Life Without Summer: A Novel
Written by Lynne Griffin
Narrated by Tanya Eby
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Tessa Gray’s life changes forever when she loses her four-year-old daughter, Abby, in a hit-and-run accident outside her preschool. Once a vivacious, joyful mother and wife, Tessa now spends her days holed up in Abby’s room, sleeping in her bed, clutching Abby’s Tootsie Rabbit stuffed animal—anything to keep her memories close. As Tessa grapples with a terrible grief, made worse by the police’s insistence that the case is unsolvable, she finds solace in Celia Reed, the therapist her husband has pushed her to see, and in the journal she’s keeping, where she compulsively counts the “days without Abby” and maps out her plan for catching the driver who tore her family apart.
As Celia struggles to keep Tessa from getting caught up in a bleak crusade for answers, she finds that their sessions open the door to emotions that she’s spent years ignoring, forcing her to face the rising tensions in her life—her troubled teenage son, her alcoholic ex-husband, and her fragile new marriage. Celia begins to realize that she must come to terms with the tragic mistakes of her past and the choices that have led her family to their own brink of destruction.
A haunting portrait of two women whose lives converge unexpectedly, Life Without Summer illuminates connections between love, marriage, truth, and forgiveness no listener will forget.
Lynne Griffin
Lynne Griffin has spent more than 20 years as a child development and behavior management consultant. She is the author of Negotiation Generation: Take Back Your Parental Authority Without Punishment (Berkley/Penguin, 2007). She is the parenting contributor for Boston’s Fox 25 Morning News where she regularly appears in the segments Family Works and Parenting and the News. Her writers' group has been featured in the Boston Globe and the Patriot Ledger. She lives in Scituate, Massachusetts with her family. This is her first novel.
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Reviews for Life Without Summer
49 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Life Without Summer is a haunting portrait of two women whose lives converge unexpectedly when the answers one needs turn out to be the other's only chance for peace. Looking forward to reading more from this author!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just plain great! I read Sea Escape and liked it so much that I wondered what else Griffin had written and here was her debut novel and what a way to begin! In some ways you feel as though you know what's coming but it's an amazing puzzle she has put together in this book. I wish I still had it to read and am looking forward to more from her!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a debut novel? Wow, I am so impressed! This book is written with the depth and feeling of a seasoned novelist. The main character Tessa's grief over the death of her daughter envelopes the reader from the first couple of pages. I could feel her moving through the stages of grief, however resistant and unwilling she was to move at all. The parallel storyline of Tessa's therapist Celia and her broken family was equally interesting and broke up the sadness in the novel. Without the alternating between the two storylines, the book may have become too depressing. Although I saw the ending a mile away, I still could not put this book down! The characters were so likable and the stories so intertwined that it really made for a thoughtful and beautiful book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It’s a true-like book telling the story of two women. A story that could happen in any neighbourhood. I felt as if I understood what the characters were about. The characters were not over exaggerated or It’s It's a true-like book telling the story of two women. Thier lives, their family, their struggles their loss and their choices. A story that could happen in any neighbourhood. I felt I understood the characters. The characters were not over exaggerated or phoney. There were times in the book that I could relate with the character.The story kept me engaged. Just like in life, there were parts that I predicted, but the way that it was read it still held my attention. It was smooth reading and hard to set aside. A simple, pleasant read yet enticing story.Loved it.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5corny and sentimental but pretty well-written.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tessa Gray has just lost her four-year-old daughter, Abby; killed by a hit-and-run driver. Tessa is grieving and angry and is determined to find that driver. Her loved ones convince her to go into therapy, and that begins the parallel story of Tessa's therapist, Celia. The book alternates between the two women and their lives as mothers and wives. Eventually, their lives intersect beyond the confines of Celia's office in a horrific way. I didn't always like the adults in this book and the decisions they made, but the author created very real characters with honest responses and emotions. An intense but good read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Life Without Summer is the story of Tessa, who is struggling to cope after the loss of her four-year-old daughter after a hit-and-run accident. It weaves in viewpoints of other characters, most notably her therapist Celia, and as the story evolves the characters’ lives become more intertwined. There is an element of mystery to the story, as one of Tessa’s coping mechanisms is to take active part in the investigation of the hit-and-run.This book is very well done. It’s a wonderful mix of emotional impact and twisty plot, similar to a Jodi Picoult novel. The characters are very relatable – especially Tessa and her husband, who deal with their grief in different ways. The plot advanced at just the right rate – a little slow at the beginning to let us get connected to Tessa, and then building up steam. I’d recommend this to readers who are looking for something between light “chick lit” reading and deeper “book club” literature.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life Without Summer is the debut novel written by Lynne Griffin. Tessa is a young woman whose life stops when her daughter is killed by a hit and run driver. Tessa isolates in Abby’s room, sleeps in her bed and slowly unravels as she tries to comprehend a life without her only child.Celia is Tessa’s therapist. While working with Tessa, Celia realizes her new marriage may not be as stable as she thinks and learns her son is battling his own problems. Meanwhile, her alcoholic ex-husband is still present in her life and her feelings towards him further complicates things.Life Without Summer is written in journal entries. The narration alternates between Tessa and Celia. The reader is privy to each woman’s struggle and pain as she tries to heal and move forward. I highly recommend this book.