The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach in Around the World in 80 Books

Apr 16, 2020 Pam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-books-read, fiction, new-jersey

AUTHOR Jenoff, Pam
TITLE The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach
DATE READ 04/16/20
RATING 4/B
FIRST SENTENCE
GENRE/ PUB DATE/PUBLISHER / # OF Fiction/2018/audio - hoopla/11 hr 19 min
SERIES/STAND-ALONE SA
CHALLENGE Good Reads 2020 Reading Goal 67/120;
GROUP READ
TIME/PLACE 1941-44/NJ, PA, England
CHARACTERS Adelia Montfort/ Italian Jewish girl; Connolly Family
COMMENTS This was a nice story taking place during WWII in both US and England. Adelia is a young Jewish girl living in Italy with her parents, they ...more

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Sep 03, 2024 Missyjohnson1 rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. May have to rate 2.5 stars because I did go ahead and finish it. And I liked it well enough until Adelia took off to London. Then none of it worked for me.
Adelia is a teenage Jewish girl living in Italy during WWII. Her mother sends her to the US as Italy becomes more involved. She goes to Philadelphia to live with her Aunt Bess and Uncle Murray. The summer that she gets there, they go to spend the summer at the sea shore. Next door is the Connelly family. There are four boys in the family and May have to rate 2.5 stars because I did go ahead and finish it. And I liked it well enough until Adelia took off to London. Then none of it worked for me.
Adelia is a teenage Jewish girl living in Italy during WWII. Her mother sends her to the US as Italy becomes more involved. She goes to Philadelphia to live with her Aunt Bess and Uncle Murray. The summer that she gets there, they go to spend the summer at the sea shore. Next door is the Connelly family. There are four boys in the family and they easily allow for Addie to become a part of their clan. Addie is 16 maybe 15 and Charlie the oldest is maybe 17. She falls for him immediately. They all go to the same high school. The twins, Jack and Liam are Addie age and the youngest is Robbie who is 11 (even though in the story he seems to be only about 7 most of the time). This is the summer prior to Pearl Harbor. After Pearl and the US becoming more involved, Charlie decides to forgo his scholarship to play football at Georgetown and enlist. At Thanksgiving he tells Addie that he wants to marry her. But on that night a terrible accident occurs where Liam has an accident on his motorcycle with Robbie on the back and Robbie drowns in the river. The Connelly family disappears almost immediately. Addie runs off to Washington to get over her heartbreak and work as a secretary at the Post. Runs into Charlie. He leaves again. Addie is in despair and runs to London to work for the Post there. Meets Teddy, her boss who falls in love with her. She meets Claire Churchill and they become friends. Runs into Charlie again. They plan to marry the next day, she gets stuck on a subway and misses the ceremony. Charlie is immediately deployed. Then his plane is shot down. Adelia tries to get visas for children in an orphanage in France. She dresses up as a man to be able to get the visas to France. Steps on a landmine but only has some shrapnel in her side. Charlie is found in a hospital in England with amnesia. When Addie gets there he is engaged to his nurse Grace. Addie goes back to the US because Uncle Murray has had a heart attack. Aunt Bess sends her to the summer house to clean it out. When she gets there, Liam is fixing up the Connelly house. He and Addie immediately fall for each other. Mrs Connelly mentions that she had a daughter that she had to give up for adoption when she was 16. Says that she would be about the same age as Addie. None of that adds up as Charlie is older and is it all continues to fall apart. Addie and Liam are written as if they are at least a decade older than they are in the story and all of this has happened in only 2 years. ...more

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