Blog Tour: Review & Excerpt – Four Summers by Nyrae Dawn

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I am really excited to be a part of Nyrae Dawn’s Blog Tour stop today for “Four Summers”!  Make sure to check out my review and read the Excerpt too.

 
Four Summers

 
Charlotte Gates is tired of being Charlie Rae. She loves the lake she was raised on, their rental cabins, and spending her nights under the stars…but inside she yearns for more.
After his freshman year, Nathaniel Chase’s family spends their first summer at The Village. From the beginning Charlotte intrigues him. She’s the girl who always says what’s on her mind, wins at night games, and each time she looks through her telescope, gets lost in the sky.
Over the course of four summers together, Charlotte and Nathaniel become best friends, share firsts, mend broken hearts, protect each other’s secrets, overcome tragedies…fall in love. And say goodbye…
Charlie wants out of The Village. Nate wants her to have her stars. And they dream of being able to do it all together. But life isn’t as easy as their summers.
Each summer is told in alternating points of view between Charlie and Nate. Journey with the pair, and their friends, as they share their story about growing up, discovering who they are, making tough choices, and falling in love again and again.
 

Brandee’s Review

“I believe that everyone has certain key moments in their lives they’ll never forget. Moments marking the beginning or end of something. Moments that will always own a little piece of you. You can track decisions you make or paths your life follows and they always lead back to one of these defining moments. This is one of them.”
 
Photos of Opeongo Mountain Resort, Eganville

(This is a photo of the lake where I used to vacation when I was younger). This photo of Opeongo Mountain Resort is courtesy of TripAdvisor

I really loved this book!  This was such a beautiful, well-written story about first love and I LOVE a first-love  story!  It was so sweet and hopeful, which made it just the perfect story for me right now.  On a personal level, just the setting of the story put me right back into the days of my summer vacations with my family.  We would go to a Mountain Resort in Canada that had cabins, a beautiful lake, tons of activities planned, and was the perfect place to stargaze……. and lastly, the locals (ok, mostly boys) that I built friendships with through all our years of travelling there.  As I was reading this story, I could relate perfectly to so many things that it blew my mind.
But, if you were not lucky enough to have this type of annual vacation……that does not matter, because Nyrae has the ability in her storytelling to put you right there to experience it for yourself.
Once I started this story, I really did not want to stop and it was one where I stayed up way too late to continue to read it. I don’t want to spoil anything, but as the book summary says above, you are along for the journey of watching “over the course of four summers together, Charlotte and Nathaniel become best friends, share firsts, mend broken hearts, protect each other’s secrets, overcome tragedies…fall in love. And say goodbye…”
God I loved this story……that just makes me tear up now just reading it, and I read this book a couple of weeks ago.  Nyrae writes one heck of a YA book and I would definitely recommend this one to my followers!  Once you read it, I would love to hear what you thought.
 

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** Excerpt **

Nathaniel steps closer to me, his voice low. “I wanna be your first kiss.”
I can’t believe he said that. This is really happening and I’m licking my lips and nodding my head. Before I thought I wasn’t frightened of my first kiss, but I am. I’m so scared I could burst out of my skin, or set on fire, but I’ve never wanted to burn so much in my whole life.
He leans forward. I close my eyes and it’s not a second later that I feel his lips on mine. His hand pushes through my hair and rests at on the back of my neck. His lips tease mine with little kisses. I return them thinking nothing has ever felt this good.
Against my mouth he asks, “Can I kiss you more?”
Another nod from me and I feel his tongue trace my lips. I open my mouth and now I really know I’ve never felt something like this. Nathaniel’s tongue touches mine. Dances with it. I try to mimic what he does, slipping mine in his mouth and he lets me. It’s a trade off, and we learn to move together.
He pulls me closer, his whole body lined against mine, and kisses me deeper. I wrap my arms around his neck and his heart is against mine and I can’t stop it…can’t block it anymore. My heart opens and I know he’ll forever have a home there. It’s stupid and I’m young, but I don’t care. I love him and for the rest of my life, this moment will be engraved into my heart.
He pulls his mouth away, but doesn’t move his hand. I don’t let go of him either and all I can think is our breaths are mixing the way our tongues just did.
Wow…
“I saw something when we were out today.” He pulls away and I wish he hadn’t, but then he’s reaching into his pocket and pulls whatever it is out.
It’s a necklace. Thin, black leather cord with a silver star hanging from the middle. My eyes water as I reach for it. “I love it,” I whisper.
“Turn around. I’ll put it on you.” I twist and lift my hair as he ties the necklace on me. When I face him again, he says, “Is it stupid that I got myself one, too?”
The tears spill out of my eyes and I shake my head. “No. It’s perfect.”
I look at his neck and the rope is gone. In its place is the black leather, just like mine.
There are so many times I’ve been with Nathaniel that I’ve thought, this is my moment. I’ll never forget this. I realize as I stand here with him, they’re all true. I’ll remember every moment I spent with him this summer.
He pulls me to him and hugs me as I cry. When my tears finally stop he grasps my hand and we walk back to my house together. He takes me all the way to my window this time and I wish the walk would never end.
“I’m going to miss you,” I tell him.
“You too,” he replies. We exchange emails and promise to write. He hugs me one more time before turning to walk away. I wish we could kiss again. I wish we could kiss all night. He gets a couple steps away before he stops, turns, and says. “Follow your stars if you want, Star Girl. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.”
Crying, I watch him walk away, knowing I may never see him again.
When I wake up in the morning, Nathaniel Chase is already gone.

Also make sure you check out my Nyrae Dawn Author Page (CLICK HERE) on my website for more information about Nyrae and her books

ABOUT NYRAE: 

Writing has always been Nyrae Dawn’s passion. There have been times in her life where she wasn’t able to chase that dream the way she desired, but she always found her way back to telling stories.
One of her loves has always been writing about teens. There’s something so fresh and fun about the age that she loves exploring. Her husband says it’s because she doesn’t want to grow up. She doesn’t think that’s such a bad thing and luckily for her, he doesn’t either.
Nyrae gravitates toward character-driven stories. She loves going on emotional journeys with characters whether it be reading or writing. And yes, she’s a total romantic at heart and proud.
Nyrae resides in sunny Southern California with her husband (who still makes her swoon) and her two awesome kids.
When she’s not with her family, you can be pretty sure you’ll find her with a book in her hand or her laptop and an open document in front of her.
She writes for Entangled Publishing, Grand Central Publishing and is self-published.Nyrae is represented by Jane Dystel of Dystel and Goderich Literary Management.
Nyrae Dawn also writes adult romance under the name Kelley Vitollo.
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