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• I received this audiobook for review from Hachette Audio. I did not receive any compensation for my review, and the views expressed herein are my own.I should preface this review by saying that this is not the type of book that I normally pick up, but the synopsis was very appealing to me and I thought that this would make a perfect summer read!This is a heartbreaking love story, and you will be in tears as you read this! Jack Armstrong, a young married man in his mid-30s with three children, is dying of a terminal disease. As his family prepares for his death, the unthinkable happens – Jack’s wife, Lizzie, is killed in an automobile accident. If that wasn’t bad enough, his in-laws take the children away from their father to live across the country. And if THAT wasn’t bad enough, they split the children up with the eldest child staying with their maternal grandparents and the two younger ones living with each maternal aunt. Can a protagonist be any more tragic? He loses his wife and his children in one fell swoop. Left to die alone without the comfort of his children, Jack is taken into a hospice facility to live-out his remaining days.The miraculous happens and, instead of dying, Jack gets better! He improves gradually and is moved to a rehabilitative facility to regain the use of and strengthen his atrophied muscles. Wanting desperately to reunite his family is what drives this man to overcome the odds.Baldacci is a new-to-me author, and I loved this book! This is one of those books that you read with a lump in your throat and an ache in your chest, with wet Kleenexes strewn about, and a tear-streaked face. I couldn’t help but imagine myself in a similar situation and how devastating it would be to lose my husband and be separated from my children! Talk about an unbearable situation!Baldacci’s prose is beautiful and touching, especially as he reads the lovely letters that he had written to his wife for her to read after his death. Oh my, you cannot help but be moved to tears!The message that Baldacci leaves the reader with is that love transcends all, and it is not limited to time or space or even life. We all need to be reminded of this from time to time, and anyone who has lost a loved one will find comfort in this poignant novel. So, it isn’t just about loss and grief, but also about love and life and healing.This is also my first audiobook with Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy as narrators. I enjoyed having the two narrators, McLarty as Jack and other male characters and Cassidy as Lizzie and other female characters. Both narrators gave unique characteristics to each person, so it was easy to differentiate between them all. The narration was superb, and rich with emotion. I felt as though I was watching a play with my eyes closed, and I was completely captivated by their voices. I was surprised that some instrumental interludes were added to the reading, and it did have the desired dramatic effect.I loved One Summer, and I plan to read more of Baldacci!MY RATING: 5 stars!! I loved it, and I highly recommend it!! Thank you, Hachette Audio!

  5.00 out of 5

  DarlenesBookNook

• This is a great beach read to finish out the summer with.Jack Armstrong is dying of a terminal disease. He is determined to live through Christmas so he can spend one last Christmas with his loving wife, Lizzie and his three children, Mikki, Cory, and Jackie. Jack writes a collection of letters for Lizzie, to be found after his death. Right before Christmas, Lizzie is killed in a car accident while picking up prescriptions for Jack. Lizzie's parents come to make arrangements which include putting Jack in a hospice facility and farming the boys, Cory and Jackie, out to their aunts while they take their teenage granddaughter, Mikki to Arizona. Jack is left alone to die in a strange place.Then the unthinkable happens. Jack begins to show improvement and miraculously recovers. Some might think this is far fetched but go with it here. You'll be glad in the end you did. After a stint in rehab, he rebuilds his life and brings his children back home. They become a family once again but there are troubles to be had. Mikki is an angry teenager, Cory is having problems in school and little Jackie proves to be a handful.When Jack inherits Lizzie's childhood home on South Carolina's beachfront, he packs up the family and moves there. Life is not much easier there. Jack revisits the letters he wrote to Lizzie to try and make sense of it all. Jack feels the need to reconnect with Lizzie any way he can.The storyline was very fast moving and I had a hard time putting the book down. I found this book to be full the miracles of hope, love and family. There were many twists and turns in the story. Life can change on a dime and those changes can be quite unexpected.I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The descriptions of the South Carolina were stunning. I could almost hear the crashing waves and feel the sand between my toes. The characters were well developed and I felt as though I knew them all, including the ones I was not fond of.I have not read any books by David Baldacci and I understand this is not his usual type of book. I for one, am glad he broke away from his usual writings and gave us this little gem of a book.

  5.00 out of 5

  bookaholicmom

• Although I knew the name David Baldacci up until this book i've never read anything by him. I know this isn't his typical genre of novels (he's primarally a crime/thriller writer) That being said, I was recommened this book and decided to bring it with me to read on the plane on the way to vacation. This book was awesome, it was heartbreaking and tragic, and the roller coaster ride keeps going throughout the whole book. Tragedy strikes within the first couple pages and the book continues to pull at your heart strings throughout the rest of the book as well.I don't ever cry from reading books for whatever reason, (although I am a super emotional person and cry at almost everything I watch on TV) so I don't know why books don't get me to that point. That being said my eyes burned and welled up quite a few times while reading this book, it's extremely emotional and it's an emotion that everyone who's ever lost someone they cared about can relate too.The characters are well-developed and I enjoyed them all. The plot moved along quickly and I never found myself bored with the story, in fact I felt like I flew through the pages. The only reason this book didn't get a 5 star rating from me was because I felt like at times the plot was too predictable, and there was too much drama, like too many bad things happened to this family that it started to feel forced and not genuine.

  4.50 out of 5

  LauraMoore

• An excellent book that you won't want to put down (I read it in 1 day). Not a "typical" David Baldacci book. A story of lives on the edge and recovery; about a family rebuilding itself. The characters come alive (they almost jump off the page) and the story seems so real.

  4.00 out of 5

  sunnydrk

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