Book review: Falling for Summer by Kailin Gow

Falling for Summer (Loving Summer #2) by Kailin Gow

New Adult contemporary*paperback*

Published December 15th 2012 by theEDGEbooks.com

Love hits you when you least expect it, grabs you, sucks you in whole, and twists you around until you could hardly breathe. Love hurts like a sucker punch, that’s both glorious and beautiful. Falling for Summer was like that for me, every time. – Nat Donovan

The Donovan Brothers

Two brothers as gorgeous as they are dangerous.

Nat Donovan, the older more responsible brother with the passion of a starving man. Knows what he wants, but knows he can’t have it without giving up everything.

Drew Donovan, the really bad boy, the black sheep, the one who has a devil-may-care attitude, wants what he wants, but knows he would have to go through the ones he loves to have it.

Nat and Drew Donovan has known Summer Jones since they were kids. She had always been the girl next door who was best friends with their little sister Rachel and was cool enough to play with the guys. Now Summer is all grown up, gorgeous, and scorchingly sexy without even knowing it. Responsible older brother Nat, who had always tried to keep their friendship platonic, now can’t stop thinking of her and wanting more. Carefree Drew, who had always had a crush on Summer, but knew Summer’s heart was already taken, can only fall further for her. But no one had anticipated what would happen between the time the Donovan brothers fell for her and now. No one knew how hard they would fall.

My thoughts:

I had issues with Loving Summer, yet by the end I did like the characters. After finishing Falling for Summer, I couldn't care less for any of them. I believe this is a spin-off from the series, Loving Summer, because this is sub-titled The Donovan Brothers, #1.  Why? The Donovan boys narrated the other book, did they really need their own series? And is it a true spin-off if Summer also narrates?

Yes, I am confused about the whole spin-off part. Falling for Summer is told primarily from the point of view of the Donovan brothers, Nat and Drew, with a few instances by Summer herself, but the culmination of all of their tales is a whole lot of nothing new.

Drew loves/lusts for Summer. Nat loves/lusts for Summer. Both guys have a wealthy father and here we see them taking advantage of their social position. Each hops on their dad's private jet to see Summer whenever they want. Nat, now accepting he needs to be groomed if he is to take over his father's business one day, also involves some of the company to find out who is cyber bullying Summer. Drew has stopped his man whoring ways and has decided to graduate high school early so he can move into Summer's beach house (which the Donovans and Summer now own after the death of her aunt) so he can begin college classes at USC (the same school she plans to attend). Nat remains at home to help keep watch over their mom, go to college and work. 

Summer is still a mess, one minute she wants to sleep with Drew, the next she's professing her long-time love for Nat. Meanwhile she's kissing both, leading them on, only to let them down once again. Whatever made them appealing the first time fell to the wayside here. So many emotions and feelings are repeated until my eyes rolled from the redundancy. 

Introducing a cyber bully angle because pictures of Summer with movie star Astor surface on the web seemed contrived. Even Astor's brief scene came across as tacked on. A competing acting school wants to shut down her aunt's school, spreading rumors and affecting registration at Sookie's business. Honestly, I've never found this part of the story believable with Summer taking over teaching acting classes and running the business. She can't figure out who she loves so how can she handle a business, teach, college, volleyball and run her own house? As for Nat getting involved with his company, the scenes where he interacts with the employees were filled with flat, wooden and long-winded dialogue.  

Just when Summer and Nat come this close to an understanding, Nat changes his mind and throws a wrench into everything and the soap opera of Summer's life continues. Falling for Summer reads like a fast-paced short story, light on anything relevant and heavy on repetition and melodrama. The grammatical problems, tense changes, and typos make me wonder if this was published too quickly since it reads like an early draft. The first Summer book was promising, this is simply a dud and I'm pretty much done with both the Donovans and Summer.

Rating: 2.5

Cover comment: Is is Nat? Is it Drew? Very ineffective for cover art.

Book source: I received a promotional e-book from the author for my honest review.