Does your past define your destiny? Told through multiple perspectives, rich with emotion and immersive dual timelines, The Summer We Ran weaves together a story of lost love, devastating secrets, shocking sabotage, and the painstaking decision two people must make in order to fulfill the futures they each desire.

In the summer of 1996, teenage Tess Murphy’s mom gave her two rules to abide keep quiet and stay out of trouble. Her mother landed a new job as a cook at an affluent Virginia estate and didn’t want anything to risk the opportunity, least of all her outspoken daughter. What no one saw coming was Tess falling deeply in love with the boy next door, high-society Grant Alexander.

Over a few wondrous and heat-filled months, Tess and Grant’s love blooms so ferociously it feels utterly impossible that anything can keep them apart, until tragedy strikes and the teenagers find themselves pained by betrayal with little hope to repair the damage that’s been done.

Now, two decades after their epic teenage romance abruptly ended in heartbreak, Tess and Grant are both running for Governor of Virginia, where secrets from that summer threaten to shatter their families, futures, and the love they once shared.

I’m still working my way through my backlog of Book of the Month picks, and this one actually felt pretty timely given that it’s an election year. I wasn’t blown away by it, but I did enjoy the ride overall, even with a few issues along the way.

Back in the summer of 1996, teenage Tess Murphy is under strict orders from her mom to keep her head down and stay out of trouble. Her mother just landed a job cooking for a wealthy Virginia family, and she can’t afford to lose it, especially not because of her outspoken daughter. Naturally, Tess falls hard for the boy next door, Grant Alexander, whose mother happens to be the one Tess works for. Their romance burns fast and intense over one summer, until something happens that blows the whole thing apart and leaves both of them dealing with a betrayal neither can fully move past. Fast forward two decades, and Tess and Grant find themselves running against each other for Governor of Virginia. Old secrets from that summer start resurfacing, threatening to unravel both of their campaigns and families right along with them.

Pacing wise, this one moved along easily and never dragged, which made it a pretty quick read overall. Character wise, Tess is the strongest part of this book by far, especially in her teenage timeline. She’s scrappy, headstrong, and clearly cares about the people around her, and I found myself rooting for her from the start. Her family situation adds real weight to her character too. She’s the daughter of a single mom just barely scraping by (cue Reba McEntyre song), which makes the class divide between her and Grant feel genuinely meaningful instead of just a plot device.

Grant, unfortunately, didn’t land the same way for me. He felt pretty flat and more like a stock character pulled straight from the romance genre playbook than a fully realized person. His family situation follows the same pattern. He’s privileged, his father is a manipulative jerk who uses money and power to control everyone around him, and his mother is stuck as a victim in that dynamic. It’s a setup we’ve all seen plenty of times before, and the book doesn’t really do much to make it feel fresh. I wanted more depth from him, especially since we get his perspective just as much as Tess’s.

That said, I did like getting both of their points of view, both in the present day political storyline and back in 1996. Alternating between the two timelines gave a good sense of how much both of them have changed, and how much they haven’t. This is fundamentally a romance at its core, and while there weren’t a ton of surprises along the way, I did like how everything came together by the end. The political angle added a nice layer of tension on top of the romance, even if it never provided any real surprises along the way.

If you’re looking for a light, easy romance with dual timelines/perspectives and a political backdrop, and characters you root for you might enjoy this one. For me, Tess was a great character, though Grant never quite gets out of the standard bad boy trope. Still, I enjoyed it.

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