The Summer We Came to Life: A Novel by Deborah Cloyed - Opening Sentences

Title: The Summer We Came to Life by Deborah Cloyed
Publisher: Mira; Original edition (May 31, 2011), Paperback: 320 pages

Opening sentences can set the tone for a book and help give you an idea of whether or not the book is for you!

Birth and death are the two occurrences in a person's life that seem to say one thing: we are not the ones calling the shots. "The only consolations are love and best friends." That's what Mina told me two days before she died.(from an advance uncorrected proof; final copy may differ).

Product description: Every summer, Samantha Wheland joins her childhood friends—Isabel, Kendra and Mina—on a vacation, somewhere exotic and fabulous.... This year it's a beach house in Honduras. But for the first time, their clan is not complete. Mina lost her battle against cancer six months ago, and the friends she left behind are still struggling to find their way forward without her.

For Samantha, the vacation just feels wrong without Mina. Despite being surrounded by her friends—the closest thing she has to family—Mina's death has left Sam a little lost. Unsure what direction her life should take. Fearful that whatever decision she makes about her wealthy French boyfriend's surprise proposal, it'll be the wrong one.

The answers aren't in the journal Mina gave Sam before she died. Or in the messages Sam believes Mina is sending as guideposts. Before the trip ends, the bonds of friendship with her living friends, the older generation's stories of love and loss, and Sam's glimpse into a world far removed from the one in which she belongs will convince her to trust her heart. And follow it.

See my review of the The Summer We Came to Life:  Books of Love and Loss

About the author: Deborah Cloyed lives in Los Angeles. As a photographer, travel writer, or curious nomad, she has lived in London, Barcelona, Thailand, Honduras, Kenya, and New York City. She's traveled to twenty other countries besides, several as a contestant on CBS' The Amazing Race. She runs a photography school for kids and is at work on her next book.

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