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3.18 AVERAGE
3.18 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A good beach read that made me really want to visit Barcelona and eat.
It’s a second chance romance where the first romance was ruined by some big misunderstandings. My main problem with the book is that almost all of the conflict hinged on misunderstandings.
still worth a read for the food and Barcelona descriptions
It’s a second chance romance where the first romance was ruined by some big misunderstandings. My main problem with the book is that almost all of the conflict hinged on misunderstandings.
still worth a read for the food and Barcelona descriptions
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was an easy summer romance read!
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
slow-paced
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This book has no business being this long, I think a lot of things could have been cut out so it was a more concise and enjoyable story.
I found the characters to be so surface level, even their “complex traumas” were dull and predictable. The representation of characters and sexuality in this book are horrendously built from stereotypical tropes.
The bi/pansexual character is promiscuous and flippant about cheating.
The Catalonia woman is cold, greedy and a “man stealer”.
The disabled character is needy, unwilling to do things on her own not because she can’t but because she won’t. Then at the end she’s suddenly so much better, all because she lost some weight and got her man back.
That’s just naming a few that come to mind.
I should have DNF’d but I was just hoping the story got better.
I found the characters to be so surface level, even their “complex traumas” were dull and predictable. The representation of characters and sexuality in this book are horrendously built from stereotypical tropes.
The bi/pansexual character is promiscuous and flippant about cheating.
The Catalonia woman is cold, greedy and a “man stealer”.
The disabled character is needy, unwilling to do things on her own not because she can’t but because she won’t. Then at the end she’s suddenly so much better, all because she lost some weight and got her man back.
That’s just naming a few that come to mind.
I should have DNF’d but I was just hoping the story got better.
emotional
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
⭐⭐1/2
Summer Ever After is a lovely escapist romance that is unfortunately sullied by some questionable rep, a couple frustrating characters, and a few tropes that are just personally not my cup of tea. Still, the storyline is charming, the MMC endearing, and it’s all tied up with a bow of “happily ever after” that, despite it all, melted my heart.
Summer Ever After is a lovely escapist romance that is unfortunately sullied by some questionable rep, a couple frustrating characters, and a few tropes that are just personally not my cup of tea. Still, the storyline is charming, the MMC endearing, and it’s all tied up with a bow of “happily ever after” that, despite it all, melted my heart.
“My heart aches. That’s the trouble with memories. They have a habit of creeping back into your head when you think you’ve managed to erase them.”
What I loved:
- Alice is such a relatable and loveable character, and a lot of her struggles and shortcomings speak to me personally
- Much of the cast of characters, including the smaller characters, feel fully fleshed out and three-dimensional
- The plot, especially the smaller moments, feels incredibly true-to-life.
- While I’m not usually a fan of split-POV, this book handles it incredibly well.
And what I didn’t:
- I find the miscommunication or lack of communication trope incredibly frustrating, and this book relies on it a lot.
- While I understand that there are people who do fit stereotypes, the choice to write a promiscuous pansexual character who cheats on her partner and a helpless fat character weaponizing her incompetence to be lazy rubbed me the wrong way.
- Dani’s growth especially rubbed me the wrong way, with all of her problems seemingly disappearing as soon as Alice stopped coddling her/she found a man. I understand the use of her weight loss as a marker of her growth, but it also made me uncomfortable, especially the way its portrayed as the pounds “melting off” the second she got over herself and found a lover.
- The twist at the end in Alice’s story was infuriating (see: the lack of communication trope).
You Should Read This If:
- You enjoy escapist romances
- You love exploring different cultures—especially through food
- You enjoy (or at least don’t mind) the use of miscommunication as a plot device
Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review of the book.
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Summer Ever After gave fun summer abroad vibes. I really enjoyed the setting of Barcelona in the summer. I also liked that it was dual timelines and the past timeline focused on Andy’s POV and the present focused on Alice’s. I had a fun time reading the first 60% of the book but then after that, especially the ending, felt like a women’s fiction which isn’t necessarily a genre I enjoy. I also continuously kept forgetting or mixing up the side characters and two of them were extremely annoying. I also felt like there were a lot of things just left up to the imagination or maybe the author just forgot about them? And it seemed like after ten years, the characters hadn’t matured and they were facing the same exact problems that they did ten years ago which was extremely frustrating to read about. I also felt like the book could have been at least 60 pages shorter.
Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC!
☆ I’d recommend this book if you love:
🥘 descriptive writing about food
☀️ European summers
✨ past and present timelines
☆ Spice: closed door 🚪
☆ Language: some explicit language
☆ When to read: summer ☀️