What started out as an ordinary love story unfolds masterfully in its craft -- characters so fresh, so ripe in language and actions, will sweep you right up into their words and the pulse of their emotions. The language of the forties is rich with warmth, swaying with the talk of Wisconsin sixty years ago, clinging onto the reader with newness; the relationships weaved together with tenderness so honest, words so heartwarming, the reader will find themselves attached inevitably. The love unfolds with warming honesty, provoking the reader with situations from gentle romance to devastating heartbreak. With prose metaphoric and fluid in word choice, leaving this book alone is a challenge in itself -- the characters so original, the dialogue so enticing, Seventeenth Summer will stay with the reader from the moment the plot reveals and once the last word is read; supporting the theme that love can find even the most ordinary of us, and remain with prolonging affection well after it initially began.