Cruel Summer

The Complete Boxed Set

De: Rachel Van Dyken

Narrado por: Tyler Donne, Maxine Mitchell

A sexy three-book enemies-to-lovers romance with a dirty dancing twist!

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Rachel Van Dyken (Summer Heat); copyright 2018 by Rachel Van Dyken (Summer Seduction); copyright 2018 by Rachel Van Dyken (Summer Nights) (P)2021 Tantor

New to me author was not a let down!

Rachel Van Dyken is a new to me author, and I will definitely read more by her. Her writing was very clean and she told a great story.

Over the summer takes place a friendenemies to lovers reconnect at Drama camp as they are camp director and coach. This follows the ups and downs as they reconnect and find the flaws in thierselves and become stronger as a couple.

Narration by Maxine Mitchell and Tyler Donne. Tyler Donne is new to me and he was alittle bit of a let down. To me he didn't fit this role and sounded a little juvenile.

This is a Standalone. Medium spice.

5 stars!!

This story was a perfect enemies to lovers romance! Rachel developed all of the characters so well! And of course Maxine was perfection!

Good story BUT

Good story, but dang…each book ends at a peak!! Thankfully this was the 3 book set from beginning to end! Absolutely hate books that do not complete a story and you must wait for the next in the series to be released.

OKAY +

This series to me was just a little better than okay, in fact I couldn’t take another 3 hours of the whiny back & forth of the two main characters at the end. Too much philosophical babble of their sorry lives. There’s a whole lot of people in the world not feeling sorry for themselves with worse lives. I speed listened to the last part & ending just to finish. Overall idea was good, started off good but dragged on way too long to get to the “perfect” ending. Good try though, narrators were fantastic.

Good Story - extreme angst

Is this a multi-part story? Yes and No
Does it end in a cliffhanger? Not in this version
Genre(s) : Romantic Comedy, Drama
Instalove? No
Do the MCs act like: HS, YA, NA or Adult All of the above as it spans across 15 years.
Was cheating involved? No
Any major triggers to be aware of? Child neglect, death of a sibling, bullying
Listening Speed? 1.25

4 Stars for me!
My rating range of this story... 3 - 5 Stars
If significant, why? Just too much angst and internal monologue! YES it is a hallmark of LB and I still love her writing.
Biggest deduction? 1 Star - see above and final notes.

Main Character Ratings...
H (Marlon) = 6/10
h (Ray) = 6/10
TSTL Moment(s)? A few

Narrator Rating(s)
M (Tyler Donne) = 9/10
F (Maxine Mitchell) = 8/10
If below 5/10, why?

If Comedy... Type? Mostly cute
Funny, Cute, Cringe Inducing, Mixed or Just No!

Angst Level? Please Stop
Light, Moderate, Heavy or Please Stop

Internal Monolog/Dialog? Pleeaaaassse Stop!
Light, Moderate, Heavy or Please Stop

Scenes with heat... Yes
When does it start? 50%
How much of the story? 10%
Anything beyond M/F? No
If yes, explained

Heat Rating... 6/10
Clean or Fade to Black - 1 or 2
Normal to Descriptive 3-5
Detailed Descriptive Sex - 6-7
Um, Wow, Beyond Descriptive Sex - 8 or above

Was there so much sex or unrealistic sex that you rolled your eyes and/or skipped forward? One scene seemed to have a minimum of six O's.

The back story... Orphaned at six, the H gets a foster mom who works hard, shows love and then takes a job with the h's family to help take care of their daughter. Things are okay between the kids until 5th grade when he gets tall and gangly and she comes into her beauty and her popular friends shun him as the lawn boy.

They do have sex once as teenagers and she quickly abandons him to avoid getting harassed by her 'friends'. To add insult to injury, she beats him out for a drama scholarship and it really hurts him because her family is wealthy and his more us scraping by.

Fast forward 4 years and they meet again at a drama summer camp where she is a new camp leader and he is the camp director.

He is still bitter and decides to be a broody jerk to her. She is tired of trying to live up to an image and works hard to hide her lifetime of hurt and sadness due to parental neglect.

Romance or Gist: You can see it slowly build in between the constant angst and internal dialog. It gets stronger towards the 60-70% mark but is tenuous until they really dig deeper into each other and are honest and vulnerable.

The drama explosion... Mom, Dad and the Agent
Did it feel Real, OK or contrived? Mostly real
Was it OTT? Yup
Separation involved? No
Was it resolved properly or rushed? Properly

Final Notes... Let me start off by saying that I love LB and have read/listened to most of her stories. I know that she targets YA and NA readers as the stories are filled with continuous angst and internal monologues which is okay until it becomes overwhelming. My guess is that this story was a solid 65% Angst and internal dialog. Cut that to 40% and I would give it a solid 5 Stars

The additional storyline between the other two camp leaders was both great and grrrr! The guy was such an idiot and she was a bit too forgiving but I was still rooting for them. The ending was well done and there may have been a tear or two.

HEA or HFN? HEA
Book Source: Audible

Cruel Summer

This complete box set was wonderful, I laughed and cried. It captured my heart. I recommend that other take a chance on this complete series it will bring you back to you youth and will leave you rooting for the underdog.

Summer Nights A++

This was an amazing love story. It had the highs and lows., laughs, craziness and fun. Without spoiling I did cry so hard at the end if book 2. I'm so glad all 3 books were in the one set. It kept me on the edge of my seat, I wouldn't have been satisfied to have to wait for the next book to come out. Rachel Van Dyken is an amazing writer.

This is a great story. The story really kept my attention. I'm hoping to find more great stories.

There was nothing I didn't like. Not all stories can keep my attention. Great job on this book.

Things aren’t always a bed of roses

I love this author. She is my go to when I just need a little something. 😍

Great story

love this story ,very good story line. the writer keeps u on your toes. will listen to it again for sure.