Summer has arrived and 15-year-old Francesca “Frankie” Schell has no big plans.  Four years ago while on the beach with her family, Francesca’s little brother Simon drowned while Francesca was supposed to be watching him.  Even now, Francesca’s mother is distant towards her and her father seems to be spending a little too much time at the single ladies house across the street.  Francesca’s best friend is always busy with her super cute boyfriend Bradley who Francesca wishes was her own.

With her home life a mess, Francesca goes to the local country club where she meets a darling 4-year-old boy named ironically Frankie and has a striking resemblance to Simon.  As more and more coincidences starts to come up, Francesca starts to wonder if there is such a thing as reincarnation or if this is some sort of cosmic alignment trying to help Francesca to move forward from the tragedy that has held her in place for so long.

The Summer Of Letting Go is an engaging summer read that brings you right into the world that Francesca lives in.  A powerful read of loss and moving on from the perspective of a teenage girl who not only has lived the pain of loss first hand, but also sees how if affects others around her.

I was surprised how engaged I became in this book.  Well written, I had at least two moments where I caught my breath.. Gae Polisner does a fine job of bringing you right to that teenage level of “emotion amplified” and I didn’t want the book to end.

If you do audio, I recommend listening to this one.  The narration of Tara Sands was excellent.  Tara handled the different characters flawlessly.