With Every Beat of My Heart (Like The Taste Of Summer)

Like The Taste Of SummerKaje Harper

Kaje Harper does something to me and it is completely and totally visceral. Catching my breath, clinging to the edge of my seat and tears welling up in my eyes—these thing are embarrassing as I read Ms. Harper’s work, but not entirely unexpected. After I read “The Rebuilding Year,” I convinced myself Ms. Harper had achieved the pentacle of her writing career. Seriously, how does one go about and surpass John and Ryan’s story? You don’t. You continue. That’s exactly how Ms. Harper writes, she continues. She continues to amaze and please. Her characters are fleshed out almost beyond the page with a seemingly tangible existent. With the absence of corporal form, I am happy to note they are forever on the page (or in digital font). Years slip by leaving echoes in their wake and I remember my first love “Like a Taste of Summer,” which in turn remembers why the love of your life, is the love of your life. This novella lives and carries its own beating heart.