Feels like Summertime

Starred review from November 14, 2016
The freedom of adolescent summer love is constricted by the complexities of adult life in this heartfelt contemporary loosely linked to Falkner’s Reed Brothers series. Suspended New York policeman Jake Jacobson is unexpectedly reunited with Katie Higgins, his summer love from 18 years before, when he goes home to North Carolina to visit his father, who’s had a stroke. Katie, who’s very pregnant and has three kids in tow, is hiding out at the beach house her family rented from Jake’s father all those years ago, hoping her abusive ex won’t be able to find her there. This time around, Jake and Katie’s romance won’t be simple. Falkner’s protagonists and secondary characters, such as Jake’s cantankerous but intuitive father (“He was never very nice, but he was interesting”), are fully realized, and their voices are natural and appealing. The struggle between Jake and Katie’s reignited affections and the echoes of their adult lives is beautifully conveyed through the narrative’s changing perspectives: Jake and Katie’s grown and younger selves take turns providing their unique views, developing the sweetness of young love and summertime joy and heightening the present-day tensions and conflicts that arise as Jake and Katie must confront their emotions and their pasts. Ripe with contemplations on the complexities of love and relationships, this is a tender story that tugs at the heartstrings in any season.