Yvonne‘THE SUMMER THAT MELTED EVERYTHING‘
The heat came with the devil. It was the summer of 1984, and while the devil had been invited, the heat was not. It should’ve been expected, though. Heat is, after all, the devil’s name, and when’s the last time you left home without yours?
It was a heat that didn’t just melt tangible things like ice, chocolate, Popsicles. It melted all the intangibles too. Fear, faith, anger and those long-trusted templates of common sense. It melted lives as well, leaving futures to be slung with the dirt of the gravedigger’s shovel.
I was thirteen when it all happened. An age that saw me both overwhelmed and altered by life in a way I’d never been before. I haven’t been thirteen in a long time. If I were a man who still celebrated his birthday, there would be eighty-four flames flickering above the cake, above this life and its frightening genius, its inescapable tragedy, its summer of teeth that opened wide and consumed the little universe we called Breathed, Ohio.
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Clicking on the book’s cover image, will take you directly to its Amazon page..
To find out more about both book and author, click here..
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WHAT IS ‘BOOK BEGINNINGS’?
Would the first few lines of your book make you want to read on?
If so, would you like to share them with us, (without revealing too many spoilers of course) ?
Click here and visit your host, Gilion @ Rose City Reader
You can then leave a link to your own book beginnings post, or just browse for some great reads, there are always plenty of new authors and titles to be discovered.
Don’t forget that Gilion and all the other contributors to this meme love to hear from you, so why not leave a comment or two at the same time?
I can’t wait to do a little blog hopping myself and check out all the great Book Beginnings you have!
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This sounds like a great read – I think I’ve seen it shared before. Thanks for reminding me. I love the writing style.
Here’s You will know me by Megan Abbott, which I’ll be reading this weekend.
Hi Bev,
Yes! As you say, this book has been quite actively promoted on the circuit recently. I have been trying to space my promotional posts some distance apart, so as not to flood the pages and give time for a few more reviews and ratings to appear in between.
I do have a great guest post with the book’s author Tiffany McDaniel to follow in the future and believe me, it is just as impassioned as the up front style of writing she seems to use in ‘The Summer That Melted Everything’, so I do hope that you will find time to stop by again then 🙂
This one is doing the rounds. I’ve listed it, but not as an urgent read. Will get to it eventually. Before I turn 115… Hope you enjoy it! Here’s my Friday Meets: http://marelithalkink.blogspot.co.za/2016/08/friday-meets-26-august-2016.html
Hi Mareli,
You sound very much like myself, in that I have enough books to keep me gainfully employed reading and reviewing, long past the length of one substantial lifetime and well into the next!
That’s why I am so open to providing plenty of promotional posts for books which particularly catch my eye, as in all fairness, I may never get around to actually reading quite a high percentage of my library catalogue!
‘Too Many Books, Too Little Time’, never did sound more like the truth 🙂
Wow! What a storyline!
Hi Vicki,
It is certainly one of the strangest and possibly strongest storylines I have come across for a while, that’s for sure! All of the words from those opening lines dragged me straight in and I couldn’t separate the paragraphs, if you were to ask me which were the most intense and moving.
I hope that the rest of the story is as compelling, which judging by the rave reviews and ratings it has gathered so far, it might well prove to be!
Thanks for stopping by and I am sorry to have taken so long in replying to your comment 🙂
I’m still a bit hesitant about this one, but I’ll admit the opening lines are wonderful – especially that second paragraph!
I’m between books today, so nothing to share.
Hi Kelly,
I have to admit that this is a one-off storyline, as I have never come across a premise quite like this one and certainly not one with such compelling and intense opening lines.
Others who have left reviews, seem to be stunned almost to silence by the effect the book has had on them, but almost to a person, they have only positive things to say about the experience of having read ‘The Summer That Melted Everything’.
It is sometimes good to be between books and to take your time in choosing what to read next. I will quite often just sit and peruse my many bookshelves, the trouble is … I need and desire to read all the books I see, each one as much as the other!
Happy Choosing and enjoy 🙂
Hmmmm . . . I don’t know. Once I figured out that it’s set in the future (I’m not good at math, but I figured that one out), I think it lost my interest. Maybe not my cup of tea.
But I’m glad you shared the beginning on BBOF!
Hi Gilion,
I haven’t started reading this one yet, but I am assuming that the eighty-four year old man is indeed now living in the future with his reminiscences and storytelling, whilst the events of ‘The Summer That Melted Everything’, happen when he is thirteen, back in 1984.
Tiffany has written an excellent guest post, which I shall be publishing very soon, so it might be worth you stopping by then, when all might be revealed 🙂
Thanks for hosting and giving us all the opportunity to share our first lines 🙂
Well, this book’s beginning certainly has me intriuged! 🙂
Hi Nikki,
Even if I hadn’t read the full premise of this book, those opening lines would definitely have got me intrigued.
Whilst the first line about the Devil having been invited, is enough for me to have questions, it was the very last line which totally hooked me and drew me in …
“If I were a man who still celebrated his birthday, there would be eighty-four flames flickering above the cake, above this life and its frightening genius, its inescapable tragedy, its summer of teeth that opened wide and consumed the little universe we called Breathed, Ohio.”
Breathed is probably a very inappropriate name for this town to be called right now!!
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I hope that all is well with you 🙂