That Catskill Summer

As with all my Lived-In Love novels, this is real romance, messy, nuanced, and the ending isn't certain.This novel completely moves away from standard genre blueprints. It unfolds across a dual-timeline architecture, juxtaposing two distinct eras to examine how choices made decades ago intrude into our present lives. The love story is built entirely on psychological realism—there are no artificial misunderstandings or cheap plot devices, only the nuanced, slow-burning reality of real human intimacy. The way it was then and in essence still is.

Guys feel things deeply too. Genuine literary romance rarely highlights a candid, vulnerable male perspective. This book dives deeply into that exact headspace, offering a rare look at how a man navigates emotional timing, deep-seated memories, and later-in-life vulnerability. It provides a unique window into the masculine emotional journey that readers of nuanced fiction will find incredibly refreshing. This is a love story and a coming of age tale in two ages, the way life really unfolds.

That Catskill Summer is about a real time in a real place. The geography is rendered with firsthand, generational accuracy rather than distant library research. Every mountain path, valley breeze, and historical architectural detail is painted with absolute atmospheric precision. The location doesn't just sit in the background; it acts as a primary catalyst that shapes the internal lives and crucial turning points of the main characters. 

The mid-60s was a crucial transition in the rules and the roles of the mating game between men and women. Seven years after the birth control pill became available, women gained more control over their own sexuality and both sexes had to adjust. It was a heady time of experimentation, not to mention some confusion between the old ways and the new "free love" era. An already steamy resort culture heated up to a boil in the Catskills, where a "love by the week and the weekend" culture existed for a long time prior. Writing about it as though this didn't matter would be both untrue to the facts and the story. The book has a few scenes of "open door intimacy", not just sexuality, not gratuitous, nothing kinky and all consensual. BookAnon's review of That Catskill Summer placed the heat somewhere between "jalapeno to habanero". "The emotional side of this is actually what will catch most romance readers off guard."