POV stories personally, so I struggled keeping everyone together at first, but once I was about half way through the story, I was really interested in their stories and their personal lives. There was a lot of family drama but what I liked was we end up with an underlying faith element that touches your heart in the end. I did tear up with the last sentence and the author's note. Rachel reminds us in her author's note to always go to Jesus in the desert times - cling to Him. Even when you don't or you are running away in hard times, He is always with you. This story reminds us of that and I really appreciated it in the end. I think many people will be impacted by the way Rachel interweaved the faith in this story. 

Our side characters were also really nice - Greta was so precious and Levi was my favorite of the male roles. Overall, I am so glad I read this book as it is a gentle, spiritual reminder to run to Jesus in those tough times in life. Thank you to Baker Publishing, Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a copy to honestly read and review. 

*Content Warnings* This book is overall clean, but has a VERY BRIEF mention of 3 young girls who were kidnapped, raped and killed at another camp. We also have some discussions surrounding sex before marriage, adultery, teenage pregnancy and dealing with divorce.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5414780481
Amazon: https://amzn.to/449s3l5
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/492074

YouTube Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNfiPar0nxE&t
Reading Vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fOoVZmMy0g&t=29s