"It was a strange summer, even before it became tragic."

I really wanted to love this book, because the premise is exactly the sort of thing I enjoy. In the end I did like it, the second half more so. I enjoyed the mystery of the lights, and the missing person. The language in the book was beautiful, ethereal even at times, but it also lacked umph.

I wasn't invested in the people. If I had put it down and never picked it back up again, my questions would have been about how it ended. Not because I cared about the people, but because I was curious to know how the author wrapped it up. Really, I just wanted to know what the blue lights were and what happened to the missing person.

I enjoyed the mystery element, but sometimes it was trying too hard to be mysterious. This meant, to me, that characters were always held at arms length. I wanted to care about Natasha or her Mother, but there was nothing that gave me a reason to. I will say that I liked Lewis though, he was my favourite character!

It wasn't what I was expecting, based on the summary I read. This just wasn't for me, but if you enjoy a bit of an ethereal feeling mystery and don't have to like your main character (which isn't a bad thing, I know a lot of people enjoy characters like this!) then this might be for you.

This book is beautifully written and you are completely drawn into the story. It centres around Natasha who is looking back to her teenage years and in particular one summer where life changed for all of the main characters. Natasha has the gift of second sight and the different ways that she and those around her react to this really shapes this story. I did not want to put it down and can’t wait to read more from Rachel Donahue.

This glorious book has an ethereal quality that is completely addictive -I loved it and was so invested in the characters that I couldn’t put it down until I had finished reading, and even then did so with great reluctance. The story centres on Natasha, a teenager with ‘precognition’ (second sight), her young friends, her fragile mother, and a cast of other characters, each with their own agenda. Every one of the characters is vividly and believably drawn, as is the setting, an unnamed seaside town during the Summer holiday season. The book contains the whole gamut of emotions and how a very special person learns to deal with them as she grows up. As with all Rachel Donohue’s work, there are unexpected events and happenings that draw the reader in, no matter their level of scepticism. No more from this reviewer as spoilers are to be avoided!

N/a. Somehow not given a copy of the book by Donohue, but given another one. If you’d like a review of Caroline Bond’s new book (which I somehow ended up with), I didn’t like it