My name is Tiffany McDaniel. My debut novel, The Summer that Melted Everything, is forthcoming this July 26th. The publisher is St. Martins Press/Macmillan. The novel is adult literary fiction.
“The heat came with the devil.”
Synopsis:
Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heat wave scorched Breathed, Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil.
Sal seems to appear out of nowhere - a bruised and tattered thirteen-year-old boy claiming to be the devil himself answering an invitation. Fielding Bliss, the son of a local prosecutor, brings him home where he's welcomed into the Bliss family, assuming he's a runaway from a nearby farm town.
When word spreads that the devil has come to Breathed, not everyone is happy to welcome this self-proclaimed fallen angel. Murmurs follow him and tensions rise, along with the temperatures as an unbearable heat wave rolls into town right along with him. As strange accidents start to occur, riled by the feverish heat, some in the town start to believe that Sal is exactly who he claims to be. While the Bliss family wrestles with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio backwater forever.
“Sometimes this world is like red fences in the snow. There ain’t no hiding who we really are.”—THE SUMMER THAT MELTED EVERYTHING
Here's also a little about me:
An Ohio native, Tiffany McDaniel's writing is inspired by the rolling hills and buckeye woods of the land she knows. She is also a poet, playwright, screenwriter, and artist. The Summer that Melted Everything is her debut novel.
“I fell as if the fall had always been in my nature. Waiting for the right moment of my life. When all my soul, in its smallness and its vastness, would fall face down against the earth from the bliss of my name to the hard crosses I would be handed to bear.”—THE SUMMER THAT MELTED EVERYTHING
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Here’s the Goodreads link to the novel:Buy at AmazonYouTube trailer
I received this book from the author for an honest review.
I never met Tiffany until she reached out through my blog for a review of her debut book. The the name had me intrigued from the beginning. I had no idea what to expect but glad I decided to read the book. When I read the synopsis I thought this would be a very interesting read. Well, I was wrong about that.
This book is a fascinating read that simply draws you into the small town of Breathed introducing you to an attention grabbing plot. Her writing is though provoking, stimulating and beautiful.
The plot's natural flow takes you to the highs and lows with such ease that you have to stop at times and reread certain parts since it simply astounds you. The character of Sal and Fielding is almost inseparable from the moment they met and through the entire story you just feel this deep connection with them both. Fielding's story takes you from a young boy of thirteen up to seventy, learning more about his own struggles as he still tries to make sense of the summer of 1984 after all the years on earth. That summer left its mark on him and at times I really felt his despair, his search as he still tries to make sense of it.
The story begins actually with a joke like invitation but when the invited person pitched up in Breathed the entire town woke up and you learn - in depth - about every character and their own demons they tried to live with.
This was truly a wonderful reading experience and a book I can recommend to all literary readers with a though provoking twist.
