Summer Bird Blue, Akemi Dawn Bowman
Summer Bird Blue, Akemi Dawn Bowman
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Summer Bird Blue

Author: Akemi Dawn Bowman

Narrator: Em Eldridge

Unabridged: 9 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/11/2018


Synopsis

Rumi Seto spends a lot of time worrying she doesn’t have the answers to everything. What to eat, where to go, whom to love. But there is one thing she is absolutely sure of—she wants to spend the rest of her life writing music with her younger sister, Lea.

Then Lea dies in a car accident, and her mother sends her away to live with her aunt in Hawaii while she deals with her own grief. Now thousands of miles from home, Rumi struggles to navigate the loss of her sister, being abandoned by her mother, and the absence of music in her life. With the help of the “boys next door”—a teenage surfer named Kai, who smiles too much and doesn’t take anything seriously, and an eighty-year-old named George Watanabe, who succumbed to his own grief years ago—Rumi attempts to find her way back to her music, to write the song she and Lea never had the chance to finish.

Aching, powerful, and unflinchingly honest, Summer Bird Blue explores big truths about insurmountable grief, unconditional love, and how to forgive even when it feels impossible.

About Akemi Dawn Bowman

Akemi Dawn Bowman is the author of Starfish and Summer Bird Blue. She is also a Ravenclaw and Star Wars enthusiast, who served in the U.S. Navy for five years and has a BA in social sciences from UNLV. Originally from Las Vegas, she currently lives in Scotland with her husband, two children, and their Pekingese mix.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alice on August 08, 2018

This is a crucial book on loss. Raw, real, and deeply hopeful, SUMMER BIRD BLUE follows Rumi Seto on her path to healing in idyllic Hawaii with the help of a grumpy old man and a bubbly new friend. This book has solidly secured Akemi as one of my favourite contemporary YA authors - I will read anyth......more

Goodreads review by daph pink ♡ on February 23, 2024

“Grief is a monster - not everyone gets out alive, and those who do might only survive in pieces. But it's a monster that can be conquered, with time.” Summer Bird Blue is about Rumi, who goes to live with her aunt in Hawaii, in order to give her mom the space and time she needs to process the de......more

Goodreads review by destiny ♡ on October 09, 2019

Wow, I am so glad to finally be posting this review! I was lucky enough to receive an ARC pretty far in advance and devoured it immediately, because I loved Starfish so much, but I gotta tell you guys, this book? It blows Starfish out of the water. This was one of the most heartbreaking, gorgeous st......more

Goodreads review by Charlotte on October 20, 2019

“Of course it’s dark. Life is dark. It doesn’t care about anyone. Yours just hasn’t gone to shit yet.” 💖 This was an emotional read, but so full of love and hope. Rumi and her sister Leah are best friends, they both love music and plan to spend their future forming a band and making music together.......more

Goodreads review by Hamad on July 11, 2019

This review and other non-spoilery reviews can be found @The Book Prescription “Some people are meant to be forever, like Lea and me. And other people come into your life for a reason— you help each other figure shit out and come to terms with complicated feelings that you can’t process on your......more