The Summer That Changed Us by Cathy Bramley

 

The sparkling seaside village of Merle Bay, with its beautiful beach scattered with sea glass, is a place where anyone can have a fresh start.

For Katie, it is the perfect hideout after a childhood trauma left her feeling exposed. For Robyn, the fresh sea air is helping to heal her scars, but maybe not her marriage. For Grace, a new start could help her move on from a heartbreaking loss. When they meet on Sea Glass Beach one day, they form an instant bond and soon they're sharing prosecco, laughter - and even their biggest secrets...

Together, the women feel stronger than ever before. So can their friendship help them face old fears and find happy endings - as well as new beginnings?

Cathy Bramley has managed to knock my favourite book of hers off of the top spot with her new novel The Summer That Changed Us. In this novel we meet three down to earth women all facing life impacting situations that many of us may face in our lives and they hit home the importance of friendship and talking about the problems we face because a problem shared is a problem halved.

At the start of the novel as we are introduced to each of the women and we begin to get a glimpse of the effects their issues are having on their daily lives but at this point we do not know what the women are dealing with until by chance the paths of all three women cross in what is a most memorable and laugh out loud way and from that moment the most beautiful seed is planted and a blossoming friendship develops.

The woman show such care, love and support for each other throughout the novel encouraging each other on building up their strength and courage to cope with their situations. This was a solid friendship that I envied and wanted to be right at the heart of this friendship.

I do not want to ruin anything about this book even with a small spoiler so I am not going to mention what situations affected each of them but they are all life changing honest and real situations that we could face or may have already faced in our lives and this novel will raise awareness and may even provide some comfort to people too to know they are not alone and that there could be a glimmer of light at the end.

This is a novel that will stay in my heart it was so refreshing to have a novel that had a believable supportive friendship at the core and that was raw and honest rather than painting a rosey picture perfect picture of lives with struggles. I highly recommend The Summer that Changed Us it is a beautiful life affirming novel with a few giggles along the way.

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