Synopsis:
A witty, contemporary romantic comedy inspired by Shakespeare’s classic Love’s Labour’s Lost, starring Maya Hawke, KJ Apa, Ego Nwodim, Milly Alcock, Alexandra Shipp, Gavin Casalegno, and Peri Gillpin.
Bestselling romance author Livia Gaines (Maya Hawke) hasn’t written a single usable sentence since her long-term boyfriend blindsided her with a breakup—an ironic twist for someone paid to make happily-ever-afters look easy. With her deadline looming and her publisher threatening to cancel her contract, Livia’s agent offers a housesit a secluded Hamptons estate and finish her novel in peaceful isolation.
When her best friends catch wind of this opportunity, they quickly invite themselves along. For Zara (Ego Nwodim), the Hamptons is the perfect hunting ground to snare a wealthy husband instead of facing her career woes. For Eloise (Milly Alcock), who was recently scammed by a medium, the summer house is an ideal rent-free sanctuary where she can realign her chakras (and credit score).
Livia reluctantly agrees to their company with one non-negotiable a summer-long vow of absolutely no romantic entanglements. Easy enough—until another housesitting group arrives, claiming equal rights to the property—courtesy of the estate’s other divorced owner. Among these unexpected housemates is Ezra Keats (KJ Apa), the college crush Livia never quite recovered from, the what-if she’s been fictionalizing ever since. As Livia battles both her deadline and her undeniable attraction to Ezra, her friends secretly abandon their promises, embarking on passionate affairs they clumsily hide from their oath-keeping friend.
With summer temperatures rising and her publisher’s deadline hanging over her, Livia faces multiple a manuscript that refuses to materialize, a seemingly interested crush who inconveniently keeps showing up shirtless, friends sneaking around behind her back, and a looming discovery that could get them all evicted.
By Labor Day, Livia must confront the truth that the most authentic love story she could tell might be the messy, unscripted one she’s living. Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, this sparkling summer escape with a star-studded cast proves that sometimes the best plots are the ones we can’t control.
Review:
If you go into The Summer Oath with the expectation of being entertained you’ll have a great time. If you go into The Summer Oath with the expectation of a great read you’ll have a horrible time. This is a very fun book but it is by no means good.
This audiobook is far longer than it needs to be. Every time I thought we were winding down to the end of the story a new chapter would start with yet another random encounter happening. This also made the timeline a little difficult to follow. I couldn’t tell you if this book happened over the course of a week or multiple months.
The whole time I was listening to this I thought Maisie Williams was narrating Elouise. I’ve never watched anything with Milly Alcock in it but I know she’s Australian so I was convinced it was Maisie Williams. Obviously not. I did love her character though. I don’t believe in crystals and spirituality or anything but Elouise was a lot of fun.
Honestly, everyone did a brilliant job with the narration of this book. It’s something I think KJ Apa should do more often, he probably had the most convincing performance. It’s great having a cast of narrators that I know the faces of as it makes the story a lot easier and more entertaining to picture.
The actual story was ok. It’s a second chance romance with a couple of other romances budding on the side, which was fun. I liked the different dynamic each couple had and a book with sapphic representation will always be a winner to me. All of the narrators had good chemistry and that’s what carries The Summer Oath to a very decent rating of three stars.
This rating doesn’t come from the complexity of this book or how well it’s written, it’s from the experience. I love a full production audiobook and The summer Oath delivered a fairly decent one.
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