#Blog Tour #One Day in Summer by Shari Low @rararesources

Thank you to Rachel from Rachel’s Random resources for my place on the book tour for this uplifting  novel.

Book Synopsis

One Day In Summer
Coming soon from #1 bestseller Shari Low, an emotional roller-coaster, that keeps you guessing…

One day in summer, three lives are about to change forever.

After two decades of looking after others, this is the day that Agnetha McMaster is reclaiming her life. It’s her turn, her time but will she have the courage to start again?

Ten years ago, Mitchell McMaster divorced Agnetha and married her best friend, Celeste. Now he suspects his second wife is having an affair. This is the day he’ll discover if karma has come back to bite him.

Thanks to a DNA test, this is the day that Hope McTeer will finally meet her biological father. But will the reunion bring Hope the answers that she’s looking for?

Three people. Twenty-four hours. A lifetime of secrets to unravel.

Review:
One Day in Summer was such an enjoyable and uplifting read! This is my first book written by Shari Low, but definitely won’t be the last.

Our protagonist Agnetha McMaster (yes, her Mum was a big fan of Abba, and, no, this isn’t a common Scottish name) wakes up on her 45th birthday and thinks back to the last twenty something years of her life. They were full of caring after her ailing parents and full of grief after they passed away. Raising her twin daughters Isla and Skye, and taking care of her family business on her own couldn’t have been easy. Agnetha used to be a joyful, spontaneous girl who travelled, partied, fell in love and gave her best in everything she did. Can she recapture the feeling and reclaim life she has been putting on hold for such long time? Has she truly forgiven her ex-husband Mitchell who had an affair with Agnetha’s former best friend?

The events of the story (set in Glasgow) unfold over 24 hours and it really drives it home how many things can change over the course of one day. When I first saw the large cast of primary and secondary characters listed at the beginning I was afraid I’d find it all very confusing, but Shari Low is a master story-teller and she chose a very clear narrative structure. There are 3 POVs: Agnetha (Aggs) who is cautiously optimistic about the possibility of a new relationship in her life and whose birthday we all crash in, Mitchell who is having doubts about his second marriage, and Hope McTeer, a medical student who is looking for her biological parents and whose connection to McMasters we need to work out. There is present (Agnetha’s birthday) and there are regular flashbacks to summer of 1997 when Agnetha and Celeste had a holiday in the USA. We also meet Aaron Ward, Agnetha’s young love.

All characters are well-developed and likeable with one notable exception. Interaction after interaction, present or past, friend or foe, Agnetha proves to be such a lovely, thoughtful and generous soul. She made sure her daughters had a great relationship with their father, she is a loyal and supportive friend (loved her Wednesday bereavement group- Val, Yvie, Will and all the rest), but where it really shone through was her conversation with Hope. Not surprisingly, Mitchell’s story is full of realising past mistakes and regretting them. Shari Low’s book, despite its lovely flow and entertaining nature, also deals with some very serious issues and marriage breakdown with its inevitable aftermath is one of them. I absolutely adored the secondary characters in this novel! Agnetha and Mitchell’s daughters Isla and Skye, then Hope and her adoptive sister Maisie are so witty and so much fun!

One Day in Summer touches upon serious topics: bereavement and grief, trust and betrayal, sharing custody after divorce, making new friends, adoption and looking for biological parents. Following the characters’ stories will take you on a roller-coaster of emotions: love, depression, hurt, hope and joy. You will understand the reasons for their behaviour and see how they have changed over life and what they learnt from their mistakes.

Finally, isn’t the cover just gorgeous? It captures perfectly the overall upbeat tone of this captivating summer read. Hope you pick a copy and enjoy it as much as I did.

Thank you to the author, Boldwood Books and Rachel for letting me participate in this book tour.

About the author:
Shari Low is the #1 bestselling author of over 20 novels, including One Day In Winter and My One Month Marriage and a collection of parenthood memories called Because Mummy Said So.  She lives near Glasgow.

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