The Summer Before

The Summer Before

by Dianne C. Braley

Released October 15, 2024

If someone you love was assaulted, abused, or was a victim of a crime-you are a secondary victim.

If the perpetrator is also someone you love, there are no words.

Madeline and Summer are more than best friends. They might as well be sisters; they've claimed the title, anyway-and sisters tell each other everything. But Summer has a secret she's been hiding for years. Someone's been hurting her, someone close, and when it comes out, it destroys everything around her with the force of dying stars.

Six years after the trial, Madeline is a haunted young woman trying to build a new life in Boston, but the guilt of her betrayal brings her to the brink of suicide. To let go of the past, Madeline must confront her father, mother, and all those involved with the trial that split her family apart — or continue her descent, finishing what she started to escape it.

A raw, gritty New Englander, Dianne C. Braley found love for the written word early on, reading and creating stories while trying to escape hers, growing up in the turbulent world of alcoholism. After putting her pencil down for a time, she became a registered nurse finding strength and calm in caring for those who couldn’t care for themselves. Still, she never lost her drive to write, and later she found her passion again on the island of Martha’s Vineyard with the help of a famous author who became her friend and motivator.