Summer Girl by Linda Watkins

Summer Girl by Linda Watkins is a poignant coming of age novel that asks whether it’s possible to forget one’s first love.

It’s the summer of sixty-five and sixteen-year-old islander Jake Chambers meets the ferry bringing the newest crop of summer people to Cutter Island. Fifteen-year-old Andrea (Andi) Martin is unlike the other summer girls and immediately captures Jake’s attention. Over the Fourth of July lobster bake, they become fast friends and soon their friendship blossoms into first love. It seems like they’re destined to be together – until one fateful night, a lapse in better judgment leads to tragic consequences…

Watkins has written a multifaceted story that plays out beautifully. Set on picturesque Cutter Island, Maine, the author’s descriptions are so visceral that one can almost smell the intoxicating aromas of an island lobster bake. However, the story is far more than just memories of an era gone by. Jake and Andi are a contemporary Romeo and Juliet, reminding us how wonderful first love can truly be, but with the same degree of tragedy, exposing the ugliness of sexual abuse, cutting, and suicide.

An emotional and evocative novel, Summer Girl provides a youthful love story that is at once nostalgic and modern.

Book Links