Tag: summer reads

Book Review: It’s Not Summer Without You

It’s Not Summer Without You is the second book following The Summer I Turned Pretty. For me personally, I find second books usually to be kind of boring. I usually am missing the feeling that the first book in a series provides. I did really like this book though. I thought it did a good job of representing the growth of Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad.

This is the first year in Belly’s life that she will not be going to Cousins Beach. Belly used to always think summer was not really summer until she arrived to the house in Cousins Beach. This year everything changes though. After Susannah got sick again, they are not going to Cousins Beach this year. To Belly, this is the worst summer ever, and she wishes that she could just skip over it altogether. That is, until Jeremiah calls telling Belly Conrad has gone missing. Jeremiah and Belly head to the house at Cousins beach to try to make everything right again. Conrad, Jeremiah, spend what will probably be their last summer ever at the house on Cousins Beach. They just hope they can make it the best summer ever.

This book really dove into Belly’s relationships with Jeremiah and Conrad. She has a very different relationship with both of them, but she still loves them both. Belly is determined to save Conrad throughout this whole book. I kept having to remind myself she is only a teenager and love is new to her. I found myself frustrated with her at times because of her desperate need to save Conrad. I get it though. I think we have all loved someone in our life that you want to save, but simply cannot.

I gave this book 3/5 stars. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first one. There were also times I was frustrated with Belly throughout the novel. Just a reminder this is a young adult novel. I am not saying that is a bad thing, it is just teenagers are going to love a lot differently than adults do. It was easy to be frustrated with the characters, but then also remember we were all 16/17 at one point. Overall, I would recommend to read it, if you have read the first one. It answered a lot of questions that I was left with after finishing the first one. On Friday, I will cover the third and final book of this series! I look forward to you all reading it!

Book Review: The True Love Experiment

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren was such a good love story. I was hooked from the beginning to end. I am not always a fan of romance novels. That is actually an understatement. I usually loathe romance novels. I find myself rolling my eyes and fighting my way through them. Over time I have began to like them a lot more and I absolutely loved this one. I felt like there was actually depth to it and it was not overly mushy or cheesy.

Felicity or, Fizzy, Chen, is a famous romance novelist. She has been in quite a rut for a while now with her writing and her love life. Connor Prince is a documentary film maker. He is very passionate about his work. Connor chose to relocate and work for a production company to be near his daughter. The production company has now decided they want to switch over to producing reality tv instead of wildlife documentaries. Connor enlists the help of Fizzy to set up a Hollywood love story that everyone will be rooting for. Connor sets up a cast of the “perfect” matches for Fizzy and lets the world vote on the man she should be with. The only problem is, Fizzy and Connor end up falling in love.

I absolutely loved Connor and Fizzy. these two characters were so well written and had such depth to them. Fizzy was not some damsel in distress looking for someone to save her. And Connor was not a guy who is looking to save a woman or who is constantly relying on a woman to make him happy. That right there automatically makes it a great read for me. I also loved the whole reality tv feel. It made it feel so much more realistic for some reason.

I gave this book 4.5/5 stars. I found it to be such a good book. It was a great summer read and I had a hard time putting it down. I fell in love with all of the characters and the whole story was so different from any other romance novel I have ever read. If you love romance novels I would highly recommend this one.