Review: A wonderfully unexpected love story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 11, 2013
4.5 starsI'm gonna tell you a secret...I rarely read blurbs any more. I go solely on past reading experiences with an author or close friends who's opinions I trust. After reading Blown I didn't need any convincing to pick up Clover. And I'm glad I did.We get to spend a summer falling in love with Clover Watson and Jake Feldman. Jake has crushed on and been in love with Clover since he first laid eyes on her, despite her being three years older. But for Clover he was always the neighbor kid who was friends with her baby brother and spent the summers with his Aunt. It's not until Clover is home for the summer, after college, that she sees the boy she knew has grown into quite the desirable man. Their history together only strengthens their romance and allows them to see if what they feel is just a summer fling or will survive them each going back to the lives they left behind. It's a summer of counting down the days and wishing the end would never come. Clover's plan is to go back to Portland to start a Masters program while Jake is to go home to his parents in Salem and community college.There are moments of doubt for Jake as he pushes down feelings of inadequacy, not believing his luck that Clover finally would want to be with him, that she's in a league he'll never be apart of. The thing is, never, not once does Clover ever see that. Even when she's not ready to voice her love for Jake she always makes sure to tell him and show him just how important he truly is to her.During the course of the book you spend the summer in the present with Clover and Jake but you also spend the past nine summers in flash back chapters that show the reader who they were as children and the lives they led, where they came from and how they became who they were to each other. This is vitally important because in the present there is a force threatening Clover that exposes a dark secret in Jake's past.I genuinely loved all of these characters and their story. I however wanted so much more. The ending both satisfied me and left me feeling like wait what's next? I had a few questions left unanswered and struggle with even if they are that important to answer because in the end Jake and Clover got their moment and that's all I truly wanted.