The Summer I Dared

By: Barbara Delinsky

Narrated by: Linda Emond

Julia Bechtel's life seems to have reached a dead end. Her daughter, 21, is off on her own. Her husband has grown more and more distant, more and more domineering, and the result has been a further diminishing of Julia's feeling of self-worth.

In an effort to buy some time and to try to figure some things out, Julia visits her daughter who has taken a summer job off the coat of Maine. When Julia misses the last ferry boat from the mainland, she catches a lobster boat that carries passengers to the island. All the seats are taken, so she stands in the stern next to another passenger, a man named Noah Prine.

When their vessel collides with a speeding motorboat, Julia and Noah are thrown clear of the exploding wreckage and rescued by a boat from the island. Mindy, 19, is the only other survivor. Drawn together by their shared fates, they gain strength from their survival. This is a deeply felt story of second chances, renewed energies, and new loves: a novel destined to satisfy Barbara Delinsky's fast growing audience.

©2004 Barbara Delinsky (P)2004 Simon and Schuster Inc.

title misleading

I found the book boring;I usually like her books, but this one, I found it hard to listen to and enjoy.