The Summer We Fell

By: Elizabeth O'Roark

Narrated by: Samantha Brentmoor, Teddy Hamilton

Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

An angsty second-chance forbidden romance.

He was my boyfriend’s best friend—and the bane of my existence. I wanted to hate Luke Taylor. I did hate him. I just never hated him enough.

Now, a decade later, tragedy has brought us back to the place where it all happened—my best times and my worst.

Our lives have changed, but that pull between us is just as strong as ever.

Only this time, it’s more dangerous too.

©2023 Elizabeth O'Roark (P)2023 Elizabeth O'Roark

Is “angst” really the word?

I like a bit of angst, but this was hard to listen to at times. The self-loathing and non stop hopeless, negative assumptions about how people may react drove me crazy. And I think the female narrator added to the effect - or did she just do a great job acting out a 9 hour pity party? I could have used a few uppers in this story to balance all of the “everyone is sexist”, “poor people need to kiss ass to get by”, and “Christians really aren’t great people” internal themes. I understand people do exist that are this jaded and traumatized by people’s past reactions, but it’s not enjoyable entertainment, unfortunately. However, this story was captivating and I liked Luke a lot. The forbidden love kept me trudging through the “woe is me” crap. Worth a credit? Probably, if you don’t mind a bit of victim mentality.

“Choose me, Juliet,”

I would recommend this book to romance readers who enjoy pain and suffering. KIDDING. If you loved all the angst that came with shows like Dawson’s Creek, then you will love The Summer We Fell. This story was honestly not fully what I was expecting. I knew there would be a bit of a triangle, but I did not expect so much to go on in Juliet, Luke, and Danny’s lives outside of just the romantic aspect. There are some heavy themes weaved into this story, and many of them had me emotional.

I read this one by following the e-book and the audiobook at the same time. Why you may wonder? Because I was highlighting so much of this book that taking notes in audible became impossible, but the audio narration was so engaging that I couldn’t step away from that either. I loved how the book is told in the heroine’s POV, past and present, but the dialogue was done by a different voice actor for the hero/heroine and side character parts. It just added another layer to the story and helped me really feel the story more because it didn’t sound like someone talking to themselves the entire book.

This is a story about surviving your circumstances, forbidden longing, feeling a sense of obligation and duty because of gratitude, and just a romantic angst fest. Adored and recommend the audio, but also just the story in general. Such a good angsty read.

Young love

I enjoyed the recording of this story. I alternated between reading and and listening.
The story was angsty with a lot of twists and turns and something’s you didn’t see coming. I would definitely recommend

Not Sure

I'm not quite sure how to feel about this.
The narrators were good. Not a lot of emotion but that seemed to go along with the writing.
As for the story, I'm waffle-y. I liked it but I didn't. She definitely n÷eeded a TON of therapy. Her self esteem was in the negatives.
All the he's in the story needed their rumps kicked for being jerks. masoginists, and manipulators. Even Luke was this way a lot of the time.
But overall, not a bad read and a HEA...finally!!

Heartbreaking, wonderful!

This was a beautifully written, heart-wrenching story about love, loss, self denial, and learning difficult lessons in the hardest way possible. I struggled a bit with the angst, but that is more about me than anything to do with the story itself. The characters are multidimensional and you can feel the struggle of growing up under each of their very different complicated circumstances.

Narration by Samantha Brentmoor and Teddy Hamilton in duet was everything I knew it would be from these wonderful performers! The story is from her POV, but all male voices are performed by Teddy. Excellent performances, editing, prep work, and production!

The tragedy IS the story embrace it.

What happened to Luke and Juliet back then? Why are they like this now?
Were the two questions that really hooked my attention at the beginning of this story. The suspense and mystery had me in a choke hold until the last few chapters. Danny’s mom is really the star of this story the woman has a gripping passion for her son and his friends. Even under harsh living conditions she really outshone them all in my eyes. That raw motherly love was heartbreaking in the end.
This audio is done in duet narration; Teddy Hamilton switched between male voices flawlessly. I was able to tell which character he was speaking for before they were mentioned in the scene. Samantha did a fabulous job as well with the fluidity in which she switched from characters. She brought the pain and heart ache along with the stoic persona of the woman keeping the demons at bay. I hope to hear both together again in a duet, it was wonderful.
If you enjoy love triangles, tragedy, and raw emotions I would recommend The Summer We Fell to you. I got swept away in this story and finished it within 2 days. I plan to look at more of Elizabeth’s books and add them to either my audios or physical copies!

A wonderful duet narration!

I listened to the audio version of this book with the duet narration by Samantha Brentmoor and Teddy Hamilton. I love duet style and of course the jobs done by those two narrators couldn't have been any better.

This book is so complicated as far as the relationship of the characters goes. Juliet has been taken in by Danny's family because she has nowhere else to go. She feels indebted and they take advantage of it. She and Danny are boyfriend and girlfriend, but even that gets complicated when Danny brings home his best friend, Luke, for the summer. The instant attraction between Juliet and Luke really makes things almost impossible, but puts them all in a state of a constantly lying to themselves and those around them.

The story is told in a dual timeline. The first timeline is when they are all growing up, from high school on. The other timeline is after Danny's father and Danny are both dead. It was a great, highly emotional story that I won't soon forget.

Thanks to Valentine PR for the gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.

Really good

I really enjoyed it. Great story and the narration awesome. I’m looking forward to more

EMOTIONAL

AT FIRST I HAD TO START OVER BECAUSE IT WAS A BIT CONFUSING UNTIL I UNDERSTOOD THAT IT WAS GOING FROM "NOW" TO THE PAST WHERE IT ALL STARTED - I LOVED THE DUO NARRATION. I WISH ALL READS WERE LIKE THIS. I FOUND MYSELF REALLY FEELING THE EMOTIONS OF THE CHARACTERS - I EVEN CRIED AT SOME POINTS. THE STORY WAS PERFECT AND SUSPENSFUL ... I REALLY LOVED THIS READ ..

Painful journey for soulmate love - loved them!

5⭐️ 2.5🌶️

This was my first Elizabeth O’Roark book but it definitely won’t be my last! This had such a unique feel to me and was really well done. So let’s talk tropes. We have some serious next level pining, forced proximity, forbidden love, and second chance romance. I am hesitant to say there is a love triangle — it’s more like boyfriend’s best friend, because from the moment Juliet and Luke set eyes on each other, could there ever really be anyone else for either of them? So with that, let me back up just a bit…

Juliet had a terrible home situation and was taken in by the local pastor and his wife at age 15, while she dated their son, Danny. Juliet very much had a complex about needing to pay back their kindness. She always put the needs and wants of the Allens above her own. A couple years after being with the Allens, Danny comes home from college with his best friend, Luke. Luke immediately saw everything she wanted but didn’t put voice to, inherently understanding her like no one ever had before. While Juliet wouldn’t fight for her own future as a singer, she would secretly fight for Luke’s as a pro surfer — but he felt the exact same way. This quiet bond continues to grow until tragedy strikes and rips everyone apart — for seven years.

I listened to this on audio thanks to Elizabeth and Valentine PR — and it was a fantastic duet narration listening experience! It is single POV from Juliet’s perspective, but the female lines are narrated by Samantha Brentmoor and the male lines are narrated by Teddy Hamilton. Their voices sounded great for the characters! I particularly thought Samantha did an excellent job capturing the personality of both Juliet and Donna! Sometimes single POV can make me feel disconnected from the other main character but I did not feel that way at all here. While Juliet was the story teller, I still felt very in synch with Luke and how he was feeling. With that said, do I kind of wish I got inside Luke’s head? Umm yes, because I am so in love with that man! The story also jumps between the past and present, leaving the reader with some information about what has happened in the future but not the details on how it went down until you work your way there in the past timeline. This has me on the edge of my seat just dying for more!

The last thing to note, there is cheating in this. It’s not between the FMC and MMC. I think the way things went down made sense to me, based on the ages and experiences of the characters.