Reviewed by Elizabetta
TITLE: Saugatuck Summer
SERIES: Saugatuck #1
AUTHOR: Amelia C Gormley
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 363 pages
BLURB:
One summer can change everything
Hi, I’m Topher Carlisle: twenty-one, pretty, and fabulous. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. But let’s get real. Walking the fake-it-til-you-make-it road to independence and self-respect isn’t easy. Especially since my mom’s a deadbeat alcoholic, and most of my family expects me to turn out just as worthless. Oh, and I’m close to losing my college swimming scholarship, so let’s add “dropout” to the list.
My BFF has invited me to stay at her beach house on the shore of Lake Michigan. That’ll give me one summer to make money and figure out what I want to do with my life. So of course I decide to have an affair with my BFF’s married, closeted dad. Because that always works out.
Now I’m homeless, friendless, jobless. Worthless. Just like my family expects, right? Except there’s this great guy, Jace, who sees it differently. He’s got it all together in ways I can only dream of—he’s hot, creative, insightful, understanding. He seems to think I don’t give myself enough credit. And if I don’t watch out, I may start to believe him.
REVIEW:
Saugatuck Summer is Topher Carlisle’s coming of age story, an interlude by a great lake where he learns to let go of childhood fear, guilt and recrimination, to stretch himself and fly.
And here I thought I was gonna get a light fluffy beach read…
Topher is spending the summer with his BFF, Mo, at her family’s vacation home. He’s job hunting to help pay for college, and he works laps in the lake, training to stay on the swim team. And he celebrates his twenty-first birthday, a big milestone. He also meets Jace, a talented artist, and they hit it off right away. So, a confluence of events that move Topher from teen-hood to young adult in a most remarkable summer.
It all starts off innocently enough, but the author drops in nuggets of information, important information, with a kind of sneaky ease. We’re given this effervescent guy who seems to have so much going for him…
On the outside… Topher is gorgeous and fabulous, mixed-race exotic, and sexually flexible– “I definitely floated somewhere on the middle of the gender spectrum… could swing from mildly flaming to downright campy… I sashayed before I could walk. It is what it is… might as well own it.” And own it he does.
But it doesn’t take long before we discover that, deep down, there is a little boy who is still scared-shitless, who feels all alone in the world.
On the inside… so many issues… Topher seems to be constantly digging himself out of an ever re-filling sand hole of self contempt and victim-hood that threatens to suck him under for good.
“… sometimes in my melodramatic moments it felt like… the only thing at which I’d ever truly excel was fucking up…That’s me. Christopher Carlisle: Professional Fuck-Up Artist.”
His childhood of neglect and abuse– an alcoholic mother, a molesting uncle, domineering caretakers– constantly haunts him. So much so that you wonder if he can ever overcome it. He’s been in therapy, and depends on a cocktail of anti-depressants that allow him to function. He continually brings these issues up, which enables him to make some stupid, thoughtless decisions that not only hurt himself but those dear to him.
Wait… I did say he’s only twenty-one…
But I can’t completely forgive Topher some of the choices he makes in the story. He’s a smart guy, he’s fully aware of the consequences of his actions. His complicity in hooking up with his best friend’s father, Brendan, when he knew the stakes (the blurb gave this away), is hard to read. It would be too easy to say that it’s another case of the small head acting for the big. But what saves Topher for me, is that he’s just looking for love, approval and acceptance. He needs an authority figure who cares. When Mo’s father makes a connection with him, it’s hard for Topher to resist a strong visceral response. What saves him is his introspection, he owns up to his mistakes.
Topher’s tendency to wallow in his early life trauma does get old after a while, but we’ve become invested in him finding his way. And then, the author throws in some very hot scenes with new boyfriend, Jace– a life-line if there ever was one– that keep things from stewing in the maudlin. In particular, there’s a five-alarm visit to a public bath house involving some raunchy public sexing and dirty talk all orchestrated by Jace, as he strips Topher bare in front of an audience:
“He has the prettiest cock, too.” Jace said… I felt a tug and the ends of the towel slid loose… He drew the sides apart like a curtain… unveiling me with deliberate showmanship. “Look at that. Just perfect.”
The sex is great, and Jace also helps Topher find his true worth, to see the beauty within that doesn’t get nearly enough attention.
Saugatuck Summer is an engaging read, even if it was difficult at times. It looks like there’ll be a sequel which is a good thing… I wonder how Topher and Jace will manage. And Brendan, who risks so much… I wonder what becomes of him. I’d also like more of secondary characters, Geoff and Robin, a gay married couple who help the guys out in a big way. I think there’s more in their story, too. This is my first book by this author and I look forward to reading more of her work.
RATING: 
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