This is yet another book from the stack of freebies from the writers' conference in April. I only read a few romance books a year, and I never read contemporary ones. I read through this so I can trade it away.

There is nothing to see here plot wise. Move along. It's as cliche and transparent a romance plot as you can write, but cover blurb espouses that as a positive. The heroine, Zoe, is turning 30, has lots of sexual experience but doesn't want a committed relationship, and when she meets her in-the-adoption-process sister's new "social worker," she hops in the sack with him right away. Kinda kills the chemistry and suspense as far as their relationship. The rest of the book is trying to figure out who is stalking the sister, who is really going to adopt the sister, oh, and for Zoe to admit she's in wuv. The bad guys are predictable, and I patiently waited for the characters to get a clue. It was also tiresome how Zoe's family is constantly described as "insane, wacky, unusual, eccentric, etc." You know, by the second reference, I got it. I didn't need it pounded into my head five times every chapter. Also, I think the mention of summer in the title is meant to indicate when this should be read, because there is no emphasis on summer itself except for Zoe's constant wearing of mini skirts.

I guess I'm not the fluffy "beach read" type. ( )

Phillips has always been a hit or miss author for me, and SUMMER LOVIN' falls into the miss category. This is a category romance inflated to turn it into a lengthier contemporary and it just didn't work that well for me. The plot was interesting enough but there was just too much repetition of information to hold my interest for very long; I kept picking it up and putting it down, and I actually read four books in between starting and finishing SUMMER LOVIN. Tightening up the prose would have kicked up the suspense level a bit (heck, I figured out what was going on from the get-go but it took the characters nearly to the end to do so and one of them was ex-FBI!). I liked the big, crazy, loving Greek family with all their kookiness but I just couldn't get over the padded prose that really needed trimming down. I read Phillips via the library, just can't justify spending $$$ on her books. Suggestion to other "reviewers": please watch the spoilers. Don''t ruin the book by giving out too much information. ( )

Zoe, a security specialist and family member of the Costas discovered Ryan was really Sam's uncle and one of the rich, upright, uptight, Boston Baldwins. Ryan's seach for his siter Faith, the family's black sheep, ahs led him to the news of her death. Sam had to adjust to his snobbish mother, her grandmother and did so very well. She ended up still being adopted by the Costas family though. ( )

Summer Lovin' is the continuation of the Costa Family story. There are lots of family get-togethers, with family dynamic and misdynamic. The teen that the senior Costa's took under their wing and into their hearts turns out not to be without relatives. Actually she has wealthy, sneaky, stuck-up relatives. Naturally, the only 'nice' relative finds the teen and has to deal with the loving family she's found for herself. Specifically her older 'sister'. This book is fairly predictable, but Phillips has a way with characters that makes you keep on reading, just to see what happens next. If you are hooked on finding out what happens to characters throughout a series, Phillips is high up in the pecking order ( )