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

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

“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.

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!!

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.

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!

Really good

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

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.

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!

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 ..

Loved Luke and Juliet even more in audio!

Five more hauntingly beautiful stars for this audiobook! I loved reading The Summer We Fell by Elizabeth O’Roark, however experiencing this angsty, emotional second chance love story in audio brought this book to a whole new heart squeezing level. Samantha Brentmoor and Teddy Hamilton narrate the audiobook in duet. Samantha performs Juliet’s point of view with Teddy adding Luke’s dialogue, along with several other male characters. Samantha embodied Juliet in every way possible portraying her conflicted and passionate persona in a raw, emotional, and a give-me-all-the-feels performance. (Several tears were shed.) This is definitely a new favorite top notch performance from her! (And another reason why she is one of my favorites!) Teddy brought all his swoony, protective, and devoted alpha male charm to loyal loving surfer stud, Luke. His ability to capture Luke’s never-ending persistence to know and do what was best for Juliet was downright dreamy. Plus, both narrators conveyed Luke and Juliet’s steamy hot forbidden sexual tension and chemistry brilliantly which captivated me and
melted my heart!

Overall, I LOVED this book! If you a fan of an angsty, second-chance romance with a hot hunky surfer, an ambitious guitar-playing singer, glimpses into the past, teenage love, a love triangle, a loving foster mom, beach parties, best friends surfing together, a painful past, healing in the present, secret steamy times, tragedy, angst, hammock swinging, and a HEA that will dwell in your heart forever, then you will love Juliet and Luke’s story. I always look forward to more from Elizabeth O’Roark!