The Best Summer of Our Lives

By: Rachel Hauck

Narrated by: Suzy Jackson

Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Summer Wilde is a wannabe country music star. But when her latest girl band abandons her in a motel outside Tulsa, she is forced to face the shadows of her past.

Twenty years ago, the summer of '77 was supposed to be the best summer of her life. She and her best friends, Spring, Autumn, and Snow—the Four Seasons, 4ever—had big plans.

But those plans never had a chance. After a teenage prank gone awry, the Seasons found themselves on a bus to Tumbleweed, "Nowhere," Oklahoma, to spend eight weeks as camp counselors. Arriving with hidden secrets and buried fears, those two months changed their friendships and the course of their lives.

Now, thirty-something and with no direction for her future, Summer is at a crossroads. Returning to the place where everything changed, she soon learns Tumbleweed is more than a town she left and never wanted to see again. It's the place for healing, for reconciling the past with the present, and for finally listening to love's voice. Celebrating the songs of our hearts, the joys of love, and the threads of friendship that tie us all together, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck's radiant story perfectly captures all the romance, heartache, and hope of the best summer ever.

©2023 Rachel Hauck (P)2023 Recorded Books

Coming of age

This book is so different to any other book by Rachel Hauck I have read but it is beautiful and captivating.

All the seasons and emotions

Wow! Rachel Hauck has written another excellent emotional story about 4 best friends and the summer of 1977 from the perspective of 1977 and 1997. It’s really good, deals with real life situations and sharing lives and God’s forgiveness! Excellent!

Incredible!

This emotional recap of 4 friends’ summer and subsequent 20 years apart will be one you return to whenever you want to feel the overwhelming power of love at work. Told from dual perspectives (1977 and 1997) each voice adds a different perspective on shared circumstances. Fantastic narrator for a wonderful, hope filled story!

Loved this story!

The only thing that would make it better would be to listen to the lyrics of the songs with music.

Beautiful story

Started off a bit slow but so glad I kept reading loved this story thank you preacher

Love Rachel’s books

Thank you Rachel for another wonderful book. So appreciate your ability to bring grace and healing to the pages of your stories. Highly recommend

Twists and turns

I love it when I’m surprised by where a book leads. Not only was there a rolling road of emotions through happiness and tears while listening to this book, but also mysterious twists to keep me hanging on. This pretty clean love story is well written and read.

Great Read

The Best Summer of Our Lives was a great read by Rachel Hauck. The summer of 1977 was supposed to be the best summer of Summer Wilde's life. Summer and her best friends, Spring, Autumn, and Snow (also known as the Four Seasons) had big plans. That summer a teenage prank went awry and they ound themselves on a bus to Tumbleweed, Oklahoma. They were to spend eight weeks as camp counselors. The events of that summer changed their friendships, lives, and futures forever. Now twenty years later, Summer is at a crossroads. Her latest girl band left her in a motel outside Tulsa which leads her to facing her past. She must return to the place that changed everything. I enjoyed reading this book and cant wait to read more by the author.

Just ok story… couldn’t find myself liking the characters

Overall this story was a really slow start and I just had a hard time enjoying it and liking the characters. Kind of disappointed, normally love this author!

Not what I expected

Admittedly, this one took me a few tries to get into. I kept getting the characters mixed up and realized I had to intentionally listen for the year at the chapter titles so I could understand the story. Overall, this didn’t feel like Summer’s story. The other characters seemed to play a center role, too. I felt like it was too much (over two stories smashed into one book- Spring & Summer). The story felt slow and drawn out and it wrapped up in a nice little bow finally in the last few minutes.

I enjoy this author but this was not my favorite.

The voice actor did a fantastic job! Easy to listen to.