The Summer War
❤️❤️❤️❤️
(Spoiler free)
I picked up The Summer War because it is a novella and could slip easily into my lunch box for work. I need to read on my break otherwise I’m just going to stare at a wall for 15 minutes and none of my coworkers want to see that.
I usually don’t expect too much from novellas. Especially stand-alone ones. The author has to fit a large amount of information into a thin book or else the reader will be left wanting more. Naomi Novak does it right though.
She managed to create a fully fleshed out world and give us a backstory in only 144 pages and I enjoyed every bit of it.
The main theme of the book is “family.”
The book really focuses on Celia’s relationship with her two brothers. She was closer with her oldest brother Argent, but she accidentally cursed him to live his life searching for love but never finding it. It was an accident for sure, but you can see how it would dampen a relationship. Celia spends the majority of the book trying to figure out a way to reverse the curse and find Argent.
Celia’s relationship with her middle brother Roric was also complicated. He was seen as unwanted as a bastard son, but he struck up a reluctant friendship with Celia after Argent leaves. It’s obvious all he wants is to be loved for who he is and overtime Celia gives that to him.
The way the relationships develop throughout the story works really well and leads to a mostly satisfying ending. I will say that I did not love the redemption arc that the father got. Not because I don’t think he should have loved his children that much, but because it felt unearned. The siblings didn’t need him there at the end. They had everything figured out. The father’s arrival felt more like checking something off a list than an actual plot point.
I did enjoy learning about the father’s backstory and the summer war, though. It really helped to broaden the story and make the world feel real. I don’t think I would have liked this book as much as I did if that part hadn’t been in there.
I would recommend this book to anyone that loves a story about family ties and what you would do for them. There is a little bit of romance, but it takes a backseat to the sibling relationships that are being discovered over the course of the story. I do think the amount of romance is perfect, though. Especially for a short novella.
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