Book Review: The Summer Job
19/11/2020
Book Review | The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent
After the delight that was Beach Read earlier this year I’ve been waiting for another feel-good romance with a solid, engaging narrative. And, for the most part, I’ve got to say that The Summer Job absolutely delivered. It follows one summer in the life of Elizabeth ‘Birdy’ Finch who really isn’t sure who she is or what she wants out of life. When her successful Sommelier best friend Heather chases her true love to Italy, it falls to Birdy to contact the summer job Heather was due to take at a Scottish hotel and let them know she won’t be coming. After a case of mistaken identity and egged on by her terrible sort-of-boyfriend Tim, Birdy continues with the charade and heads up to Loch Dorn as Heather. Cue a summer of misunderstandings, secrets and hilarity.
Although Dent’s writing is lovely and her characters are all fantastic, I didn’t immediately settle into the book. That however was probably down to my own innate hatred of stressful situations. From the moment she arrives at Loch Dorn, Birdy is clearly way out of her depth. She has to pair wines for each course of a degustation menu, deal with michelin star chef Russell and discuss wine options with rich, fancy guests. I found myself constantly cringing for her, waiting for the next error and, honestly, feeling furious at her for putting both the hotel and Heather’s professional reputation at risk. This also brings me to my key issue with the book. I love the setting, the whole Sommelier aspect of the storyline is fresh and interesting but I genuinely couldn’t quite buy into the idea that Birdy would have created such a wildly stupid situation. I also simply didn’t believe that she’d get away with it.
That said, the reason I ultimately got sucked into the story was that Dent acknowledges all of this. Birdy, by nature, is spiky and self-destructive. The staff at Loch Dorn do have their doubts very early on and Birdy goes to great measures to allay them. As I said, the setting of the book is glorious. I’ve often heard, particularly in writing classes, that finding a sense of place is so important in creating the world of a novel. Dent does this so well in The Summer Job. The Scottish landscape is beautifully described, with lochs, walking trails, sunrises, sunsets, fishing villages, all of it coming together to build a world I wanted to immerse myself in. The hotel itself was brought to life for me as soon as Birdy stepped foot into the kitchen on day one, with descriptions of exquisite dishes, passionate staff and the aforementioned egotistical head chef Russell. It was lovely to sink into a book set in such a beautiful location and I really enjoyed seeing Birdy’s displacement from city to country.
The romantic storyline was sweet and gentle but despite the fact that it’s introduced very early on, the novel felt fully fleshed out rather than simply built around the will they/won’t they aspect. While I found parts of Birdy’s personality stopped me from warming to her completely, I appreciated the backstory to her and Heather’s childhoods and their subsequent relationship. Sometimes it felt a little forced, like Dent was trying to draw a clear line between each facet of the women’s behaviour and assign a motive in a sort of pop-psychology way, but generally it did aid in explaining exactly what was on the line and why. Similarly, each character at Loch Dorn was well-rounded, with a nice variety of personalities and problems at play, some of which have a role in why Birdy is able to pass off as Heather for so long.
All of this ultimately comes together to create a very readable novel that I found myself desperate to keep picking up. It comes out in Spring 2021 and, while the title suggests a sort of beach read scenario, I’ve been just as happy cosied up this November, sipping my coffee and speeding through the novel. Once I got over the initial stress of what a terrible job Birdy was doing, I started to take pride in her commitment to the role as she realises what an error she’s made but also begins to fall in love with everything about the place and even the job itself. As she opened herself up to learning and to new experiences I couldn’t help egging her on, with the Wine Society event being a particular highlight.
Although I anticipate most readers will have some idea where the story is going I shall avoid spoilers here. Instead I’ll simply say that although I found the ending satisfactory I would have liked it to be slightly more spun out. There’s a fantastic, dramatic scene immediately followed by a ten-week jump to the very end. I felt a little like I’d put a lot of emotion into seeing how the situation panned out and felt a little bit short-changed by this decision. That’s a minor complaint though. I thought The Summer Job was a fresh, comedy-of-errors take on a romance novel and I’ll definitely be recommending it to friends. Thanks to Netgalley for a free digital copy in return for an honest review.