Lacey L. (sedeara) reviewed on + 15 more book reviews
"I was . . . like a jigsaw puzzle piece that can only go in the middle, waiting for the others to fit around it and make it whole." - Haven, "That Summer."
This was my light, bedtime reading for the past few weeks. I expected it to be a teen romance, because Hollywood made a romantic comedy out of this book ("How to Deal"). I was thrown a little off when it was not in fact a romance--it was a story about sisterhood. I could go on a tangent here about Hollywood devalueing female/female relationships, but I won't.
I really liked the premise of this story. It takes place over one summer when everything seems to be changing for 15-year-old Haven--her parents have recently divorced, her mom wants to move, her best friend has turned "bad girl," and her sister's getting married. In the midst of this, her sister's first boyfriend shows up in town and reminds Haven about the way her life used to be simple. It's basically a coming of age story.
Unfortunately, it didn't live up to its potential--the characters felt like they walked onto the page from a bad sitcom (or maybe a bad romantic comedy . . .), the prose was clunky, the dialogue was really awkward. It reminded me of something I would have written when I was 16. I sort of expected more, because its part of the "Speak" line, which I assumed were exceptionally high quality books. But I've actually only ever read one "Speak" book ("My Heartbeat") and just heard high praise for "Speak," which started the line.
That was tangential. The end of this book was nice and really redeemed a lot of it for me, so I didn't feel like it was a complete waste of time.
This was my light, bedtime reading for the past few weeks. I expected it to be a teen romance, because Hollywood made a romantic comedy out of this book ("How to Deal"). I was thrown a little off when it was not in fact a romance--it was a story about sisterhood. I could go on a tangent here about Hollywood devalueing female/female relationships, but I won't.
I really liked the premise of this story. It takes place over one summer when everything seems to be changing for 15-year-old Haven--her parents have recently divorced, her mom wants to move, her best friend has turned "bad girl," and her sister's getting married. In the midst of this, her sister's first boyfriend shows up in town and reminds Haven about the way her life used to be simple. It's basically a coming of age story.
Unfortunately, it didn't live up to its potential--the characters felt like they walked onto the page from a bad sitcom (or maybe a bad romantic comedy . . .), the prose was clunky, the dialogue was really awkward. It reminded me of something I would have written when I was 16. I sort of expected more, because its part of the "Speak" line, which I assumed were exceptionally high quality books. But I've actually only ever read one "Speak" book ("My Heartbeat") and just heard high praise for "Speak," which started the line.
That was tangential. The end of this book was nice and really redeemed a lot of it for me, so I didn't feel like it was a complete waste of time.
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