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lucy_36's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer
Moderate: Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Alcohol
Minor: Blood
just_klaudia's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer
Moderate: Blood, Bullying, and Violence
thereaderfriend's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Very cute summer ya beach read. Lacks that sparkle but not bad. Epilogue was a little weird but not bad.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer and Sexism
Minor: Fatphobia, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Blood, Drug use, Grief, Alcohol, Cursing, Body shaming, and Injury/Injury detail
bornachoker's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol and Grief
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, and Blood
jessicaludden's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
“I would spend my whole life loving him one way or another. Maybe I would get married, maybe I would have a family, but it wouldn’t matter, because a piece of my heart, the piece where summer lived, would always be Conrad’s.”
This was a super fun, quick, and easy read! If I had read it when it came out over ten years ago I would’ve been obsessed with it. It was very entertaining and I read it in a day. Of course it has its problems. It’s a typical YA summer romance with multiple potential love interests. The ages of the characters was something I actively tried not to think about. There were many cringey lines. Overall though I liked it. Sometimes with love triangles it’s impossible for me to choose. I usually always go for the characters like Conrad who are mysterious and brooding and while I did like him I also loved Jeremiah. He was so funny and so sweet. It broke my heart when Belly (side note that’s a very dumb nickname) friendzoned him and it broke my heart even more when he said he felt like Conrad was always better than him. I know she’ll probably end up with Conrad at the end of this series (she did at the end of this book anyways) and I’m not mad at it, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want Jeremiah to have his chance too. Overall, this book entertained me for a day and I’m invested enough in the characters to keep reading.
Favorite Quotes:
“Summer was what mattered. My whole life was measured in summers. Like I don’t really begin living until June, until I’m at the beach, in that house.”
“Sometimes it’s like people are a million times more beautiful to you in your mind. It’s like you see them through a special lens—but maybe if it’s how you see them, that’s how they really are.”
“Conrad gave me this look, the kind of look I bet soldiers give each other when they’re teaming up against somebody else. It was like we were in it together.”
“The thing was, whether he was pushing me away or pulling me toward him, I was still going on the same direction. Toward Conrad.”
“He didn’t look over and laugh with me during the funny parts the way Jeremiah did.”
“He smiled, Conrad had a way of looking at me, at you, at anybody, that made everything unravel and want to fall at his feet.”
“He made it so hard not to love him.”
“He had the nerve to look genuinely confused and also anxious. Because for him, the two things were connected—if he was confused, he was anxious. And he was hardly ever confused, so then he was hardly ever anxious. He’s certainly never been anxious over me. I was inconsequential to him. Always had been.”
“Because the truth was, when I looked at Conrad, all I felt was a yearning that never went away.”
“Watching him serving rubbery eggs and pretending not to be sad, I thought to myself, I will love this boy forever.”
“…Jeremiah and I would whisper scary stories to each other till we fell asleep. He always fell asleep first. I’d try to pinch him awake, but it never worked. The last time that happened might have been the last time I ever felt really, really safe in the world. Like all was right and sound.”
“The old pull, the tide drawing me back in. I kept getting caught in this current—first love, I mean. First love kept making me come back to this, to him. He still took my breath away, just being near him. I had been lying to myself the night before, thinking I was free, thinking I had let him go. It didn’t matter what he said or did, I’d never let him go.”
This was a super fun, quick, and easy read! If I had read it when it came out over ten years ago I would’ve been obsessed with it. It was very entertaining and I read it in a day. Of course it has its problems. It’s a typical YA summer romance with multiple potential love interests. The ages of the characters was something I actively tried not to think about. There were many cringey lines. Overall though I liked it. Sometimes with love triangles it’s impossible for me to choose. I usually always go for the characters like Conrad who are mysterious and brooding and while I did like him I also loved Jeremiah. He was so funny and so sweet. It broke my heart when Belly (side note that’s a very dumb nickname) friendzoned him and it broke my heart even more when he said he felt like Conrad was always better than him. I know she’ll probably end up with Conrad at the end of this series (she did at the end of this book anyways) and I’m not mad at it, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want Jeremiah to have his chance too. Overall, this book entertained me for a day and I’m invested enough in the characters to keep reading.
Favorite Quotes:
“Summer was what mattered. My whole life was measured in summers. Like I don’t really begin living until June, until I’m at the beach, in that house.”
“Sometimes it’s like people are a million times more beautiful to you in your mind. It’s like you see them through a special lens—but maybe if it’s how you see them, that’s how they really are.”
“Conrad gave me this look, the kind of look I bet soldiers give each other when they’re teaming up against somebody else. It was like we were in it together.”
“The thing was, whether he was pushing me away or pulling me toward him, I was still going on the same direction. Toward Conrad.”
“He didn’t look over and laugh with me during the funny parts the way Jeremiah did.”
“He smiled, Conrad had a way of looking at me, at you, at anybody, that made everything unravel and want to fall at his feet.”
“He made it so hard not to love him.”
“He had the nerve to look genuinely confused and also anxious. Because for him, the two things were connected—if he was confused, he was anxious. And he was hardly ever confused, so then he was hardly ever anxious. He’s certainly never been anxious over me. I was inconsequential to him. Always had been.”
“Because the truth was, when I looked at Conrad, all I felt was a yearning that never went away.”
“Watching him serving rubbery eggs and pretending not to be sad, I thought to myself, I will love this boy forever.”
“…Jeremiah and I would whisper scary stories to each other till we fell asleep. He always fell asleep first. I’d try to pinch him awake, but it never worked. The last time that happened might have been the last time I ever felt really, really safe in the world. Like all was right and sound.”
“The old pull, the tide drawing me back in. I kept getting caught in this current—first love, I mean. First love kept making me come back to this, to him. He still took my breath away, just being near him. I had been lying to myself the night before, thinking I was free, thinking I had let him go. It didn’t matter what he said or did, I’d never let him go.”
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Bullying, Alcohol, and Blood
abigail_hos's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
There is so much to say about this book. First of all it’s really short and fast paced and so easy to read and say one more chapter just one more because they’re like 2 pages. Second, this book is just so relatable like just growing up and wanting to seem older but not too old and being in between the kid and adult stage. This book made me sob so hard at the end. With the whole thing that happens and then just them leaving the house, that’s literally what freaks me out so much is just growing up and leaving everything you knew in your childhood, all the memories, the people. It’s literally so sad. She turns 16, Conrad is going to college, and they don’t know if they’ll ever have a summer like that again and it’s the saddest thing known to human kind and that stuff will never make me sad. They reminisce over all the memories, they’ve literally been going to the house since she was in her moms stomach. Literally so sad. I wasn’t mad about the love triangle, or square if you will. I kinda thought none of the love interested were that good options and normally in a love triangle trope the author is pointing you to one love interest. At the end it’s mostly Conrad, even though I was rooting for Jeremiah, so I wonder what they’re gonna do in the next book. But yeah I love her relationship with Susannah it’s so cute and makes me wish I had someone like that. And the being left out, it’s relatable because I have two brothers, and especially when I’m at my cabin my brother gets with all the guy cousins and I’m by myself reading on the boat or something. Anyways just everything was so relatable and pretty and just such an easy read. So I recommend if you’re a newer reader and trying to get into it. So sad. But I love it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Cancer
maegnoche's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Terminal illness, Death, and Blood
brittanyrader13's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Violence
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