Book Review: The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman

Title: The Summer of Impossible Things
Author: Rowan Coleman
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Publication Date: 29 June 2017
Pages: 400
Format: eBook - EPUB
Genre: Literary Fiction
Source: ARC via NetGalley




If you could change the past, would you?

Thirty years ago, something terrible happened to Luna’s mother. Something she’s only prepared to reveal after her death.

Now Luna and her sister have a chance to go back to their mother’s birthplace and settle her affairs. But in Brooklyn they find more questions than answers, until something impossible – magical – happens to Luna, and she meets her mother as a young woman back in the summer of 1977.

At first Luna’s thinks she’s going crazy, but if she can truly travel back in time, she can change things. But in doing anything – everything – to save her mother’s life, will she have to sacrifice her own? (Goodreads Synopsis)


The Summer of Impossible Things is an emotional and thought-provoking read. Luna's tale is compelling from the start, and I anxiously turned each page, wondering how things would work out for her. I actually guessed the true villain of the piece from that character's first introduction, and was then surprised when that started to look less likely. Still, I was right in the end. Changing the past, and the consequences it will have for the future, is an interesting concept, and I enjoyed the way Coleman handled the narrative, and its eventual conclusion. I don't want to say more and give away too much information. Suffice to say, The Summer of Impossible Things is a delightful, and ultimately uplifting, read.