When Julia Bechtel decides to take a vacation to spend a few weeks
with her Aunt Zoe and take a photography class on the island of Big
Sawyer, just off the coast of Maine, she has no idea that a simple
two-week getaway will endanger her very life.As
she travels to the island on a ferry, a tragic accident claims
several lives and traumatizes wife and mother Julia, lobsterman
Noah Prine and twenty-one year old Kimmie Colella, forcing them to
examine their lives and the reasons why they, and not the others,
were spared from death.Julia, Noah and Kimmie each handle their trauma in different
ways. While Noah is dealing with the loss of his father in the
accident and seeking to strengthen ties with his estranged teenage
son, Kimmie opts to recoil from any and all communication. The
accident has left her mute and isolated from her family and
friends, as well as her fellow survivors.Julia finds herself examining her life and relationships and
asking herself for the first time in her forty years exactly what's
in it for her. Up to this point she has been dutiful and obedient,
a good wife, daughter and mother who is always concerned first with
the welfare of others. The accident brings about a transformation
in her that is extremely disconcerting to her family members but
gratifying to readers, who find themselves rooting for her
independence as she begins to show more backbone and
self-preservation.Before long, Julia is confronting family secrets from long ago,
standing up to her daughter and her mother, and examining a
relationship with her husband that has been less than satisfying
for years. She is also getting to know her father and her aunt in
new ways.While some of her family is angered and upset by the changes
taking place in Julia, Noah, her fellow survivor, is the one person
who understands exactly what she's experiencing and is there for
her. Julia finds a friend in this stranger when those closest to
her seem to be concerned only with how her behavior affects
them.As
Julia and Noah explore the growing attraction between them, they're
also exploring a couple of outsiders to the area and their possible
connection to what may or may not have been an accident. The
mystery of these strangers in town, the tension between Noah and
Julia, and Julia's evolving relationships with her loved ones, all
make for good reading.THE
SUMMER I DARED is an enriching novel of one woman's search for
herself when that self has been submerged in caring for others
during her entire adult life, a concept that many women will be
able to relate to. It's easy to find yourself drawn into the story
and rooting for Julia to find happiness and freedom from the
oppression of her family and their expectations.

Barbara Delinsky has penned over seventy novels since writing
and selling her first in 1980. She hails from a Boston,
Massachusetts suburb, and her love of the northeast is evident as
several of her books are set in those states. Also apparent in her
writing is her training in Psychology and Sociology, in which she
holds a B.A. and an M.A., respectively. Delinsky is able to examine
the complicated relationships between others in an easy and
effortless way that draws her readers in and makes them care about
her cast of characters.