One Summer

My favorite favorite aithor. Never leave home without him. David went to Rome with me.

This is a bit of a turn for David Baldacci from his regular style of work. I enjoyed the work and felt that he did a good job of describing how people deal with grief in different ways. He also did a good job of dealing with how family relationships are built, how they struggle, how fear sometimes tramples relationship but how love and understanding do eventually work their magic to build strong families.Jack Armstrong is dying! He has a terminal illness and doesn't have much longer to live. His wife and kids are frightened, each of them dealing with the inevitable in their own way. Lizzie is strong and dependable and there for every need. Michelle, their teenage daughter is withdrawn and moving further away from relationship with her dad. Cory is scarred for what is happening and unsure how to respond. Jackie, the youngest, has no idea what is really going on so he just goes on with life as normal.Jack promises Lizzie to do his best to live until Christmas. With just a week left he starts to write her one letter a day to leave for her as a memorial of his love and care for her and the family. On Christmas eve Lizzie realizes that she forgot to pick up Jack's med's from the pharmacy, so against the wishes of her husband, she leaves home in a storm and heads to the pharmacy. Later the police show up to tell Jack that Lizzie was killed in a car accident.Devastation is the only word that can describe what happens. What can Jack do, he is bed ridden and will die soon. The kids need someone to care for them. Enter the grandparents. They take and divide the kids up amongst family members and park Jack in a hospice facility to wait out his time and then die.But Jack has a change of mind about dying and starts to fight back. Long story short, he recovers and the doctors say it is a miracle. Jack is convinced it is because of Lizzie in heaven watching out for him.Jack gets his kids back and moves to the childhood home of his wife. It is there that the bulk of the story takes place. I don't want to give spoilers so I will be general here. Bottom line, Baldacci builds his characters, adds new ones to the mix, develops their relationships to each other and works through a variety of issues regarding parenting, grieving and well, just learning to move on.As someone who works a lot with people who are grieving the loss of loved ones the book really spoke to me because Baldacci does a great job of describing how some people handle their grief. This is a great read.If you are use to Baldaccis regular work you might not like this book. But if you are willing to try something a bit different I don't think you will be disappointed.Thanks David for giving us a very good story about family.Enjoy!

Great read!!

I liked it, but it was very predictable in so many areas . I can't believe how much tie was spent in the lighthouse and how long the daughter managed to hang out to the driftwood..

As a David Baldacci fan, although I have not read all of his books, the appearance of One Summer as a Hallmark movie caught me off guard. And in a rare twist, I watched the movie before reading the book. I have to add this is unlike my personal favorite Baldacci story, The Christmas Train, which I've read every year since its publication and now every year read the book and watch the Hallmark film version. I love both the film and the book although the detail of the book is just part of why I read (or listen to) it every year.I enjoyed the movie, finding it a well-crafted, although typical Hallmark version of the story. I then quickly purchased and read the book, again enjoying the added detail and in some cased really liking the changes that were made for the film. Without getting into "spoilers," I thought that some of the experiences left out of the book make it a more positive story and, while the endings of both the book and the movie are very dramatic, I liked the film ending more.David is such a great writer that there's never been a book of his that I haven't enjoyed -- and he's written a wide range of different stories. One thing's for sure from this fan: I'd like to see more David Baldacci films!

It was a great read.

The writer is good and this story pulled at my heart. A hard working, perhaps too hard working, man in his mid thirties, after several military stints is finally home with the wife he adores, and their three kids, one girl and two boys. He is in construction with a good friend and life, from his perspective, is going well. He works long hours but is supporting his family.He finds out he has an incurable, fast acting, debilitating, fatal disease, and may have 6 months or so to live. This tears him, his loving wife and his family apart and during the Christmas season, it looks like his time will end.One cold night with icy roads, his wife runs out to get his pain medications, over his objections, and dies in an auto accident. There is so much pain, His mother-in-law and his 16 year old daughter, in their grief, even lash out at him for letting his wife leave the house. He ends up in hospice, his children are divided up between family members out of state and he waits to die.But he does not. His body gets better, he gets his kids back, he inherits use of his wife's grandmother's house on the ocean. He is given a second chance.This is a story of love, loss, and healing.Some said it was sappy, maybe a little. Second change miracles are not especially common, though I know a few people who have been touched. For some it was a blessing and they enjoyed and were grateful, for others, it was as if it never was and those in a downward personal slide kept going down. The biggest miracle might be the one that changes perspective and allows you to see the good and add to it.I enjoyed the book.

Great shape, good read.

This novel shows the softer side of David Baldacci. This is no blood and thunder thriller but he faces full on the question of personal loss, personal relationships and the family relationships following that loss. There is sentiment that can reduce the toughest of males to a weeping wreck but there is redemption to that emotion in the solutions to the problems of life and death.This sounds very cryptic but to say more would be to give too much away - you'll just have to read it to understand!

Not one of Mr Baldacci’s normal fast paced thrillers, more of a human story. And I was completely absorbed. Read it in a day. The characters were entirely believable and the story gripping. I experienced a roller coaster of emotions, despair, sadness, joy. They were all there.

Love David Baldacci’s thrillers but this was all a bit contrived……the main character makes a miraculous recovery from an unnamed, usually fatal disease and then loses his wife unexpectedly. How unlucky can a person be?!!?It was a little bit corny and not as enjoyable as his more recent work!

I certainly did. I've read all of David Baldacci's books and am a great fan. I picked up a copy of Wish You Well, when on holiday in Sarasota - some kind person had left it in the "library" and couldn't put it down.It was the same with "One Summer" - completely different to his usual books but I managed to read in in 24 hours -which is really unusual for me.Just as an aside -be careful reading some of the reviws on here - there are some "spoilers" !

This is a departure from David Baldacci's normal style and content. However it demonstrates that he is capable of producing a fine and gentle storyline combining pathos,family trials and tribulations and an underlying love story that tugs at the heart strings.It is a book that is uplifting and hard to put down.It draws the reader into a fantasy world with such skill that you almost feel a part of it.One can almost smell the sea and the images of the stunning coast line in which it is set. More of the same please David although don't neglect Sean King and Michelle Maxwell and of course the Camel Club.