[Review] Susan Mallery : Summer Days

[romance]

You can buy it here:
Summer Days (Amazon)
Summer Days (Amazon eBook)
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Rating:
2.5/5

FTC: eGalley received from Publisher through Netgalley - no money was exchanged and the review is my opinion only

Summary: (from the publisher, as provided on Netgalley
Rafe is trapped in the one place he vowed never to return to—the Castle Ranch in Fool’s Gold, California. He made millions facing ruthless adversaries in the boardroom, but nothing could’ve prepared him to go head-to-head against stubborn, beautiful Heidi Simpson. No one is more surprised than Rafe to discover that he’s finding Heidi—and life as a cowboy—much more compelling than he wants to admit.

For Heidi, the Castle Ranch is the home she’s always wanted. After a life on the road, the vivacious blonde has finally put down roots. She won’t give that up without a fight, not even for a man whose late-night kisses make her yearn to be a little less…wholesome.

As the two turn from passionate adversaries to passionate, period, they’ll discover that summer love can last a lifetime.

My thoughts:
Returning to this quirky small town called Fool’s Gold is always enjoyable. The characters usually are a pleasure and for a bigger family, whether they are related or not and even the reader feels included in the events in town. Mallery’s writing style never disappoints me. It may not be comparable to Shakespeare or Chaucer, but readers shouldn’t expect that.
Returning to see how all the old friends are handling their life and the changes they go through – marriage and children being only two examples – is a joy I can never resist.
With this 7th novel set in Fool’s Gold, however, I had one major issue: Rafe, the hero!
He is a pain in my booty and I disliked him for most of the book. His overbearing personality, his knowitall attitude and his unbendable, unchangeable opinions just drove me crazy. I would almost say I hated him for most of the book, not only for how he treated our heroine and her grandfather, but also his own family and everyone around him.

Attention, major spoilers ahead! (Please highlight to read.)

Thanks to Rafe, the ending just felt wrong and almost rushed. It was so anticlimactic I wanted to cry and throw the book across the room – and I might have done it, had it not been on my precious Kindle! Basically, our heroine, Heidi, decides she must tell Rafe that she loves him and follows him to LA, where she finds him in his office with a woman she doesn’t know. She immediately thinks the worst of him, which is no surprise considering his previous behavior, and… Takes it out on the woman! Not on Rafe, but the woman – who later turns out to be the decorator. The happy ending is already there right after they tell each other “I love you”. I feel cheated out of at least two more pages of story. There must have been something missing in my book, because clearly, this is not an ending Susan Mallery would normally write.