Hi everyone, I hope everyone has got their Christmas shopping done by now. We’re busy getting everything sorted for our trip to Sri Lanka. My summers as a teenager were always packed with drama, tears (the good kind!), and fun adventures. The stories below have a smattering of summer-y themes for your reading leisure. Head below and let me know what you think…
This first one was not what I expected but I loved the setting of Spain over a summer neither of the characters expected.
The Summer of Broken Things by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2018) takes us to a small town in America where we meet fourteen-year-old Avery Armisted who is athletic, rich and pretty while sixteen-year-old Kayla Butts is known as “butt girl” at school. The two girls were friendly as kids, but that’s ancient history now. So, when Avery’s father offers to bring Kayla along on a summer trip to Spain, it’s a huge surprise to Avery. While in Spain, the two uncover a secret their families had hidden from both of them their entire lives. Maybe the girls can put aside their differences and work through it together.
My review: This was an engaging and lively read!! Told in the two distinct voices of soccer-crazy Avery and calmer Kayla, this teen read is just that. A story of two very different teens who find out they’re not just acquaintances and try to figure things out. I like how each character grew towards the end and the mish-mash of the supporting cast who helped them. There were some amazing descriptions of the Spanish landscape in Madrid, the nuances of the ancient culture there and the Spanish people in general.
The next read could be called a teen summer romance, but the elements of history give it another layer of intrigue. The Summer of Lost Letters by Hannah Reynolds (Razorbill, 2021) tells the story of one teenager’s summer before her senior year. Seventeen-year-old Abby Schoenberg isn’t exactly looking forward to the summer because she’s just broken up with her boyfriend and won’t be seeing her friends for the next three months. Abby needs a plan – an adventure of her own. That’s when the letters show up one rainy day at Abby’s door, in the last box of her recently deceased grandmother’s possessions. And these aren’t any old letters; they’re love letters. Love letters from a mystery man named Edward. Love letters from a mansion on Nantucket. Abby doesn’t know much about her grandmother’s past. She knows she fled Germany and the Holocaust at age five, and had lived in the US ever since. So Abby heads to Nantucket for the summer to learn more of her grandmother and the secrets she kept. But when she meets Edward’s handsome grandson, who wants to stop her from investigating, things get complicated. As Abby and Noah grow closer, the family mysteries deepen, and they discover that they both have to accept the burden of the past if they want the kind of futures they’ve always imagined.
My review: A lovely teen summer romance story with a twist of history attached to it!! I really loved the description of life in Nantucket and the friends Abby makes over the summer. I found that it was a soft teen romance and the mystery of the grandmother’s early life during the 1930’s around America took more value to the story. The author’s note at the end about her maternal grandmother’s story of immigration to the US during World War Two was quite humbling to read!
Better Together by Christine Riccio (Wednesday Books, 2021) can only be described as an amazing story. Jaimie’s an aspiring stand-up comic in Los Angeles with a growing case of stage anxiety. Siri’s a stunning ballerina from New Jersey nursing a career-changing injury. They’ve both been signed up for the same session at the off-the-grid Rediscover Yourself Retreat in Colorado. When they run into each other, their worlds turn upside down. The girls find out that they are sisters, separated at a young age by their parents’ volatile divorce. They’ve grown up living completely separate lives: Jaimie with her dad and Siri with her mom. Now, reunited after more than a decade apart, they hatch a plot to switch places. With an accidental assist from some fortuitous magic, Jaimie arrives in New Jersey looking to the world like Siri, and Siri steps off her flight sporting Jaimie “glamour.” Their ensuing adventure is rife with emotion, hijinks, romance, and self-reflection as the girls are thrust from their comfort zones and forced to confront their pasts so they can navigate their future.
My review: Told in alternating voices of Siri and Jaimie, this enchanting story took readers into a journey of self-discovery and even first love..or was it a second love? Anyway, I really liked this story even if it did have some mature themes of gender identity and sexuality here and there. The family story was one that I liked reading and getting to understand. The friendships, their love interests, and their careers of stand-up comedy and ballerina/foodie were expertly described. The dialogue is quite funny, especially that of Siri and her mum who refuse to use swear words and instead shout “Excrement” or “Intercourse” frequently!! A good read!
Best quote:
“Life throws boulders in your path. It threw them in mine. Not the same ones, but they still fell, and I had to find a way to get around them.” – Mum to Siri after her doctor’s appointment.
Miss Mahee's Library of Reads 