Just one summer for so many feelings… 

Synopsis

After a long-buried secret tears her family apart, Jess Hayden moves to the South Devon village of Lynbrook to live with her uncle. Rufus owns the village pub, The Black Bull, and having visited before, Jess knows the villagers well…especially one of them. 

Talún Hansen has a reputation, making him the kind of man no decent girl should get involved with. Jess, however, has been under his spell from the moment they first met. Although they always seem to bring out the worst in each other, there is no denying the attraction that simmers between them – an attraction Jess knows she needs to keep under control after repeated warnings from her uncle. 

As she settles into village life she begins to learn more about this wild, dark-haired gypsy with the compelling eyes, and realises their lives hold many similarities. Despite her uncle’s warnings, she begins to spend time with him. For Jess, the coming summer holds passion; for Talún the hope that he has at last found someone who truly cares for him. 

But as autumn approaches, a dark shadow from Jess’s past returns, bringing far-reaching and unwanted changes for both of them.

My review

Jess Hayden is an 18 – year old woman who seems to have it all. She is in a relationship with Zach, much to her father’s delight, and she gets very good along with her stepmother Amber.
Yet there is more than sees the eye… the relationship with her father Leo is just non – existing, despite all her effort to please him.
So when Leo brings home Lily, another young woman who he has met, it’s the beginning how Jess’s world falls apart. 

After secrets that tear her family apart, Jess finds solace in the South Devon village of Lynbrook. Her uncle Rufus brings her the so much required peace and love and a feeling of belonging. Jess gets to know the villagers better and even against all warnings, warms towards Talún Hansen, a man with a certain reputation and certainly not someone a decent girl like Jess should get involved with. Yet the heart wants what it wants and a summer full of passion starts. 

But when the past catches up with Jess, changes are ahead and not all of the happy kind… 

Talking about a story that broke my heart… 

Jess is such a positive girl despite her family situation. She is a real genuine young woman, ready to help whenever she can. She truly loves her boyfriend Zac and even if her father will never win the Award For Best Father Of The Year, she loves him. Luckily she has her stepmother Amber, who is more a real mother than her actual mother, and he has also her best friend Roo. And having people who truly care and love you, can make up for those who don’t.  

There are so many characters I just disliked, like Leo and Lily.
Leo was easily to hate, his coldness towards Jess is just unjustified. Even towards his own wife he acts like he can boss everyone around.
Yet even my dislike towards Leo is nothing compared to the actual hate I felt towards Lily… The way she manipulates everything and everyone around her so that she gets what she thinks she deserves is just despicable. 

So when Jess, after trying to bond with Lily yet gets her heart broken over several levels, moves to her uncle Rufus, I was happy that she found a place to call home.
In Lynbrook she can truly just be herself, and is accepted by all the villagers. And I was delighted for her as it would appear that finally luck was on her side.

After a dodgy first meeting, Jess and Talún start bonding and it was just sweet to read how these two people, having both been through so much in their young years, are growing together and realising that the past is just what is it, the past. When love comes, you cannot hang on to what happened in the past, but you have to put it behind you and just go for your own happiness. 

Jo Lambert wouldn’t be Jo Lambert if Jess and Talún getting together would be the end of a beautiful yet heart – wrenching story. There are so many twists and turns, some I didn’t see coming at all that made me turn page after page. 
I found this a difficult book to read. Not because it was not good, but because of what was happening. I just wanted our protagonists to find their happily ever after and when it didn’t happen when I wanted it to happen, it was just terrible. 

This is a story about lovely characters, having terrible people in their lives. Despite all the bad things happening, the characters show a resilience of moving on, not just staying seated and wallow over what has happened to them. 

After I finished reading this book, this book kept being around in my thoughts. I had the need to know if the end of this book was truly the end. 
So I picked up the second part of the series and submerged myself again the bittersweet story of Jess and Talún.