Colleen Temple
Colleen Temple, M. Ed (she/her) is the Amazon best-selling author of her debut novel, Summer Breakdown. She is the former essays editor at a popular parenting website, and the editor of This Is Motherhood: A Collection of Reflections + Practices. Born and raised in New York, she now lives in a coastal Massachusetts town with her husband Colin and their three lively, creative, and hilarious children. Her work has been featured in Real Simple, The Huffington Post, Motherly, Insider, The Gottman Institute, and the quirky notes she puts in her kid’s lunchboxes (when she remembers). You can find more of her work online at @colltemple (Instagram) and @watchcollwrite (TikTok). www.colleentemple.com
Summer Breakdown
Women’s Fiction
This summer doesn’t just unearth the past, it threatens to unravel Sabrina’s life completely.
Her alcoholic father is dying, she’s estranged from her family, and she’s only surviving motherhood thanks to bottomless cups of coffee and secret cigarettes. After years of trying to avoid her issues, she finally comes face-to-face with them on a reluctant journey back to Seaside, Massachusetts. And this time—she doesn’t run away.
But returning home sends Sabrina spiraling. Watching her father die is overwhelming. Living under her mother’s reign is suffocating. And finding out her dead sister Coraline’s secret brings up fifteen years of unresolved grief. This trip forcibly lifts Sabrina from her fog and drops her directly into chaos, past traumas, and the arms of her high school ex-boyfriend.
This summer Sabrina learns firsthand, no one is as perfect as they want you to think.
Summer Breakdown is a raw and moving love story set in a charming New England beach town about the complexities of family, marriage, humanity, and the dual beauty and heartache of raising children while also raising yourself.
