The Summer of Christmas by Juliet Giglio and Keith Giglio

 Title:  The Summer of Christmas

Author:  Juliet Giglio and Keith Giglio

Narrated by:  Elizabeth Cottle

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Length:  10 hours and 23 Minutes

Source: Sourcebooks, Dreamscape Media  & Netgalley.  Thank-you!

 Do you read any Christmas books in the summer or watch any Christmas movies?  When I was growing up, I watched It’s a Wonderful Life all summer long.  I love that movie.

 I really enjoyed The Summer of Christmas.  If you are a fan of a good romance, Christmas movies, and Hallmark Christmas movies – this is the book for you.  Ivy Green lives in California and her dreams are coming true as she works to become a screenwriter.  Her boyfriend Nick Shepard is visiting her for Christmas when she expresses her dream that he leave his family vineyard back in their small hometown in the State of New York and move to California with her.  While they sit with Santa, Nick tells Ivy that his dream is to break up with her and that he has been cheating on her.  Devasted, the newly single Ivy writes a riveting screen play about their romance from childhood through adults with a tragic ending where the Nick character dies in a snowmobile accident.  Years later, her screen play is getting made into a movie.  She is back in her hometown to film the movie with her new producer boyfriend Drew when she meets Nick again for the first time since the breakup.  Will she be able to figure out what exactly went wrong and what she wants out of life?

 I really enjoyed this lighthearted romantic comedy.   It’s just what I needed right now.  I loved the behind the scenes look at making movies.    I laughed out loud when it came up in the story that Nick’s top selling wine was Poison Ivy.  It was a joke that kept on giving throughout the story.  I loved all of the secondary characters.  I especially enjoyed the movie star Griffin and how he bonded with Ivy’s family.  He just wanted a normal life and to be loved.  I also enjoyed how Nick’s mother had a romance of her own.  The town was also a star of the novel and sounded beautiful.  The movie had a dream sequence towards the end that was reminiscent of It’s a Wonderful Life.

 Narrator Elizabeth Cottle did a great job and was fun to listen to.  I thought of her as the voice of Ivy.