Cicada Summer

June 19, 2017
Leurck reveals the hidden depths of one woman’s heart as she struggles with loneliness and the fact that she still harbors feelings for her ex-husband. Alex Proctor has lived in the resort town of Geneva Lake, Wisc., her entire life and enjoys her work seeking out old homes and restoring them for sale. Her latest find is a hundred-year-old home not far from the popular resort destination of Lake Geneva. Taking her five-year-old daughter, Abby, to visit Matt, her ex-husband, Alex recalls how she and Matt gradually drifted apart as their once-happy marriage ended in divorce. Yet she finds it difficult to move on and struggles with her emotions now that Matt is with a new girlfriend. Alex encounters unexpected setbacks to finishing her restoration of the house and enjoys the friendship of Elsie, who has lived next door to the home her whole life and tells tales of happier times when the house was in its prime. As Alex remembers the summer 17 years earlier when the soon-to-arrive cicadas last appeared, she tries to come to terms with the difficulties of her past with Matt and forge ahead toward a new future. Rich with believable characters and an evocative setting, Leurck’s novel is a gem.