The Last Summer by Brandy Bruce

Wait. Trust. Pray.

The Last Summer by Brandy Bruce is a charming contemporary Christian novel about love, friends and life. I adored it.

Everyone needs friends to get them through life. Friends that love and support you always. “In our circle of friends, my business was only an illusion.” We all need friends who know us intimately. Life is a journey, seasons come and seasons go. Some friendships last, some move on. The novel explores this theme.

The book is also about plans. We all make plans for our lives. Sometimes we change our plans. Other times our plans change through circumstances. God’s plan is always the best one for our lives. How do we find His plan? By praying, waiting and trusting.

As well as knowing God’s plan for our lives, we need to know who we are and whose we are and what we want from life. “A woman who knows what she needs, knows who she is.”

The novel explores how good friends offer not only love and friendship, but practical support in times of need.

The book delves deeper into our relationship with God. It is easy to praise Him in the good times. We need to praise Him in the bad too. “We praise You when there’s nothing else we can do.” Praising God helps to lift us above our situation. Praising God will give us a supernatural peace. Praising God is our only option when we face situations out of our control.

There are also themes of guilt and grace. We all have things we feel guilty about. We all need to be covered by God’s grace and to be “grace givers.”

The Last Summer was a perfectly delightful read exploring changing relationships which contrast with our one firm and unchanging relationship – the love of God for each and every one of us.

A wonderful read.

I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

JULIA WILSON

 

The Last Summer blog tour on Reading Is My Super Power

Enter to win a summer prize pack (U.S. only)

 

 

FROM CHAPTER ONE

 

They all exchanged looks around the table. I felt like they were having this private conversation and hoped the conclusion would be that they wanted me. Because there was something special about the people at this table. The way they kidded and joked and touched each other and moved like one breathing organism. The way they did seem like a family. Six people connected to each other. I wanted to be the seventh.

“I have a feeling, Sara Witherspoon,” Addison said, tilting her head to the side and studying me as though she could see all the way to my heart, “you belong too.”

I don’t know how she knew, but she did. Like I said, Addison is the leader. She’s the glue. Once she said those words, all tension melted away, and I was included. If Addison said I belonged, I did. She reminded me of Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. If Mrs. Wilkes was the cool-headed voice of reason that could settle the chaos around her, Addison was that same strong, trusted constant amid these six friends. Her word was law. And from that day forward, the six people around that table at Isabella’s became like six extensions of myself.

We were a circle. Within a month, Jason asked me to go out to dinner with him. Luke hadn’t shown any romantic interest in me, and there was Jason, with that thick, dark hair and playful personality and handful of tattoos on his olive skin—how could I say no? We started dating. A year after that, we

broke up. As much as I truly liked Jason and couldn’t help feeling attracted to him, I hadn’t fallen in love. I couldn’t picture us married and having babies. We were better as friends. I know Jason didn’t agree, but he and I both refused to let our break up damage the circle. Eventually, things between us returned to normal.

During my dating-Jason phase, Sam and Lily got married, which didn’t really change anything since they were already such a unit. I realized early on that Luke and Debra were never an item. I’d mistaken Debra’s warm and friendly demeanor and Luke’s tendency to be protective and kind as the traits

of a dating couple, but those endearing qualities of both of them extended to all of us. My crush on Luke diminished as Jason and I dated and then shifted to ‘just friends.’

Sort of.

And somewhere along the way, painfully, Luke and I became best friends.

 

 

 

 

 

5 thoughts on “The Last Summer by Brandy Bruce

  1. I love to read Christian fiction and would love to follow your blog via email. I can’t find a button to follow you. Can you please add me to your distribution list?

  2. Ditto for me, Julia. Will you add me to your email list? 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading Brandy’s book! I need to rearrange my TBR, so I get to it before summer ends here in the US! 🙂

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