[Review: The Summer After You And Me by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski]

"The Summer After You and Me"
Author: Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
Series: None
Pages: 320
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Date Published: May 1st, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Format Read: eARC provided by publisher (via NetGalley) for honest review

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Summary:

Sunbathing, surfing, eating funnel cake on the boardwalk—Lucy loves living on the Jersey Shore. For her, it's not just the perfect summer escape, it is home. And as a local girl, she knows not to get attached to the tourists. They breeze in over Memorial Day weekend, crowding the shore and stealing moonlit kisses, only to pack up their beach umbrellas and empty promises on Labor Day. Lucy wants more from love than a fleeting romance, even if that means keeping her distance from her summertime neighbor and crush, Connor.

Then Superstorm Sandy tears apart her barrier island, briefly bringing together a local girl like herself and a vacationer like Connor. Except nothing is the same in the wake of the storm. And day after day, week after week, Lucy is left to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and broken home. Now with Memorial Day approaching and Connor returning, will it be a summer of fresh starts or second chances?

-Goodreads

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My Thoughts:

An Open Letter To The Summer After You and Me,

You are the perfect beach read. Seriously, you have a cute premise, a cute boy, and the whole "coming of age" thing going for you. I enjoyed you a lot, and I think that a lot of other people will too. Lucy and Connor where a ton of fun to read about and I also liked all of the other characters as well. So, I think what I'm trying to say is that I'll be telling people to read you.

-The White Unicorn

This book was so much fun! Doktorski has this way of weaving a lot of different things into her stories, so a simple summer romance, like this book, isn't boring. In fact The Summer After You and Me is fresh. It has some of the tropes that we all look for in "beach reads," but it also has a lot of heart behind it. 

I really liked that the book had so much to do with Hurricane Sandy. As a native California dweller, that is something that I've never needed to think about, so it was interesting to be immersed into the aftermath of that kind of natural disaster. Sandy is actually a huge part of the plot, bringing our two lovers together, and then also pulling them apart. It's an interesting setting and I'm glad that Doktorski decided to use it. 

Lucy has a lot going on in her life. A twin brother. Her best friend turned boyfriend Andrew. A job or two. The last thing that she needs is for Connor (the cute boy who lives next door) to come back into her life. He left her in lurch after they finally had all those fire-work-inducing moments that make you go "awwww!" But of course, Connor shows back up.

The interactions between all of Doktorski's characters is one of my favorite things about her writing. I can say this because I have read all of her books. There is something so natural about their interactions, that even if the plot points seem a little kitchy, you don't even notice. It's a writing style that I really look up to, and this novel is another showing of why it works. 

If you're looking for a beach read full of wanting and waiting and heartstrings being pulled, then this is it. This is a summer romance with some meat on its bones. This is the kind of book that will leave you cheering for the lead and falling in love with the rest of the cast. What more could you want from a summer read? 

Rating:

4 Unicorns = Close to perfect!

[Review: Instructions fir a Broken Heart by Kim Culbertson]

"Instructions for a Broken Heart"
Author: Kim Culbertson
Series: None
Pages: 304
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance, Travel
Date Published: May 1st, 2011
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Format Read: Purchased paperback

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Summary:

Three days before her drama club's trip to Italy, Jessa Gardner discovers her boyfriend in the costume barn with another girl. Jessa is left with a care package from her best friend titled "Top Twenty Reasons He's a Slimy Jerk Bastard," instructing her to do one un-Jessa-like thing each day of the trip. At turns hilarious and heartwrenching, Instructions for a Broken Heart paints a magical Italy in which Jessa learns she must figure out life-and romance-for herself.

-Goodreads

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My Thoughts:

An Open Letter To Instructions for a Broken Heart,

You go book!  You're pretty much one of the funniest and sweetest breakup books I've ever read.  I think that the reason I liked you so much could be because of fairly current life events of my own?  That's always a possibility, but that being said you had most of my favorite things in your pages.  Legit girl/boy friendships that don't head into romantic territory, about 1,000 Broadway show references and Italy (aka foreign lands).  You really out did yourself and I'm not sure why more people don't know about you.  We've all been in your shoes, or one day we will be and I think you're pretty cool for being who you are.

-The White Unicorn

I think what pulled me right into this story was the writing itself.  Oh, and the previously mentioned Broadway musical references.  You can't go wrong with those, you just can't.  But anyway,  Culbertson really knows how to describe what is happening around Jessa.  Sure, her language heads toward the flowery side of things, but there is a lot of weight in all the pretty words and that doesn't happen all the time.  There is a undefined, magical quality to what you read in these pages.  It's guaranteed to get ugly, there are going to be tears shed, but it still seems almost like a real life fairytale.

Imagine what it would be like to find your boyfriend cheating on you and then you have to go on a 10 day trip with the new happy couple... in Italy.  That's what Jessa has to deal with.  To top everything off, her best friend isn't on the trip with her, but not to worry, we get to know Carissa through the 20 envelopes that she sends off with Jessa.  Jessa comes off as slightly whiny and lost, but you understand where she's at and you're wanting to give her high fives by the end of the book.  This girl is hilarious and I like how she's not painted as a Saint, even though it's easy to side with her.  She has a lot of growing up left to do and a large chunk of that ends up happening on the beautiful streets of various Italian cities.

The setting is rich.  You can feel Italy's heart in the story.  It's almost it's own character.  An entity that helps Jessa heal and keeps her and us as readers highly entertained as the novel progresses.  You get to see a lot of Italy in just 10 days.  I was impressed. 

So, because their school's acting program is fairly small, Jessa's school has to team up with another group of high school students.  It was a clever plot point to have two separate schools on the same tour.  It added lots of interesting characters and also gave us Dylan Thomas, who sounded pretty darn dreamy, if you're asking me.  It was great to see Jessa form an instant friendship with him as well as seeing her interacting with her best male friend Tyler.  I loved that Culbertson gave us such a genuine friendship between two teens like Jessa and Tyler.  It would have been so easy for them to be romantic leads together, but they just worked as friends and it was awesome to see in YA.  Of course that still leaves us with Dylan Thomas...

Instructions for a Broken Heart will remind you of what it feels to have your heart ripped out and what it means to put it back together again.  Sometimes the journey is messy, but in the end you'll end up being bigger and better than you were before.  Jessa reminds us of that more than anything else.

Rating:

 4 Unicorns = Close to perfect!