Two Friends, One Summer

The two friends are Rachel and Sam, the narrator, and the summer is their 17th. After the girls arrive in France to stay en famille, with the ostensible aim of improving their French, Sam discovers that this is going to be a summer of discovery, and one of change. And not all the discoveries and changes are to her taste. In fact, it is quite a shock when timid Rachel is allocated the much more sophisticated family with a glamorous daughter who has a very active social life. But the bigger shock comes when Sam’s avowed ambition of snogging some gorgeous French boys is not so easy to achieve, and it is Rachel who gets snogged – and rather more.

Told with a good deal of light humour and a credible voice, Two Friends, One Summer charts Sam’s journey to a realization that instant gratification is not all, and that some things are worth waiting for. And, even more important, that a friendship that has been built up over many years is worth holding on to.