A.E. Albert: A Writer's Blog

The Summer the World Ended by Matthew S. Cox 

The Summer the World Ended

By Matthew S. Cox

About the Book

As far as Riley McCullough is concerned, her best friend getting ‘dragged’ off to Puerto Vallarta for the first two weeks of summer vacation was the end of the world―at least until the bombs fell.

Life in suburban New Jersey with her mother has been comfortable, not to mention boring, to an introverted fourteen year old. As if her friend’s surprise trip wasn’t bad enough, her expectations for the ‘best summer ever’ disintegrate when she gets sent across the country to stay with a father she hasn’t seen in six years. Adjusting to a tiny, desert town where everyone stares at them like they don’t belong proves difficult, and leaves her feeling more isolated than ever. To make matters worse, her secretive father won’t tell the truth about why he left―or what he’s hiding.

Her luck takes an unexpected turn for the better when she meets a boy who shares her interest in video games and contempt for small town boredom. In him, she finds a kindred spirit who might just make the middle of nowhere tolerable.

Happiness is short lived; fleeing nuclear Armageddon, she takes shelter with her dad in an underground bunker he’d spent years preparing. After fourteen days without sun, Riley must overcome the sorrow of losing everything to save the one person she cares about most.

Book Review

Riley's world has crashed down all around her since her mother has died.  Her father is back.  A father she hasn't seen for 6 years.  Yet despite her agony, her father is the only anchor in her life.

Riley now has to move across the country; away from her only friend and the only life she has ever known.  Just when  she thinks her life isn't totally over; calamity strikes.  Maybe changing the world she knows forever.

The Summer the World Ended is more than a book of catastrophe.  It's about a fragile girl dealing with the loss of her mother.  Its delves deep into the relationship between a man and his daughter. It's about what happens to the human psyche when our world is shattered.

The book is well written.  The author created real characters; whether they were small or more significant roles.  The book kept me reading.  I think that says it all.

Published by: Curiosity Quills Press

Publication date: June 29th 2015

Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24424842-the-summer-the-world-ended?ac=1


Purchase:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Summer-World-Ended-Matthew-Cox-ebook/dp/B010L0L0J8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438691500&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Summer+the+World+Ended
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-summer-the-world-ended-matthew-s-cox/1122233043?ean=9781620079041

About the Author

Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.

Hobbies and Interests:

Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.

He is also fond of cats.



Author links:
http://www.matthewcoxbooks.com/wordpress/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7712730.Matthew_S_Cox
https://www.facebook.com/MatthewSCoxAuthor
https://twitter.com/mscox_fiction