COLD SUMMER by Gwen Cole

Rating: 🌟🌟

Trigger warning: PTSD (including flashbacks) This review will contain spoilers. You have been warned. First things first, the only positive thing I can think of for this book: The author's writing style. It was honestly the only thing that kept me reading, because it was very easy to read. And the only reason this book is not getting 1 star. And now onto the rest of the review: I'll just get right to it: this was one of the most frustratingly disappointing reads I've ever read. Now, I'll admit that I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this book, but I was still hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I was not. It started out alright, but just kept getting cringier and cringier as it wore on. Everything was SO melodramatic (remember that word, it comes up a lot in this review) and cliched, it's unbelievable. And quite frankly the whole book felt like shadow-puppets on a wall. The characters especially were melodramatic, bland shells of people, with only like 2 "personality" traits. And those were just the MAIN CHARACTERS! The side characters weren't as lucky, acting more like placeholders for characters than actual PEOPLE. Speaking of our protagonists though, they both annoyed me SO MUCH. The main female was just so quirky and perfect. The only person more perfect would be our "incredibly hot" male protagonist who goes by the attractive moniker Kale. (Yes, that is his actual name) There was a great deal of TELLING and not SHOWING in this novel (don't even get me started on the amount of conveniences that were stacked on top of one another), and I do think it suffered because of that. Because while we were in Harper and Kale's heads, we didn't really get much of a sense of who they were as people beyond the cliche's they embodied. And honestly, the characters were just passive, wet-blankets, just waiting for something to happen so they could react to it. And I pretty much just want to punch them all in the face and move on with my life, but first I need to finish this review lol (Also, a side-note: there is legitimately one instance where the name Harper is compared to Kale in terms of weirdness. Just let that sink in for a moment) And can we just talk about how this important plot point which is mentioned IN THE SYNOPSIS isn't even a thing until about 85% of the way through the book?! I was expecting the WWII scenes to be... more, I guess. As well as thinking that we would be trying harder to figure out WHY he's traveling to that point in the past but literally all the characters just accept it as a fact of life, and basically the entire book just felt like it was simply a way for the author to write about PTSD, by way of Kale, which I swear was his whole raison d'être. And as for the representation itself, as I don't have PTSD I can't comment on whether or not it was accurate or harmful. It certainly seemed like the author put more effort into describing the PTSD than anything else in the novel if that tells you anything. There were also several instances of missing words, and it was obvious where certain edits had occurred. One instances of this is on page 314 "I pull my shirt quick". [And another on page 295 "Perkins is already crouched into front of me, pressing his hands over the right side of my chest".  These just kept happening REPEATEDLY throughout the novel, and these moments really served to take me completely out of the story. And let me just say that I was also having an incredibly difficult time suspending my disbelief with this story. Not only can he randomly time-travel, but he can also heal incredibly fast. For some reason. Which is also not explained. Does it factor in with his time-traveling? Does traveling in time change your body or something? I mean a bullet wound heals in 3 days for crying out loud! As well as Jasper was able to steal the bullet he was shot with, stuff like that. Things that would just NOT happen in the real world.  We're just supposed to accept this but I'm not falling for your tricks, book. I'm onto you! Anyway, it's then established that Perkins was the one who wrote this important plot-related article detailing how Kale "died" saving his life. And then nothing else is mentioned about him. What was so important about Perkins that warranted sending a 17 year old to save his ass in the past? Was it just so his bloodline would endure? Who did Perkins go on to become if he was so important that Kale was forced to return to the past repeatedly for MONTHS? I thought that they were leading up to this reveal about Perkins, or his grandchildren, that perhaps they proved to be instrumental in some capacity. But that didn't happen, and it just feels like one of many missed opportunities in this book. Also, side-note, how come when Kale goes to the past he appears always in the same moment he left, but for the present he's gone for days at a time?? There were just weird time-traveling rules. As well as the fact that Kale can't control his time-traveling, knows zero to nothing about it, yet he is able to explain it to people? If I found myself randomly traveling back in time, I would NOT be able to explain logistics, yet Kale is able to explain it to Harper. [I want to put a bit of a disclaimer in here for this mention as I could have just misinterpreted this, but this sentence rubbed me the wrong way. At the end of the novel, Kale and his dad are driving home from the hospital, and they pull over and have a heart to heart. Nothing wrong with that, except that Kale's father says this: "I don't think there's anyone in the world who could have been through what you have and came out stronger in the end." It just came across as insensitive to me. And while I admit it could have just been that I took it wrong, it just didn't sit well. Overall, it was a very melodramatic, disappointing read and let's just say I am glad I'm done.