By Phillip Overton
Release Date January 18, 2012
Description
As the sun prepares to rise on the last day of summer, three friends find themselves totally unprepared for the events that are about to take place around them. For Tanya it is a chance to find peace three years after losing her parents in an auto accident. Deciding she simply can’t continue blaming God for her loss, she places a heartfelt poem in a bottle and throws it into the sea on the eve of her birthday, granting her birthday wish to whoever finds it.
Early the next morning, her best friend Anton and his buddy Johnno find the bottle washed up on the shore and set about putting it to the test. When Johnno falls for the new waitress at the café where Tanya works, it stirs up feelings of jealousy in Tanya. Surely Johnno couldn’t be the man that God had in mind for her? Suddenly, strange wishes are beginning to come true, but is it all a coincidence? Or is God about to change people’s lives for the better?
Welcome to Kings Beach, where the forecast for the last day of summer promises to be hot, hot, hot, with a definite change in the air.
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Review:
I didn’t know what to think of this book at first as it is not my usual genre, but I still wanted to give it a shot. I will have to admit though it was the cover that got to me. I knew I was going to read about a beach location and some surfers and from there only the story would lead me towards its adventure.
You know the saying be careful what you wish for. This is definitely the moral to this book. There are four main characters in this book. First there are the two best friends Johnno and Anton who are the surfers, and then there’s Tanya the waitress. Last but not least Sebastian has been writer who is dreaming of moving to Alaska. Yup, he wants to go from the beach to Alaska, to each their own I would say.
Anton and Johnno are surfing one morning and when Anton crashes, his foot hits something on the bottom of the ocean. In comes the magical bottle with a note inside. Of course they are hoping it’s a genie and not some silly note from a young girl. Little did they know that this special note will grant them wishes (yeah like a genie but there is no genie and it’s only for one day). At the end of the day they have to throw it back in the ocean and let it pass on.
Could you imagine? What would you wish for? Would you be greedy like some characters, cautious like others, or would you just wish for the good things in life to come to you? The possibilities are beyond endless and that’s why I thought this book was great. It takes you through each of the characters lives and their accidental wishes. With every wish there is a consequence as you don’t know what chain reaction will happen for that particular wish to come true. Its fun watching how you could wish for one little thing but five different things have to happen just for your one thing to come true. We really are all connected in some way.
Overall the book was interesting and fun to read. Again this is not a young adult book but more of a Christian contemporary book. Which is not something I usually read but again the cover really got me good. I hope you all take the time to sign up for the giveaway to get a copy of this book because it has really great morals and it’s definitely an adventure and a half lol. There's also a bit of a love story, or triangle, maybe even square. Again this was a good read.
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Excerpt:
Johnno grabbed the bottle and turned it upside down. The letter caught in its neck. Then with a bit of prying using his car key, he was able to gently pull the letter from the bottle and let it fall onto the table. It lay there wrapped only with a small hair ribbon tied in the centre. Anton reached across to untie it as Johnno stood the now empty bottle back in the centre of the table.
“Well here goes.” Anton said as he uncurled the two pages and held them up for his friend to see.
The pages were cream in color, decorated with a border of flowers entwined along the edge of each page in black ink. At the top of the first page before the letter began, was a small turquoise colored love heart someone had painted, again in what appeared to be nail polish. It left a slightly oily stain around the edges which only added to the letter’s charm. Around them, the air filled with the scent of women’s perfume that wafted up from the page. With their curiosity now firmly aroused, Anton and Johnno huddled in closely and began to read.
To whoever finds this,
If I’ve washed up on your distant shore,
From a land far over the sea.
Please tread carefully on the morning sand,
And know you’ve set me free.
Wrapped in my mother’s ribbon,
This letter is but a token.
A plead to let her see the world,
From a young heart torn and broken.
A turquoise heart that was my Aunt,
Left footprints in the sand.
Her magic just a memory,
You now hold in your hand.
So I light a candle for my Dad,
But this gift I give to you.
He always told me to make a wish,
So today may all yours come true.
It’s time to live, to find true love.
Before the winter’s scorn.
Somewhere it’s always summer,
May my true love’s arms be warm.
P.S. Please return me to the sea at sunset.
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About the Author:
Phillip Overton’s writing has been compared to none other than Nicholas Sparks (http://www.readerviews.com/ReviewOvertonAWalkBeforeSunrise.html), and his latest novel Last Wish of Summer offers readers the perfect book to spend a summer’s day reading at the beach. In a book that reminds us to be careful what we wish for, it manages to weave the wholesome, virginal qualities of the main character Tanya with her band of misfit friends in their pursuit of being able to reason why a washed up message in a bottle is somehow granting their every wish come true. Often in a manner that is both coincidental and strangely bizarre.
Just as a movie adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel will appeal to people of all ages, so too will this story that follows the adventures of a group of twenty-something’s on the last day of summer. The book not only manages to cut through any pre-conceived ideas we hold on morals, body-image and social status, but delights in helping us discover what may already be right under our nose to begin with.
Website
http://sbpra.com/phillipoverton/
Twitter: @phillipoverton
Links to Buy (currently paperback only)
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
2 comments:
I would love to win this book! Thank you so muuch for the opportunity.
Good luck with your entry Karen, and remember, be careful what you wish for. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my book.
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