Fourteen Summers by Quinn Anderson

Fourteen Summers by Quinn Anderson is a sweet coming of age, second chance childhood sweetheart, super cute M/M romance story about twin brothers Aiden and Max and their best friend Oliver. Growing up, the three of them were inseparable, but when Oliver moved across the country the twins lost contact with him. Until they accidently run into each other again, now aged 20 and all in college, and take up the friendship again. Only, this time there might be more than friendship between Oliver and Aiden, which makes the whole threesome thing a lot more complicated…

Especially as Aiden starts to grow out of letting Max, who has always been the fun, extrovert, big brother speak for them both and itches to discover who he is outside of his “twin” identity. Summer won’t last forever, and with friendship, family, and happily ever after on the line, they three of them have to navigate their changing relationships before it’s too late.

​I immediately rooted for Aiden and Oliver (Max not as much) and read it in one sitting as it was completely unputdownable until the very end! The prologue with the childhood marriage was such a cute start, really setting the tone for the book:

“Do you both swear – cross your hearts and hope to die – that you will always, always be the best of friends?”

The only objections I have is that the proteges felt a bit too immature (more like 15-16 than 20 at times, and I think the story and the way they acted would have made so much more sense if they’d been in High School rather than in college) and that the book changed a bit from sweet, slow-burning, awkward romance to NA quite sudden. I feel that it would have been better to keep the sweetness all through the book instead of going explicit, but that’s just my personal opinion, and I really understand if someone else appreciate the steamy parts. For being explicit, the sex scenes were very well written, I have to give Quinn Anderson kudos for that.

What I really liked about this book was the focus on the burgeoning romance and the changing dynamics of the brothers’ relationship, and not solely on Aiden and Oliver dealing with being gay and coming out. Those are important and, sadly still often problematic and scary issues, but there are also so many other aspects to tell about gay love stories. It therefore felt really refreshing and hopeful that being gay was not the big thing in itself in this story - when we get to meet them, they were both very clear about their identity and had already come out years ago, with family and friends loving and respecting them for who they are - but that just as in any other romance novel, it was all about the feelings, the butterflies in your stomach, the wonder of falling in love and having someone love you back, and for Max the feeling of jealousy and being left out.

All in all, this is a wonderful, sweet and addictive reading experience and I can’t wait to read more of Quinn Anderson’s books!

Find our more about the book and the author here: Quinn Anderson