Title: Summerfield
Author: Dianne H. Lundy
Publisher: Primix Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-957676-68-5
Pages: 217
Genre: Romance, Adventure, Slice of Life.
Reviewed by: Reshita Midya

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Human life comes in a multitude of colors. Dianne H. Lundy’s Summerfield is a stark reminder of these vivid colors as it spans the life of four women in the quaint college town of Summerfield. The story, placed against the backdrop of hills and lakes, immediately creates a notion of everyday life. The four women are ordinary women who only want the essential things: a career, an accomplished life, and a stable love life.

Elaine Roberts, a quintessential American woman, is a newly recruited school teacher. Her life is pretty ordinary until Tony Villiard, an undercover detective, joins her school to uncover a local drug cartel. Her life cartwheels into a series of events, all while being inextricably entangled with the charming detective. Jillian O’Reilly is a widowed woman with a young daughter, Megan. While looking for a stable source of income to keep her family, she never imagines running into her dashing neighbor and seeing the course of her mundane life change. Dianne H. Lundy shows the reality of a young widowed woman and mother trying to regain stability. The complexities of allowing oneself to love again and be loved, to accept a new family, and to relearn to love oneself after a tragedy, Jillian’s story moves the reader with renewed hope.

Luci Carlito is a college dropout whose dreams of becoming a lawyer halt when her brother has a leg injury. Seeing her family go through a financial crisis, she takes on her dad’s cab driver job. And that is how she meets Jeremy Clark, an affluent businessman looking to open an Italian restaurant. Readers go through a young girl’s journey of sacrificing her dreams for her family. Lundy beautifully showcases how love can reinstate the lost hope in someone and how a truly loving partner helps one to grow.

Kelly ‘Mac’ McGregor is a university student struggling to keep up with the beauty standards set by society. Her long-time crush, Mark, who happens to be her friend Ashley’s boyfriend, makes her feel more underconfident. Bud, another friend of hers, has had feelings for her for a long time but refuses to confess. Caught between the youthful nature of love and personal insecurity, Mac struggles to keep her head above water. Lundy does a terrific job of laying bare the realities of young adults trying to meet societal standards to fit in, the complexities of love and friendship, and the looming academic pressure. Dianne H. Lundy wraps up the story with a beautiful Italian recipe, giving it a full-circle impression and a perfectly humble conclusion to a humble tale of ordinary lives. The scene of Mark abusing Mac should have been dealt with more sensitivity.

In a fast-paced world like ours, getting wrapped up in our thoughts is easy. Lundy gently urges us to step out of that zone and consider what else the world offers. The characters go through their struggles before reaching a solution, learning, and becoming better humans. Something that resonated with me is how these ordinary stories of ordinary people bring a sense of belonging in a fast-growing detached world. From a school teacher to a college student to a college dropout to a young widow, the story perfectly embraces all walks of life, creating an inclusive and universal truth. Overall, Summerfield is a quaint and pleasant story of love, friendship, family, life, and humanity. The novel, sprinkled with little adventures and thrilling events, becomes a perfect dish for readers with a taste for slice-of-life, romance, and adventure.