Synopses & Reviews
Deserted by her mother and raised by her whiskey-drinking, gun-shooting father, Haley Ellyson hides two explosive secrets that both empower her and threaten to undermine everything she cherishes. Having already broken the heart of every boy in Houser Banks, Mississippi, Haley is engaged in a dangerous flirtation with her father's best friend when Fletcher Greel, the judge's son, comes home for the summer, fresh out of a New England prep school. Fletcher's friend Riley is in love with Crystal, a blues-singing black girl, and Fletcher falls instantly for Haley. The four soon become inseparable, but as summer wanes, local disapproval of Riley and Crystal's romance takes violent turns, and Haley's secrets surface to devastating results.
A pitch-perfect first novel rich with unforgettable characters, mesmerizing prose, and smoldering sexual tension, The Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me captures the exhilaration of first love and the consequences of rebellion in a place resistant to change.
Review
William Gay author of I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down Kingsbury's elegy to desire and redemption and the prices you ultimately pay for them catches the reader on the first page and continues to resonate in the mind long after the epilogue is finished. Kingsbury makes an auspicious arrival, and she isn't leaving anytime soon.
Review
The Hartford Courant The most vivid, drenched-in-place rendering of Mississippi isn't some long-lost but newly found William Faulkner story. It's a first novel by a lifelong New Englander, Suzanne Kingsbury. With lush, lovely language, Kingsbury evokes the sultry summer heat like someone who has lived there her whole life.
Review
Orlando Sentinel A haunting first novel...captivating...Kingsbury's prose is measured and luminous.
Review
Larry Brown author of Fay Suzanne Kingsbury reminds us what it is to be young and in love. Her characters are real people, with hopes and fears and joys and sorrows, and some of them have dark secrets, but she lets us see inside their lives without blinking. Best of all, she knows how to tell a story, one that compels us to keep reading. A strong debut.
Review
Jill McCorkle author of Creatures of Habit With language as lush and sensuous as her Mississippi setting, Suzanne Kingsbury weaves an unforgettable story, ripe with passion and loss. The Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me is a brilliant debut by a very talented writer.
Review
Robert Olmstead author of River Dogs I think this writer was preborn and this novel predestined, and how patient is the world that waited for it to be written. If aching and beautiful stories can still change lives, even for a little while, then this one surely will.
About the Author
Suzanne Kingsbury lived in Oxford, Mississippi, while writing and researching this, her first novel.