The Summer I First Saw You by Elizabeth O'Roark

The Summer I First Saw You

by Elizabeth O'Roark

Self-Published

Book 5 in The Summer Series

Once upon a time, my buddy’s niece was a toddler in a swim diaper following me around the beach.

Now Daisy’s twenty-one, the loveliest thing I’ve ever laid eyes on, and blackmailing me into letting her stay for the summer.

If she’s not bent over on my deck in yoga pants, she’s in a bikini that covers far less. She makes me laugh when I want to stay pissed off and forces me to remember all the things I used to love. If only she wasn’t so damn young and so incredibly off-limits.

The sizzling tension between us is getting harder to resist, but giving in would destroy some of my oldest friendships. Worst of all, though?

It might destroy Daisy too.

Genres

#ContemporaryRomance

#InterconnectedRomance

Triggers

10+ year age gap, Depression, Trauma from past abortion

Before I begin, I would like to thank Valentine PR, Elizabeth O'Roark, and her team, for sending me an arc of The Summer I First Saw You in exchange for a fair and honest review.

First of all, I am sooooo sorry.

This review should have been out weeks ago.

But life has been insane, and my poor neurodivergent mind wasn't working quite the way I wanted it to.

I'm definitely the type to become overwhelmed and hide in a blanket fort.

So again, I'm sorry everyone!

I was going through a major reading slump when I read The Summer I First Saw You.

Like, major.

But I haven't read an Elizabeth O'Roark book I didn't love yet, so I had high hopes.

Elizabeth delivered.

I love an age gap romance, and Elizabeth did an insane job of it.

I was expecting it to be sexy - and it definitely was.

I was expecting the beautiful writing - Elizabeth's writing is superb.

What I wasn't expecting was all the layers that came with these two characters.

I shouldn't have been. All of Elizabeth's characters have been multifaceted to date, but it surprised me either way.

Elizabeth wrote Daisy to showcase her youth - her beauty and appeal, her mannerisms, her attitude - but didn't just make Daisy a number. Elizabeth didn't write Daisy at her age for the sake of shock value (although honestly, the age gap isn't that big). Daisy went beyond her age. She represented so many women who find themselves in bad situations. Who deal with depression similarly. She was a classic example of being raised in an environment with less than deserving men (not counting her grandfather, uncle and uncle's friends), and falling victim to the traps her mother did.

This is one of the many reasons Harrison and Daisy work.

Aside from the fact that they have sizzling chemistry (seriously, whew!), Daisy recognized in Harrison what she herself had gone through. For very different reasons, but depression is depression, no matter the cause.

Even if she didn't have a childhood crush on her uncle's best friend, she would have forced her help on him.

It was exactly what Harrison needed. Yes, Daisy's youth injected some much needed energy he needed in his life. Daisy was a reminder that he fell into the cycle of adulthood, not taking time to enjoy what he loved the most in life.

Their overall chemistry, the tension between these two, the conversations and banter, and the bond they built over a summer of healing in the best of ways made them one of the best couples of this series.

Seriously.

I mean, I loved all the other books. This series has been superb. I just think Harrison and Daisy will hold a special place in my mind for a long time to come.

The Summer I First Saw You came out on September 29th, 2024. If you haven't read the other books in The Summer series, do so! If you have, and haven't read the conclusion to the series (sob!), I implore you to do so. It's so worth the read, and got my out of my reading slump!