Song of Summer Review

Song of Summer

Laura Lee Anderson

Bloomsbury Spark

July 7th, 2015

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads Description: 

The thirteen qualities of Robin’s Perfect Man range from the mildly important “Handsome” to the all-important “Great taste in music.” After all, Westfield’s best high school folk musician can’t go out with some shmuck who only listens to top 40 crap. When hot Carter Paulson walks in the door of Robin’s diner, it looks like the list may have come to life. It’s not until the end of the meal that she realizes he’s profoundly deaf.

Carter isn’t looking for a girlfriend. Especially not a hearing one. Not that he has anything against hearing girls, they just don’t speak the same language. But when the cute waitress at Grape Country Dairy makes an effort to talk with him, he takes her out on his yellow Ducati motorcycle.

Told in first person alternating perspectives, language, music, and culture go along for the ride as Carter and Robin find their song.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

With music being a huge part of the plot, I knew right away that this was my kind of book. I couldn't stop reading once I picked it up, it completely had my attention all the way through. I was just dying to know what would happen between Carter and Robin and that's always a big indicator of a good book to me. Laura Lee Anderson certainly made her mark with this one, I'll be anxiously waiting for her next release.

I understood Robin because like her, I'm also obsessed with music. I loved all the musicians she referenced including my personal favorite Bob Dylan. Anyway, I felt connected from the beginning to her passion for it. Where I couldn't connect with her was the obsession she had with having a boyfriend who loved music as much as she does. Anyone who personally knows me would jump in here and point out that is totally hypocritical of me to say. Music is something that I also use as a way to connect with people, and I do judge guys that I like based on their taste in music. Unlike Robin, it wouldn't be such a huge deal for me if I met a guy as fabulous as Carter. He's caring, fun, sweet, smart, witty, and adores Robin for who she is. Yes, he's not exactly innocent either, he judges Robin for not being deaf, but I felt like she battled with it way more than Carter did.

Carter and Robin were great as a couple, well until all the drama had to come in and shake things up for them. However, no relationship is smooth sailing and a hearing girl who has never been close to anyone who is hearing impaired is going to encounter many doubters. These seem to pop up again and again in the story through a variety of characters. I did enjoy the romance though, despite that it was pretty much insta-love. I still never felt like any part of the relationship was rushed or unrealistic at all. It was a story about love that happened in the most natural way possible and that was fun to read about.

In the end, the book did fall a bit short for me because of Robin's attitude at times. I also found the ending to be abrupt and I didn't like that it was left open-ended. Sometimes stories like that work, but in this case it didn't for me. I wanted to see more development and answers about where the two characters will end up in the future, and of course, whether or not they'll be together. I felt like Anderson wrote about music and being deaf in an incredibly beautiful manner, I held on to every word and craved more after it ended.