Last Summer Boys: A Novel

Written by Bill Rivers

Narrated by Michael Crouch

In this rapturous coming-of-age debut, a naive-yet-determined Appalachian boy will go to any length to save his family over the course of one life-changing summer.

“If you’re famous, you don’t have to go to war.”

Summer 1968. When thirteen-year-old Jack Elliot overhears the barbershop men grousing, he devises a secret plan to keep his oldest brother, Pete, from the draft. If famous boys don’t go to war, he’ll make his brother their small town’s biggest celebrity. Jack gets unexpected help when his book-smart cousin Frankie arrives in their rural Pennsylvania town for the summer. Together, they convince Jack’s brothers to lead an expedition to find a fighter jet that crashed many winters ago—the perfect adventure to make Pete a hero.

But with a greedy developer determined to flood their valley, a beautiful girl occupying his middle brother’s attentions, a wild motorcycle gang causing trouble in town, and a disturbed neighbor setting fires, Jack realizes it isn’t just Pete who needs saving.

Set during a single, tumultuous summer, this beautifully told tale is a heartwarming tribute to innocence, first love, and the unbreakable bond of brotherhood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jun 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781713661559

Bill Rivers

Bill Rivers grew up along the creeks of the Brandywine Valley in Delaware and Pennsylvania. A graduate of the University of Delaware, he earned an MPA from the University of Pennsylvania as a Truman Scholar, one of sixty national awards given annually for a career in public service. Bill worked in the US Senate before serving as speechwriter for US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, developing classified and unclassified messages on national security and traveling throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. He and his family live outside Washington, DC, where he still keeps a piece of a crashed fighter jet they found in the hills of southeastern Pennsylvania.

Reviews for Last Summer Boys

[Michelle Beard · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sweet coming of age, simple upright country family meets adversity story, a bit predictable but enjoyably so.

[witchyrichy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am participating in the Kindle Summer Reading challenge and one of the options was to read one of their summer picks. I chose Last Summer Boys, partially because it was set in Pennsylvania. The story takes place in the summer of 1968 and revolves around the Elliott family that includes three brothers, Jack, the youngest, along with Pete and Will. They are joined by cousin Francis who is sent away from the city to escape the riots and fires.Jack is determined to keep Pete, who turns 18 on the 4th of July, away from Vietnam by making him famous. He even has a plan for how to do it and enlists Francis's help. Things don't turn out the way he thinks and the book takes a surprising and dark turn that gives this coming-of-age novel a gripping twice.Besides being an excellent story teller, Bill Rivers writes beautiful prose. I found myself highlighting descriptive passages that made me slow down and savor.

[judithrs · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Last Summer Boys. Bill Rivers. 2022. This lovely little coming-of-age novel takes place the summer of 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were killed. Cousin Francis (Frankie) is sent from the threatened violence of Memphis to the farm of his three cousins in Pennsylvania. Pete, the youngest, narrates the story as they encounter the local bike gang, ghosts, girls, and a conniving businessman; as Pete hatches a plan to keep his brother from having to go to Vietnam

[nyiper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A story of just what the title says....boys in summer but what a summer develops! Nicely written...you just keep reading, moving along through a surprising number of happenings that relate to the time and place. I completely agree with the first reviewer.

[kimkimkim-7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There was so much to like about this book especially hearkening back in time to a gentler, more family-oriented place. A time when boys could go into the woods to establish their own camping grounds, name it and remember it into adulthood. A time when country boys welcome their city cousin into their fold and teach him while testing him. A time when brothers look to protect each other and devise all sorts of plots and plans to accomplish it. 1968 - A time so many of us remember with mixed feelings.Rivers hits so many memories squarely on the head and drives in each nail. He reminds us that “everybody matters” Good writing, good story - so glad Amazon offered it as a First Read and even happier that I chose it.