Jill Barnett The Days of Summer

The Days of Summer

Jill Barnett

Atria, Jun 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0671035355

In 1957 in Los Angeles, oil heir Rudy Banning and his artist wife Rachel drink too much before driving their vehicle head on into a car containing singer Jimmy Peyton and his manager. All four die in the car accident. The Banning children Jud and Cale move into the home of their ruthless grandfather, a coldhearted affluent business mogul; Peyton's daughter Laurel remains with her devastated mother, his widow Kathryn.

Thirteen years later on Catalina Island, Laurel and Cale meet and fall in love. However, his grandfather forces Cale to choose between Laurel and medical school; he selects becoming a doctor. Laurel soon meets Cale's brother Jud and feelings grow between them while Cale is off at school.

Over the next three decades Cale holds grudges against his brother and the one woman he loved. Now the trio meet once again as Jud begins to court Laurel who turns to cardiologist Cale for heart surgery.

THE DAYS OF SUMMER is a fascinating relationship drama that follows the lives over several decades of two brothers and the woman they both desire connected initially by tragedy. The story line is a sudsy soap opera especially during the present era subplot and to a lesser degree in 1970. Still the three protagonists are fully developed leading to fun learning the outcome even though their triangle seems contrived.

Harriet Klausner