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Reviewed by:
  • Cold Summer by Gwen Cole
  • Kate Quealy-Gainer
Cole, Gwen Cold Summer. Sky Pony, 2017 [332p]
Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-5107-0766-5 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-5107-0770-2 $16.99
Reviewed from galleys         Ad Gr. 7-10

A falling out with her mother has seventeen-year-old Harper moving in with her uncle Jasper and returning to the small town in which she spent her childhood summers. She sees Kale, her long-ago crush, and he is still the sweet, charming boy she knew, but he's also still leaving for days at a time with no notice or any indication of where he goes. Kale is struggling with telling her the truth about those missing days: he's a time traveler, and though most of his journeys so far have been relatively harmless, he's currently in a loop that has him returning to the frontlines of World War II as a sharpshooter. The premise allows for a powerful look at PTSD through Kale's eyes, placing his tangible experiences of tragedy, victory, and horror in the war immediately and directly next to his concrete daily life; when he gets literal and figurative blood on his hands in World War II, he comes back to the present in the same state. He shares narration with Harper, whose chapters are less emotionally intense, and they suffer by comparison—angst over an unavailable mother seems a tad trite as Kale loses friend after friend to bullets and shelling. The pacing lags in the middle, where the prose tips into stodginess and the romance becomes generic. Still, Kale and Harper are likable kids, and it'd be a hard heart that doesn't want Kale to find some peace. [End Page 405]

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