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WORK TITLE: Cold Summer
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://gwenmcole.com/
CITY: Richmond
STATE: VA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; children: one daughter.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Worked variously as a pharmacy technician, ranch hand, meat clerk, and retail receiving specialist.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Young adult author Gwen Cole is a native of New York. She has worked in a variety of jobs, including meat department clerk, ranch hand, pharmacy technician, and receiving specialist at a large national retail chain. At age eighteen, she played bass in a hardcore band, and she later married the band’s lead guitarist. The couple currently lives with their daughter in Richmond, Virginia.
In her debut young adult novel, Cold Summer, Cole combines a time-travel theme with romance to tell the story of Harper Croft, a teenage girl whose involvement with an old friend will change both of their lives. As the novel begins, Harper’s emotionally distant mother has apparently abandoned her, leaving her little choice but to return to the Iowa community where she grew up. There, she lives with her widower uncle, Jasper, and tries to make sense of what has happened to her.
To Harper’s delight, she has been able to reunite with Kale Jackson, a friend she has known since they were next-door neighbors in childhood. Kale and Harper had many adventures together as children, and these happy memories give them a solid foundation from which to rekindle their friendship. It has been many years since they have seen each other, and in the meantime, they have both matured into teenagers. Soon, their old friendship has transformed into an intense teenage romantic relationship.
Gradually, Harper learns one of Kale’s most carefully guarded secrets. Ever since he was a youngster, Kale has been inexplicably transported into the past. These unpredictable time hops, resulting in unexplained absences and mysterious injuries, have made his life difficult. As a result, he has dropped out of school and become detached from his family. Most recently, he has been traveling back and forth to a World War II battlefield, complete with all the dangers a full-scale war can impose on a terrified young man. Kale hopes his involvement with Harper will give him an anchor in the present that will keep him from returning to the war zone again. As he struggles with the PTSD his experiences have caused, Kale works to gain a measure of control over his time-travel abilities. Concurrently, Harper confronts her own slate of family problems while working to help Kale recover his stability. A chance discovery in a historical article suggests that Kale will become a casualty of war, adding even more desperation to the young couple’s efforts.
Assessing Cold Summer in Kirkus Reviews, a writer commented, “This emotional journey for a time-traveling guy and his now-girl-next-door is better suited to romance readers than science-fiction aficionados.” Readers “looking for a believable romance will be gratified by well-executed chapters that alternate between Kale’s and Harper’s perspectives,” commented Blake Holman, writing in School Library Journal.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2017, review of Cold Summer.
School Library Journal, April, 2017, Blake Holman, review of Cold Summer, p. 150.
ONLINE
Gwen Cole Website, http://www.gwenmcole.com (February 9, 2018).
BIO
Gwen Cole writes Young Adult books and her debut novel, COLD SUMMER, will be released in the spring of 2017 with Sky Pony Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing.
She grew up in upstate New York, moved to Virginia where she did not graduate college, and worked a various number of jobs including pharmacy technician, meat clerk, ranch hand, and a receiving specialist at Target. She may or may not have written a number of books while working at certain jobs.
At the age of eighteen, Gwen played bass in a hardcore band and later married the lead guitarist. She can also play piano, guitar, and wishes she could play the cello. Her favorite place to vacation is Wyoming, where she gets to wear a cowboy hat and pretend she actually is one.
Gwen now lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, daughter, and very large dog, where she longs to live in the country again.
Cole, Gwen: COLD SUMMER
Kirkus Reviews. (Mar. 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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Cole, Gwen COLD SUMMER Sky Pony Press (Children's Fiction) $16.99 5, 2 ISBN: 978-1-5107-0766-5
There's no time like the present in this time-travel romance.Teenager Harper Croft, apparently abandoned by her (inexplicably) aloof mother, moves to Iowa to live with her widower uncle, Jasper. It's been six years since she saw her childhood buddy, now-17-year-old Kale Jackson, but their friendship soon turns into romance. But Kale finds it hard to be present, mentally and literally. He's traumatized by his seemingly uncontrollable and increasingly frequent travels through time, having spent several months traveling back to World War II. With unexplainable absences and injuries, Kale has earned his gruff dad's wrath and brother's dismissal. Kale's baffling unwillingness to demonstrate his ability is as logically flawed as the oversimplified explanation of time travel, but here, it's cast as neither superpower nor curse but a metaphor for coming-of-age. Each of the white protagonists (also co-narrators) deals with familial woes, but girl gamer Harper is far less angst-y than broody mechanic Kale. Debut author Cole focuses more on exhilarating relationships than excellent adventures; she uses the slow pacing to develop her characters but tends toward repetitive descriptions and moralizing. This emotional journey for a time-traveling guy and his now-girl-next-door is better suited to romance readers than science-fiction aficionados. (Fantasy. 12-18)
Cole, Gwen. Cold Summer
Blake Holman
School Library Journal. 63.4 (Apr. 2017): p150.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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COLE, Gwen. Cold Summer. 334p. Sky Pony. May 2017. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781510707665.
Gr 8 Up-Since he was seven. Kale Jackson has been intermittently yanked into the past. Convulsive and uncontrollable time-hops have taken him around the world, but after a decade of concealing his ability, he has dropped out of school and become alienated from his family. Worse, since his parents' divorce, he's been warping to a World War II battlefield. Enter Harper, Kale's ex-neighbor. The two share halcyon memories: playful dips in the nearby river, summertime adventures in the bucolic forest, and a childhood friendship that was really an inchoate romance. Their renewed and newly steamy relationship gives the traumatized Kale an emotional purchase on the present. It's a connection that may even prove strong enough to keep him from skidding back into World War II. Readers seeking the usual fruits of the time-hopping genre (such as historical commentary or insights into the perspectives of people in the past) will be disappointed. If not for the wintry weather, the narrative bursts of 1945 might just as well have been Waterloo or Antietam. Kale's ability could have been explored more creatively, and its explanation seems desultory. However, those looking for a believable romance will be gratified by well-executed chapters that alternate between Kale's and Harper's perspectives. VERDICT Thanks to solidly developed characters and a plot propelled by romance and supernatural powers, this will fit comfortably in most YA collections. Though lacking the philosophical flair or historiographical vigor that flavors the best time-travel books, it's recommended as a strong secondary purchase.-Blake Holman, Whitefish Bay Public Library, WI
Holman, Blake