From
New York Times
bestselling author Brenda Novak comes a novel about finding family in unexpected places and the lifelong bonds that don’t need a lifetime to forge
When Serenity Alston swabbed her cheek for 23andMe, she joked about uncovering some dark ancestral scandal. The last thing she expected was to discover two half sisters she didn’t know existed. Suddenly, everything about her loving family is drawn into question. And meeting these newfound sisters might be the only way to get answers.
Serenity has always found solace at her family’s Lake Tahoe cabin, so what better place for the three women to dig into the mystery that has shaken the foundation each of them was raised on? With Reagan navigating romantic politics at her New York City advertising firm, and Lorelei staring down the collapse of her marriage, all three women are converging at a crossroads in their lives. Before the summer is over, they’ll have to confront the paths they walked to get there and determine how to move forward when everything they previously thought to be true was a lie.
But any future is easier to face with family by your side.
One Perfect Summer by Brenda Novak
Published by MIRA
Buy on Amazon
One Perfect Summer by Brenda Novak
Serenity Alston’s life has been through hell the past few years after finding out what her now ex-husband had done. Thankfully Serenity has had her wonderful family right by her side along with her ex’s step brother, Sawyer to get through this dilemma. Now that Serenity is trying to get back to her job as a suspense author, she is finding it too hard to write. She decides on a whim to send in a DNA sample to 23andMe to get a better understanding of the process for her writing. She never expected to find that she has two half sisters out there that she never knew about. Enter Lorelei Cipriano and Reagan Sands. The three women decide to head to Serenity’s family cabin in Lake Tahoe to spend a week together to get to know each other and see if they can figure out how they are related.
Serenity, Lorelei and Reagan quickly realize that each of them have skeletons in their past that have caused them heartache. As the three of them start trying to figure out the mystery of how they are related, each of them is also trying to navigate through a bad marriage; a pregnancy; and a strong attraction to someone they shouldn’t feel that way about.
One week ends up turning into the whole summer for these three and they end up having a summer they will never forget. Fun memories are created while very surprising secrets are revealed. In the end these three will take you on a journey that you would never have thought when you first start this story.
Overall One Perfect Summer was a fun and entertaining story to read. Serenity, Lorelei and Reagan are great characters, and together they go on an even greater mystery. I really enjoyed all of the secondary characters as well, especially Finn and Sawyer. This was another fun book from Brenda Novak.
About Brenda Novak
It was a shocking experience that jump-started Brenda Novak’s bestselling author career.
“I caught my day-care provider drugging my children with cough syrup and Tylenol to get them to sleep while I was away,” Brenda says. “It was then that I decided I needed to do something from home.”
However, writing was the last profession she expected to undertake. In fact, Brenda swears she didn’t have a creative bone in her body. In school, math and science were her best subjects, and when it came time to pick a major in college, she chose business.
Abandoning her academic scholarship to Brigham Young University at the age of twenty in order to get married and start a family, Brenda dabbled in commercial real estate, then became a loan officer.
“When I first got the idea to become a novelist, it took me five years to teach myself the craft and finish my first book,” Brenda admits. “I learned how to write by reading what others have written. The best advice for any would-be author: read, read, read….”
Brenda sold her first book OF NOBLE BIRTH, and the rest is history. Many of her novels have won or placed in contests such as the Rita, the National Reader’s Choice and the Bookseller’s Best, and she now runs a warm and enthusiastic book group on Facebook with over 17,000 members.
Brenda and her husband, Ted, live in Sacramento and are the proud parents of five children—three girls and two boys. When she’s not spending time with her family or writing, Brenda is usually raising money for diabetes research. Her youngest son, Thad, has diabetes, and Brenda is determined to help him and others like him. She also enjoys traveling, playing pickle ball, hiking and biking — she rides an amazing 20 miles several times a week!