Blurb:

Some moments in life set you on a path that changes everything.
Meeting Jayce Roberts when I was 16 was my moment.

Falling in love with the ridiculously handsome surfer I met at the beach might have been the beginning of this story, but our goodbye two weeks later wouldn’t be the end.
I did everything I could to move on from that summer. I studied, I worked, and yet I couldn’t erase the feelings of being suffocated by heartbreak in this small seaside town.

So, I left.

A few years turned into twenty, and now life has brought me back to the place I ran from. I thought I’d put Jayce behind me. But when he walked back into my life, he exposed the scars that refused to heal. He wanted a second chance, daring me to remember what we had.
But I vowed long ago that forgiving and forgetting isn’t in my nature. There’s nothing Jayce Roberts can say or do to change my mind.

Or so I thought.

My Review:

Unfinished Summer by Rachel De Lune is a delightful second chance romance between Zennor Williams and Jayce Roberts. The story unfolds in both their POV’s and covers both the past and the present. Beautifully written and so descriptive, that you feel like you are there in Cornwall or surfing the waves with Jayce around the world. Get swept away by the wave of emotions that this book brings as you follow this couple from the heartache of first love to reuniting as adults.

What do you do when you meet the love of your life at sixteen. At first it is only a holiday fling but suddenly it turns into so much more.  Now twenty years later they are facing the reality of what could have been and find themselves trying to cope with getting to know each other again while the old feelings are still bubbling underneath the surface.

Their whole lives have revolved around what happened that summer. All their decisions and everything they have done has been affected by their teenage love affair. Now as adults they are both having to face up to the consequences of that young first love. She has carried the hurt, anger and pain of that summer since he left and he has constantly been looking for someone or something to fill the gap she left him with. 

Zennor has grown up in Tregethworth but has never wanted to stay until a handsome boy arrives one summer. Jayce is on holiday with his family in Cornwall. He loves to surf and is looking forward to his gap year surfing around the world. What he doesn’t expect is to fall in love with the young girl he sees on the first day. Join Jayce and Zennor as they enjoy everything involved with first love. It all happens very quickly during his two week holiday, then on top of it all he’s leaving compounds everything. One is left fulfilling their dreams while the other faces heartbreak and trauma.

Go with them as they are pulled under with the heartbreak of their summer romance ending, then wiped out with the consequences of that love and finally come up for air twenty years later. There are secrets to be revealed and heartache to work through. All she feels is not going away until she confronts what happened and finally faces the loss she experienced.

It took a lot to like the adult Zennor in the beginning. I thought she was very stubborn and selfish but slowly as the author reveals the secrets she’s been keeping and the reasons behind the way she treats Jayce, some of her actions are understandable. I kept reminding myself she was only sixteen when they fell in love, both of them were totally overwhelmed by their feelings for each other and didn’t know how to cope with their new emotions.

I absolutely adored Jayce and I admired his patience and devotion to Zennor. There is a fantastic epilogue to bring this couple’s journey to an end and bring them the happiness they both deserve.

The author has very cleverly written this book as if you are surfing along with Jayce. You start by paddling out and waiting for the right wave to come along; this was them meeting for the first time. Then the two weeks together was like riding that wave; they are swept up in the exhilaration of love. Then him leaving was like falling off the board and going under the waves trying to survive. Both have been treading water for twenty years and now they are caught up in a riptide of emotion, can the waves bring them back together. Can this couple finish their unfinished summer?

Totally recommend this delightful story.