Book Review: One Last Adirondack Summer by Heidi Sprouse

One Last Adirondack Summer

By Heidi Sprouse

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

What do you do when your brother asks for one last Adirondack summer?

John Taylor and Tommy Jackman have been best friends since age eight, the day they made a blood brother pact to stick together through thick and thin. Every year since, they’ve spent their summers at John’s Adirondack camp, and gotten together whenever they can during the year.

Their pact will be put to the ultimate test when Tommy asks John to take him back to the lake to die. Without hesitation, John packs up Tommy and his beloved dog, Jasper, and drives his blood brother from Colorado to the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

It is the hardest thing John has ever done.

But the friends give each other a precious gift, the chance to share their lives one last time before Tommy no longer has a future. They remember all the firsts they shared: the first drink, the first smoke, the first night with a girl.

As Tommy’s life winds down, John holds on, blood brother scar against blood brother scar, until he realizes it’s not their last Adirondack summer. In this place, where they crossed the bridge from childhood to adulthood together, Thomas Michael Jackman will always be with him.

Take the journey with John and Tommy as they learn the grim lesson of how letting go can sometimes be the best way to hold on.

My Review

This is such a heavy story, and the writing is stunning! It hit close to home for me because last fall I cared for my neighbor on hospice. It's still hard for me to put into words what that experience was like - how it changed me. I could relate to John and his struggle watching his best friend, Tommy, deteriorate. 

I loved the past reflections that the author included which followed John and Tommy along through their young life. I think adding those stories to the book allowed me to truly grasp what an unbreakable bond the two shared.

I also appreciated the author's afterward. Five stars for this one!

About the Author 

Heidi Sprouse lives in upstate NY in historic Johnstown. She attended college at St. Rose in Albany, knowing all along her two loves were teaching and English. It took four years before she landed the teaching job of her dreams, but twenty years later she is still nurturing little ones in pre-K. She loves the privilege of watching brand-new little humans as they discover and begin to shape their own worlds.

Knowing what she wants and going after it in relentless pursuit is Heidi’s gift. Deciding to become an author can be downright unnerving, but Heidi bit into the challenge, took off, and never looked back. Her perseverance proves success is not a matter of luck; it’s a matter of finding what speaks to your heart, and committing to do that thing until it makes a difference.

When she isn’t busy teaching or with her husband, Jim, her son, Patrick, and her canine kids Chuck and Dale, she’s cooking up her next novel. She dabbles in sweet romances, historical fiction, and suspense thrillers, depending on what pleases her reader’s eye at any given moment. Heidi is always in search of the extraordinary in the ordinary, writing about strong men with old-fashioned values and the women who pick them up when they fall. She’ll tell anyone it's never too late to chase after your dreams, no dream is too small or insignificant, and any mountain can be moved with a proposal and a good plan.

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