REVIEW: That Last Carolina Summer by Karen White

That Last Carolina Summer by Karen White: Phoebe left South Carolina behind and moved to the West Coast to get away from her family and all the trauma from her earlier days. When she was still a child she got hit by lightning. A neighborhood boy, Liam, brought her back to life. After that life changing day she began to have dreams that were strange and had a touch of premonition to them.

Phoebe is pulled back to the Charleston area by a call from her sister Addie. Their mother, Elizabeth,is having serious issues that point to dementia and needs extra care. After debate, the sisters get their mother to see a doctor who just happens to be a grown up Liam.
Liam’s grandmother is Celeste whose granddaughter Julia disappeared and was never found. Phoebe and Celeste form a bond and help each other cope.

Not long after Phoebe comes home, she has very frightening dreams. Could they be the explanation of what happened to Julia all those years ago?

Romance plays a part in THAT LAST CAROLINA SUMMER, but there is even more emphasis on family and how secrets can tear lives apart.
I have been reading Karen White’s novels since the first one. I’m always happy to come back to ones set in the Low Country of South Carolina. Other novels have had a touch of the paranormal. Perhaps there are really people like Phoebe who dream of events they never witnessed.

Tropes:
estranged sisters
️ small-town secrets
coming home to heal
cold case mystery
⚡️ psychic visions
second chance romance
aging parent storyline
buried truths revealed

Even though all Karen White’s books are fabulous I think this new one is now my current favorite. That Last Carolina Summer wraps mystery, grief, and second chances into one unforgettable read.

Book Info:

Publication: July 22, 2025 | Park Row |

Beloved New York Times bestselling author Karen White returns with a brand-new contemporary stand-alone novel about sisterhood, secrets and one woman’s reckoning with the past

As a child, Phoebe Manigault developed the gift of premonition after she was struck by lightning in the creeks near her Charleston home. Plagued throughout her life by mysterious dreams, and always living in the shadow of her beautiful sister, Addie, Phoebe eventually moves to the West Coast, as far from her family as possible. Now, years later, she is summoned back to South Carolina, to help Addie care for their ailing mother.

As Phoebe’s return lures her back into deep-rooted tensions and conflicts, she is drawn toward Celeste, whose granddaughter went missing years ago. Their connection, woven through shared losses and hope, brings comfort to Phoebe, while Celeste’s adult grandson Liam resurrects complicated emotions tied to Phoebe’s past.

But the longer Phoebe spends in her childhood home, the more her recurring nightmares intensify—bringing her closer to the shocking truth that will irrevocably change everything. Unfolding against the lush backdrop of the South Carolina Lowcountry, That Last Carolina Summer is an unforgettable family drama and mystery about the unbreakable bonds of family and the gift of second chances.