REVIEW: Always Summer by Criss Copp

Always Summer
by Criss Copp
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New Adult (mature content). Recommended for readers 18+ due to explicit sexual content, harsh language and adult themes. Please be advised that some content is graphic and sensitive in nature.

Summer has known two lives. The secret and nightmarish life she endured prior to her move to Northport, and the angelic life she has known since.
 
Her best friend Blake has a secret of his own that once shattered his soul.
 
For years they skirt around their attraction to each other... until in a moment of necessity, secrets are divulged and a new relationship is fashioned.
 
However, past lives have a way of coming back to haunt you... even the lives you thought were angelic. Determined to face the hardship together, the question remains... How much hardship can two people endure?
 
My Review 

Well, that was just....huh?

3.5 stars...I think?

Lately, books have had my review-dar all over the place. All. Over. Totally bipolared! I'm usually very certain and confident with my ratings, but recently I've been second guessing me...a lot. Either I like it...or I don't. That simple, right??? HELL NO!

Always Summer had some 4-5 star elements, but it also had some 2-3 star elements. Both strong, both fighting each other until the very end.

It started off extremely intense. Criss Copp tackled an insanely difficult issue, an issue which was very difficult to read, but at the same time it completely hooked me. I felt right then and there that I was finally about to read something different. Something to break the mold.

What I loved was best friends falling in love, alternating POV's and an addictive...ADDICTIVE plot.
 
The buildup between Blake and Summer was perfect, the climax and the strong ending had me at the edge, but somewhere in the middle the under wire snapped and it began to sag. This is where one of the book's strongest elements simultaneously became one of it's weakest. The sex!!

The sex between Summer and Blake was...it was...it...WOW!! Talk about feeling it...everywhere! However, somewhere in the middle, and before the end, the plot lost some of it's substance. The sex was too much. Say what!?? (Yes, there is such a thing) This is when the plot slowed down, but at the same time I was still hooked. I feel like such an oxymoron.

The sex also tainted the epilogue. The way it ended cheapened my experience. It was hot, it was HEA, and it was sexy, but after that journey, to end it there? Literally, literally in there. Just wasn't for me.

So what the hell am I trying to say?? I thought this book was finally something different. Despite my negative feelings, I could not put it down! I enjoyed the journey, I really enjoyed the book. I saw its flaws, but I kept going....the story gave me a reason to. I needed this book to break the monotony and it did. Criss Copp (makes you wanna jump, jump) reminds me a little of Kirsty Moseley. The story is what gets you and I will definitely read Criss again!!

READ ON!