Links to Buy (currently paperback only)
Young Adult Contemporary
Title:Last Wish of Summer
Author: Phillip Overton
Date Published: 1/18/12
Synopsis:
Synopsis:
"As the sun prepares to rise on the last day of summer, three friends find themselves totally unprepared for the events that are about to take place around them. For Tanya it is a chance to find peace three years after losing her parents in an auto accident. Deciding she simply can’t continue blaming God for her loss, she places a heartfelt poem in a bottle and throws it into the sea on the eve of her birthday, granting her birthday wish to whoever finds it.
Early the next morning, her best friend Anton and his buddy Johnno find the bottle washed up on the shore and set about putting it to the test. When Johnno falls for the new waitress at the café where Tanya works, it stirs up feelings of jealousy in Tanya. Surely Johnno couldn’t be the man that God had in mind for her? Suddenly, strange wishes are beginning to come true, but is it all a coincidence? Or is God about to change people’s lives for the better?
Welcome to Kings Beach, where the forecast for the last day of summer promises to be hot,hot, hot, with a definite change in the air."
Review:
Last Wish of Summer was a great coming of age book. While I'm not very religious, I found the religious themes in the book to be light and not too over powering. The characters were wonderful, while there was suffering of loss there was also humorous fun moments. Last Wish of Summer was a wonderful book about growth, told a great message, and was a fun read.
4 out of 5 stars
Author Bio
"Phillip Overton’s writing has been compared to none other than Nicholas Sparks(
http://www.readerviews.com/ReviewOvertonAWalkBeforeSunrise.html), and his latest novel Last Wish of Summer offers readers the perfect book to spend a summer’s day reading at the beach. In a book that reminds us to be careful what we wish for, it manages to weave the
wholesome, virginal qualities of the main character Tanya with her band of misfit friends in their pursuit of being able to reason why a washed up message in a bottle is somehow
granting their every wish come true. Often in a manner that is both coincidental and strangely bizarre.
Just as a movie adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel will appeal to people of all ages, so too
will this story that follows the adventures of a group of twenty-something’s on the last day of summer. The book not only manages to cut through any pre-conceived ideas we hold on morals, body-image and social status, but delights in helping us discover what may already be right under our nose to begin with."
Twitter: @phillipoverton
Excerpt:
"“No way dude!” Anton whistled. “It worked, it actually worked.”
“What worked?” Tanya asked him sternly. “What’s going on with you two this morning? You haven’t been acting yourselves from the minute you walked in here.”
“It’s just that Johnno ordered the raisin toast,” Anton said matter-of-factly.
“I’m sorry,” Tanya apologized. “I must have grabbed the wrong order from the kitchen. My head was a million miles away. I can go and find out what happened to your order if you like. Otherwise you’re welcome to have this for no charge.”
“No it’s fine,” Johnno reassured her as he sat back down, “the eggs are fine.”
“Anton, what’s really going on here?” Tanya pulled up a chair and sat down opposite the two boys. “I’m not leaving until you explain to me why you are both acting so weird.”
Johnno looked nervously across at Anton who then nodded his head silently and pulled out the letter for Tanya to see.
“We found this on the beach this morning,” Anton said quietly. “Apparently we’ve been granted the power to wish for whatever we like.”
“It’s true,” Johnno spoke up. “I wished for sausages and scrambled eggs and it came true.”
Tanya’s face went pale with shock as she first recognized the letter, and then the opened bottle in the middle of the table. The same bottle she had decorated with all the different shades of nail polish she possessed in her collection. The letter written on the pages she had torn from her diary and poured her heart onto. She had hoped that today was going to be more than just the beginning of another day, and here they were making fun of her.
“Hey you read the letter, what did it say?” Kim asked as she too pulled up a chair and joined the other three at the table.
“It was a poem,” Johnno said. Once more he seemed intoxicated by the very presence of the sultry waitress.
“Ooh a poem. Is it romantic?” She asked, moving in closer to Johnno who now held the letter for her to see.
“She knows about it too?” Tanya asked. A look of embarrassment spread quickly across her face that luckily wasn’t noticed by any of the other three.
“You should read it Tanya,” Anton said excitedly from across the table. “We we’re going to show you once we’d finished reading it. But you are not going to believe how deep this girl’s thoughts are. You can tell simply by the way the words float off the page. Honestly you’ll have to read it for yourself. It’s beautiful.”
“I can imagine,” she fumed quietly.
Tanya watched the three as they fussed over the letter. Fascinated at the same time by the apparent chemistry that had sprung from virtually nowhere between Johnno and the new waitress. Only then did it occur to her. No-one suspected it was her. In their own naive eagerness to embrace the idea of the letter actually being magical, they had all failed to recognize that the person responsible for writing it was sitting at the same table. She quickly hid her fingernails from view beneath the table. The others had failed to notice that they were painted in the same beautiful shade of turquoise that matched the love heart she had painted on the letter.
She smiled secretly at the thought of their childish excitement. Surely it was just a simple mistake on her behalf when bringing Johnno his breakfast that now had them convinced that the letter was going to make all their wishes come true. Or was it in fact a strange coincidence that they had tested their theory by wishing for scrambled eggs. Surely she couldn’t have created magic. Surely this was all a coincidence.
Either way, she was going to have a little fun with them! "
*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by Reading Addiction Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorcements and Testimonials in Advertising*
