The Last Day Of Summer Paperback – January 22, 2013

I don't know why JF Smith is able to sell books for a reasonable price but this is the third and each represents the same quality in writing, story-telling and characterization. And always at the best possible price. He has set the bar very high for the rest of the writers in this genre. Each story is unique and powerful with a deep empathy for human weaknesses.Not much of a fan of baseball myself (with the exception of Cal Ripkin), I found myself immersed in a baseball story. Not in the classic "The Natural" sense but where baseball was a standard for "real men." Rett was an easy character for me to understand. Watching him grow in the pro-baseball organization for which he worked was enlightening because he was growing and coming to understand himself; and I understood myself better, as well. His relationships were sometimes awkward and, again, he grew as he suceeded or failed. And there were real consequences for failure - it wasn't all rose petals with no thorns. The lessons were painful for him and the other main characters in the book But there was growth and healing and ... well, JF Smith had written another remarkable story where the sum is more than its individual parts.It would be hard to recommend this writer more than the 5 stars allowed but he deserves another star. Like "Latakia," one of my favorite books ever, The Last day of Summer is funny, honest and technically brilliant. This isn't about sex but it is about men and relationships, both gay and straight. I loved that Rett had strong relationships with straight men. Yeah, there were homophobes but not all gay men are priceless in JF Smith's stories, either. It makes the book work and, again, like Latakia, the complex relationships are developed without concern for sexual orientation.JF Smith's books are the best deal on the market at any price!

REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED AT REVIEWS BY JESSEWAVE, I PURCHASED THE BOOK ON MY OWN THOUGH.4.5 stars rounded to 5I have waited for the next novel from this writer ever since I read (and reread and reviewed) Latakia. I am always delighted to find a self published book that I would enjoy and this author has consistently produced work that I have enjoyed very much so far. I have actually reviewed all his previous works here, but this story is kind of a sequel to Falling Off the Face of the Earth, so I suppose it counts as series . Cory from that story is not a teenager anymore, he is a young man and a talented baseball player who made it to a fictitious team in the Major Leagues .Just so you know, I know very little about baseball and understand even less of it . I am in a very similar situation as Everett (Rett) who is the narrator in this book when he hands a job as a physical therapist with the same team where Cory is starting with.As the blurb tells you this is a journey of self discovery and growing up for Rett as much as it is about his romance with Cory. I would say that Rett grows and changes more than Cory does, but Cory was also a wonderful character who in my opinion also had t0 learn a few things, like what are the most important things for him in life. I think it is truly amazing how this author manages to write such down to earth love stories and it does not matter how unusual (or glamorous) the setting is. Every time Rett and Cory were together on page, even when they were just hitting the ball (or throwing ball, or is it the same thing?), I wanted to sigh happily.Those readers who have read Falling Off the Face of the Earth would be quite pleased to meet not just Cory, but also see some other characters from that book make small appearances. I have to admit though, I thought one of the plot turns involving one those characters was unnecessary and weird. I thought that the same thing could have happened to Cory and Rett because of their insecurities rather than adding the artificial "icing on the cake". But I was not too annoyed because it was clear that the conflict happened because of who these guys were and that annoying plot turn to me was just unnecessary little extra.All of you baseball lovers may ask me if there is actual baseball in this book? Considering the fact that the story is first and foremost a story of the building relationship and story of growing up for Rett, I would say that there was plenty of baseball at least as a very well detailed setting, if nothing more. Opinions may differ on that of course.I thought the author cleverly avoided an information dump about baseball by having Cory and some other players explain the very basics to Rett first, however when he shows a couple of practices and a game or two, my eyes began to glaze over a little bit. Again, please note that it is hard for me to determine whether enough of sport was shown for someone who loves it. I can tell you that it was much more than in some other books that claimed to be sport romances, but this is not the treatise on baseball. The author brings up a lot of different baseball related information which I have no idea whether it was correct or not, but he managed to get me interested at least in some of it.Now there is a of course a fantasy element in the story of an ordinary guy falling in love with a young star of the MLB. I liked how the writer tried to ground it in as much reality as he possibly could. We already met Cory in the previous book as a very likeable but ordinary teenager who was going through a rough time, but also had a lot of support from his friends and family. Cory just did not feel as a "celebrity" to me and when he makes an ultimate romantic declaration I completely bought it (of course love is more important than being a celebrity baseball talent )And if you think that this is one of those stories of the player coming out to the world, think again.

Others are better than I at both the literary critique and the synopsis, and have written lengthy reviews for your reading pleasure. Rather than repeat what has been said, I'll say what I liked and didn't like about this book my totally subjective musings.Likes: The character development was fabulous and the characters themselves were put-them-in-your-pocket-and-take-them-home adorable. I mean, yeah you wanted to slap Rett around a lot, but you knew he was going to figure it out.The story itself was very cute.The chemistry between Rett and Casey was awesome, and the lead up to their first kiss crackled with tension. Definitely well done romance!Didn't like- honestly, although I really am in agreement with the reviewer who panned m/m erotica for women (there was a comment about lithe young bodies that cracked me up) this book fell short on my romance heat scale. It went to far to get a pg-13 rating or let me pass it to my teenager to read, but seemed to drop the curtain abruptly when things got hot. It was the abruptness rather than my need for voyeurism that was most annoying (although the latter is also an issue in any romance, m/m or m/f. I do know a few m/f romance authors who manage to limit the amount of time spent in the bedroom yet never make the reader feel like they missed out that is what I was looking for).Honestly I get why an author might not want to write certain scenes.

This is the third time reading this wonderful book, and I am still brought to tears several times through the story. The characters are so well drawn, and the situations so close to my heart, that I have been compelled to revisit them again, and probably will again in a few years.

Gute Erzählweise mit Suchtgefahr, sympathischen Figuren und einem riesigen Haufen Problemen. Man kann lachen, mitleiden und mitgenießen. Bis auf ein paar kleine Schwächen wie der eher auf der Strecke gebliebenen Persönlichkeitsentwicklung von Cory in meinen Augen, hat der Autor hier eine gute Arbeit geleistet! In diesem Buch steckt eine Menge drin, verpackt in eine süße Liebesgeschichte, also holt sie euch, das Ding ist seinen Preis wert.

It's official....I am an emotional wreck!I've read all three novels by this writer, but not the short story.It was only after reading about 50% through this novel that I realised we have a follow-on story from "Falling off the face of the Earth," and oh is this good.I know absolutely nothing about Baseball apart from it seems similar to the game of Rounders here in the UK but I now want to know more.This novel is exeptionally well written. The characters are well developed, the plot is highly emotional.All three novels have explicitly verbose characters but Val is the first female character to be written with these traits. Hysterically funny.Although these are stand alone novels, I would recommend reading "Falling Off the Face of The Earth" prior to this novel, you'll realise why one of the MCs is so special.Erotically charged yet hardly any descriptive sex to speak of. If you like your M/M romances graphically pornographic this is not your sort of novel. If you prefer romance and love-making, this is it. If you liked Sean Kennedy's novel "Tigers and Devils" you'll love this.I recently joined the M/M Romance Group on another review site and recently readers have been asked to comment on what they did not enjoy about the novels in this genre. It would be impossible judging by the comments for any author to write the perfect novel. We are all different and have differing expectations. Personally this novel is one of the few that have come the closest to perfection (for me) in this genre.

And I don't know anything about baseball!Story is involving, the angst real as are the laughs. JF smith is on my auto buy list - which is not a long list.

Having just come off the back of reading Cat Sebastian’s fantastic “You should be so lucky” I was in the mood for another baseball flavoured book. Ideally I would have preferred something in the same nostalgic vein but one thing I did insist on was that it had to have a strong focus on the team. And to a large degree the “Last days of summer” gave me that team-vibe.The story follows Rett, who all his life has run away from problems preferring to start anew rather than deal with problems head on. A concern about his boyfriend wanting to take their relationship to the next level worries Rett and it’s not long before he hightails it out of town to pastures new, with a new job at a failing baseball team and another new start. With Rett not knowing the first thing about baseball we follow him as he builds up relationships with the team and catches the eye of their new pitcher.What was so good about this book was the time the author spent developing his characters and their relationships. At the start he does drop you slap bang in the middle of an existing relationship between Rett and Val where there is a lot of catchup to be done by the reader, but he still spends time showing us how Rett's new friendships develop. Non more so than between Rett and the other male lead, Cory. We get to see a beautiful relationship blossom and spend some wonderful times together with the two of them. But we get to see lots of the team too, which I really came to this book for. Like with Tal Bauer’s hockey books, I think the inclusion of the team as a central part of the story makes a book all the better for it. It doesn’t feel like the “sport” is just a vehicle to write another formulaic MM romance (are you listening Eden Finley and Saxon James?!?) And a good writer will be able to make any reader feel the excitement of the game, even if they had no knowledge of it prior to reading the book.Now this book is one of a series of books that exist in the same world. And you may choose to read JF Smith’s “Falling off the face of the earth” beforehand if you want to learn more about Cory and James’ origin story, but it is not necessary. Just like the previous book there is a lot of emotional angst in it and for the most part it is totally necessary and really develops the characters. What I did find pretty terrible was the 11th hour breakup scene. Now that did feel like a plot ploy and never really added anything to the story. The characters growth was already in the making due to how the author had structured the story, so this breakup scene was just a plot ploy, and it only really served to make the readers like James less in the end, which was totally unnecessary. But I can forgive the author for that as he has written a wonderful sport related love story that remains as truthful to the sport of baseball as a metaphor for "connection", as any we have seen either on screen or in print over the past 50 years.4.5 Stars