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Sunburn

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Sunburn

By: Chloe Michelle Howarth
Narrated by: Toni O’Rourke
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An astute and tender portrayal of first love, adolescent anxiety and the realities of growing up in a small town where tradition holds people tightly in its grasp.
It's the early 1990s, and in the Irish village of Crossmore, Lucy feels out of place. Despite her fierce friendships, she's always felt this way, and the conventional path of marriage and motherhood doesn't appeal to her at all. Not even with handsome and doting Martin, her closest childhood friend. Lucy begins to make sense of herself during a long hot summer, when a spark with her school friend Susannah escalates to an all-consuming infatuation, and, very quickly, to a desperate and devastating love.
Fearful of rejection from her small and conservative community, Lucy begins living a double life, hiding the most honest parts of herself in stolen moments with Susannah. But with the end of school and the opportunity to leave Crossmore looming, Lucy must choose between two places, two people and two futures, each as terrifying as the other. Neither will be easy, but only one will offer her happiness.
An Evening Standard ‘One to Watch in 2023’©2023 Chloe Michelle Howarth (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Romance Heartfelt Tear-jerking
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A beautifully written novel, brimming with poetic writing which perfectly encapsulates the gossip filled moments of teenage life. Clever use of religious language throughout the book to portray the difficulties Lucy faces in being gay.

The narration was great. I look forward to the authors next work!

Beautifully written and read

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Absolutely beautiful story, with heartfelt and rounded characters. The audiobook performance was incredible too. I feel like this book will stay with me for a long time. 10/10

Beautifully tender

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A must for any sapphic, especially as a sucker for a forbidden love story. Bit of a slow burn for me, some initial scenes felt a little cringe for me personally but it was so well construed of the age and context for Lucy, and the themes were on point and well written in a environment I could easily understand despite being so far removed. After its completion, I had a severe hangover from this book as I just wanted to find more books with the same level of detail, longing and connection.

Heartbreaking and beautifully narrated

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Beautifully written and heart breaking. The characters felt like real people. I was totally lost in the story and the narration was excellent

So we’ll written

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Such beautiful written. The reader is 10/10. This will stay in my mind for a long time.

So so good!

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