A sweet, gentle story about how perspective can change from childhood to adulthood.
Hannah Kent spent many happy days as a child with the family of her mother's best friend at their estate called Summerhaven. She had all sorts of adventures with Oliver, whom she planned to marry one day, and Damon, who was always getting on her wrong side.
Now that she's grown, she hasn't seen either of them for many years, but she's confident that the childhood promises she and Oliver made to each other will hold firm. So when she's invited to spend the summer with the family, it comes as a real shock to her that Oliver doesn't seem nearly as invested in their future as she is.
Meanwhile, Damon offers to enact a pretend courtship with Hannah. He says he's tired of being pressured to marry, and she's scrounging for any way to jolt Oliver to his senses. But the more time Hannah spends with Damon, the more she questions how fake this ruse really is, and even whether there might not be another perspective on her old memories of him.

This story drew me in and kept me reading past bedtime! Damon was a very appealing character and I enjoyed the changing view of their childhood memories from both Hannah's and Damon's perspective. There were a couple of pivotal scenes where Hannah starts to see him differently that were beautifully written. (The piano scene! The river scene! The cottage scene! They were so good!)

Although first-person narration is not my favorite, I got wrapped up into the story and just wanted to find out what would happen next. There were a few jarring anachronisms, like the characters' use of the word "okay," but they were relatively few and far between.

Thanks to Covenant Communications and NetGalley for this digital review copy! ( )