Summary Of Sarah Dessen's That Summer

That Summer by Sarah Dessen shows the problems of a fifteen-year-old trying to accept the big changes in her life which she has no control over. Trying to come to terms with her parents' divorce, her father's second marriage and her sister's wedding, Haven McPhail feels she has no control over her life, so she stays on remembrances of the summer that Ashley dated Sumner Lee and her family and her life seemed absolutely perfect. When Sumner Lee comes back to Lakeview, Haven believes god has sent him to heal the past in some way, but she learns her memory doesn't reflect the reality of the past. That Summer is a book that searches the head of a teenage girl facing the past, learning to accept the moment and thinking forward to her future.

While dealing with Dad's second marriage to Lorna Queen, Haven fears her sister Ashley's upcoming marriage to boring …show more content…
She is mad now with the changes in her life but thinks she is finally grown to be herself. When Ashley blames her sister of being narcissistic for having a breakdown the day before her wedding, Haven runs away, but when she sees Sumner, he makes her mad by telling her that things are not how she recalls them when she blames her sister for making him leave. Sad, Haven runs into the forest where Ashley finds her. When Haven asks questions about Sumner, Ashley tells her she dumped him because she saw him cheating on her. He was the first guy to tear up Ashley's heart and the first boy to upset Haven. At Ashley's wedding, there are a ton of things that Haven wants to tell Ashley, but when Ashley tells Haven that she loves her, Haven now knows some things do not need to be spoken between sisters. She finally realizes that the past is not important and starts to look into the future where there is lots of time to make new joyous