REVIEW: When Summer Comes by Brenda Novak

When Summer Comes

(Whiskey Creek #3)

by Brenda Novak

4 HEARTS

From Goodreads

One day, Callie Vanetta receives devastating news

She needs a liver transplant. But her doctors warn that, in her case, the chances of finding a compatible donor aren't good.

Determined to spend whatever time she has left on her own terms, she keeps the diagnosis to herself and moves out to her late grandparents' farm. She's always wanted to live there. But the farm hasn't been worked in years and she begins to fear it's too much, she'll have to return to town.

One night, a stranger comes knocking at her door... He's an attractive and mysterious drifter by the name of Levi McCloud who offers to trade work for a few nights' shelter. Callie figures she doesn't have anything to lose. He needs a place to stay until he can fix his motorcycle; she needs an extra pair of hands. The arrangement seems ideal until what was supposed to be temporary starts to look more and more permanent. Then she realizes she does have something to lose — her heart. And, although he doesn't yet know it, Levi stands to lose even more.

This series just keeps getting better and better. When Summer Comes is the 3rd book in the fabulous Whiskey Creek series by Brenda Novak. This peek into our group of friends in Whiskey Creek is a bit different than the previous two. Although, they all have depth and deal with more than just romantic encounters, this book deals with life and facing your own mortality. Throw in a sexy handy man and the story is softened enough to make you sigh in more ways than one.

Callie Vanetta is dieing. Now, she just has to find a way to tell the people she loves most. You would think being given the diagnosis of non-alcoholic liver disease and being told without a donor you will be dead by the end of the summer would be the worst thing you could ever face, but to Callie that's the second worse thing. Telling her friends and seeing their pity is going to be much worse. That's why when a stranger shows up at her house late one night asking for help she gives it to him. Normally, she would fear for her safety, especially knowing he was hiding from the police, but knowing your days are numbered changes your perspective. She can tell he's hurting and fighting demons that he'll never beat on his own. She's just the woman to help him. Why not? At least she can die knowing she helped someone and did something good. Losing her heart to him wasn't in the cards at all, but some things just can't be controlled. Now, she has one more person to keep her illness from. Thank goodness, he'll be long gone before she can't hide her disease anymore.

"I think we should be careful." "To hell with careful!" he growled. "Love and war don't work that way." "How do they work?" "It's all or nothing."

Levi McCloud just wants to be left alone. Going from town to town and living the life of a nomad is working for him. As long as he keeps moving maybe he can outrun his past and the horrors that are following him. Being attacked by a pair of pit bulls and having to beg for help at a farm in the middle of the night was definitely not on his agenda. Meeting the beautiful owner of the house and offering to stay on as a handyman is unthinkable. But, he feels he has no other alternative. Not only did she save his life, but she got his motorcycle out of impound and fixed it. He is staying just long enough to work off the debt and then he's moving on. Or at least that's what he keeps telling himself. He has never wanted to stay in one place so bad in his whole life. Callie is like no one he's ever met and she makes him wish for impossible things. He can't stay and ruin her life, but leaving just may kill him.

I was so annoyed with Callie in so many parts for suffering alone. As a friend I would be so angry. But, I get that she needed control over something in her life. Even though, I sympathized with her friends I really wish they would learn to mind their own business when it comes to one another's love lives. In this book as well as the last 2 they have so much to say about who their friends fall in love with and consider themselves the final say. Whey are they going to learn?

Hotness Rating 
3 out of 5