Love Triangles Galore in Silver Beach

       Okay, so I'm reading Summer Love by: Diane Schwemm.  I know, even the title sounds cliché.  But if you know me, you know I love reading romance novels, which just asks for a cliché title.  I got this and at least 80 other books at a half-price books $2.00 or less sale, which was amazing!!! I decided to start with this book because, I admit it, it's shorter and I wanted to have a short book to finish out the year with.  I picked it up because of the title, and the fact that it was with the 3rd book in the series (I'll find the 2nd book later).  When I read the back cover I was pleased.  It is not just a couple who start to like each other, or a girl who goes after the wrong guy, only to fall for her best guy friend, or next-door neighbor.  Summer Love is about a "colony" around Silver Beach, on the Michigan side of Lake Michigan.  The colony is a ton of cottages that are summer homes to the rich and powerful, and their teenage children.  Elli Chapman Wells, one of the main characters, describes what she loves about, "the row of elegant, century-old lakeshore cottages that composed the summer colony of Silver Beach, Michigan.  Year after year, the colony was the same, her family's routine was the same, the other families that came up for the summer were the same." (Schwemm 6).  It seems to me that this line has a little bit of foreshadowing for what's to come of the colony.

   Now,  I'll get to where the change part comes in.  Elli has a younger brother, Ethan, who has had his heart set on one girl his whole life, Charlotte Ransom.  However, Elli hates Charlotte, and Charlotte has been pretty brutal to Ethan until this summer, when she starts flirting back with him.  Yet, Charlotte doesn't really seem to like Ethan in her sections (the book switches sections between the four main characters), but rather the older and more mysterious Sam DeWitt.  And the triangle, or should I say flow chart continues.  We come to find out that Sam has a thing for Elli, "... thought Sam, fighting back a sudden, fierce urge to grab her bare arms and kiss her." (Schwemm 45-46), and she has liked him back, "Instead she dreamed about a kiss- her first real kiss, something she was still waiting for. And it was with Sam." (Schwemm 47), but they haven't told each other about their feelings in 60 pages, because that would be too easy.   Things are starting to go well for the budding couple, when Sam signs Elli up to partner with him at being a sailing instructor for the summer camp that they are both counselors for.  They also plan to race in the big regatta together towards the end of summer. 

I absolutely love all of the characterization that this book has.  Charlotte is described as having, "long honey-blonde hair...one suntanned shoulder."(Schwemm 19),   She described her cottage as, "More like a tomb than a home, with...her father rattling around inside like old, dry bones."(Schwemm 67).   Elli is described with "...straight, chin length brown hair."  (Schwemm 3).  Ethan is "...tall and rangy, lean and athletic.  And handsome.  His straight brown hair was cut long on top so that it flopped into his eyes,... he had a killer smile."  (Schwemm 5).  Sam is described by Charlotte in the first few chapters with, " His broad muscled shoulders, his already tanned chest and arms, the sweep of chestnut hair and...hazel eyes." (Schwemm 20).  I love characterization, I would give more quotes about the main characters' personalities and what other characters think about them but I feel as though I've already reached my quote quota.  So, instead I'll tell you about why I enjoy characterization and don't mind the cliché romance stories I often read.  The characters always have some new layer, whether you see it coming or not, it's there just like real people.  Even with characters you are always guessing what they are going to think about a certain situation and how they'll react, just like real people.  And just like real people, they will sometimes catch you off guard, rereading to see if you actually read that.  I like that even though I might know how it will end or a least have a very good theory, the journey for the characters is always different.   And I love how in this book, since it is in 3rd person omniscient, I can see the whole story play out as well as the dramatic irony that results from it. 


 I can't wait to finish this so far amazing book!