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Title details for Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchard - Available

Still Summer

by Jacquelyn Mitchard
ebook
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1 of 1 copy available
Mitchard's Still Summer plunges into terror
By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY
Secure your life preserver. Tie yourself to the mast. It's late August, but it's still summer, and Jacquelyn Mitchard is taking you on a thrill ride you won't forget.
Mitchard made her mark in the literary world in 1996 when The Deep End of the Ocean was chosen as the first pick for Oprah Winfrey's now-legendary book club. Since then, she has written six other novels, but none matches the suspenseful pitch of Still Summer.
It's a tale of terror on the high seas, but this is no Pirates of the Caribbean wannabe.
Readers know something terrible is going to happen, but Mitchard ratchets up the suspense by allowing her story to unfold at a leisurely pace. She painstakingly fleshes out her characters, because as readers will discover, their temperaments and personalities are as crucial to the story as the mounting disasters.
Tracy Kyle, Holly Solvig and Olivia Montefalco, lifelong friends in their early 40s, charter a yacht and two-man crew for a sailing vacation that will take them from St. Thomas to Grenada.
The trip starts out as an innocent adventure in paradise until two accidents in quick succession strand the women without their crew. What else can go wrong? In a word, everything. The engine conks out, the sails are torn, lack of electricity spoils their food and limits their drinking water - and then there's the injury to Holly's leg.
Nature's fury, murderous drug dealers and, possibly most deadly of all, their own frailties and secrets are added to the list.
Readers will wring their hands with frustration, weep with sadness and second-guess the choices these women make. But since characters must do the bidding of the authors who create them, we can only sit back - or sit on the edge of our seats - and let Mitchard's terror-filled tale wash over us.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 23, 2007

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

      • ISBN: 9780446199155

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780446199155

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780446199155
      • File size: 399 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 30, 2007
      Ericksen gives an appropriately taut, tense reading of this gripping novel about four women on a sailing vacation who end up fighting for their lives when their ship is disabled, food is running low, and they're beset by modern-day pirates. Ericksen doesn't create actual character voices, but she does a great job voicing snobbish Olivia and sarcastic, emotional teenager Cami. (The voices of the two down-to-earth characters, Tracy and Holly, tend to blur.) Michel, a young Frenchman, sounds just as sexy as he should, while criminal Ernesto is appropriately menacing (although Ericksen's attempt at a Spanish accent leaves something to be desired). Ericksen is best at voicing the climactic emotional confrontation between Olivia and the rest of the group that will leave listeners on the edge of their seats. Random-seeming musical background is unwisely used; it probably indicates either places where text was abridged or beginnings of chapters, but either way, it's distracting and unnecessary. Minor quibbles aside, this is a brisk, fast-paced and suspenseful audiobook. Simultaneous release with the Grand Central hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 9).

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 9, 2007
      Bestselling Mitchard offers the harrowing tale of four women lost at sea and pitted against nature and a cohort of contemporary pirates. Tracy, Holly and Olivia have known each other since high school, when they were glamorous, popular troublemakers. Twenty-five years after graduation, the three women, plus Tracy's 19-year-old daughter, Camille, set out on a "reading, sunning, gossiping" trip aboard a luxe sailboat helmed by a two-man crew. But a storm leaves the women adrift with no sail or engine and their co-captains gone overboard. With limited sailing experience, failing radio equipment and a rapidly diminishing cache of food and water, the women are vulnerable to the worst threats the Caribbean can offer—the elements, sharks and, most troublesome, pirates. This fast-paced novel borrows qualities from several genres—suspense, survival epic, coming-of-age—and mostly succeeds in melding the better aspects of each, though Mitchard has a surer hand in creating women characters than men. Mitchard's fans will appreciate this high-stakes adventure.

    • Library Journal

      June 1, 2007
      Popular novelist Mitchard ("Cage of Stars") continues to explore family relationships, this time adding a twist of high-seas suspense. Best friends since high school, Tracy, Olivia, and Holly plan a reunion cruise on Olivia's yacht, along with Tracy's adopted teenaged daughter, Camille. The cruise unravels through a series of small missteps and betrayals. After a slow beginning, with chapters alternately highlighting the tensions between Tracy and her daughter and the twisted path of a group of drug dealers, the story comes alive as the four women find themselves lost at sea and fending off modern-day pirates. Fans of Mitchard will be pleased. Recommended for large fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 4/15/07.]Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll., NC

      Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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