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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Love Kasie West books!
Summer camp for two months without WiFi. An attractive musician. A âno fraternizing with the guestsâ rule. A young girl whoâs always done the right thing, ready to break out of the safety of her shell.
Itâs reminiscent of Dirty Dancing, but remove the abortion storyline and replace dancing with a music festival, and you have Sunkissed.
When Avery suggests lyrics for Brooksâ song, they start a writing partnership. And when Brooksâ band mate and lead singer canât perform, Avery fills in.
Brooks learns what it means to have hope. Avery learns what it means to be brave. Together they may have something really special for the music festival. If only they donât get caught fraternizing.
Summer camp for two months without WiFi. An attractive musician. A âno fraternizing with the guestsâ rule. A young girl whoâs always done the right thing, ready to break out of the safety of her shell.
Itâs reminiscent of Dirty Dancing, but remove the abortion storyline and replace dancing with a music festival, and you have Sunkissed.
When Avery suggests lyrics for Brooksâ song, they start a writing partnership. And when Brooksâ band mate and lead singer canât perform, Avery fills in.
Brooks learns what it means to have hope. Avery learns what it means to be brave. Together they may have something really special for the music festival. If only they donât get caught fraternizing.
I've loved every single book Kasie West has released and this one was no different. I loved the middle-of-nowhere camp setting because it allowed for easy communication tools of technology to not be used in the relationship between Brooks and Avery. While this was a super fluffy read, it did have some deep elements that got explored with Brooks' home life and Avery facing her fears and her evolution as a character. I could really relate to a lot of Avery's personality traits and that made this book so much more relatable which I enjoyed. The supporting characters were also well-written and acted as great additions to the main plot and added more dynamics to the overall story. I felt that while this book did start out slightly slow and I wasn't hooked from the first few pages, it definitely redeemed itself and became a great story in the end!
Favorite Quote: "Hope is the lie that keeps us hanging on to madness."
Favorite Quote: "Hope is the lie that keeps us hanging on to madness."
I went into this story expecting a typical YA teen romance, which isn’t really my thing, but was pleasantly surprised!
Avery is a decent teenaged girl and pretty relatable. She’s undramatic, level, sensible, quiet, predictable, kinda grumpy, stuck in her comfort zone, bookish, and music loving.
Avery’s sister Lauren, the typical drama teen girl, both made me laugh and severely got on my nerves. While I didn’t really like Brooks in the beginning, he ended up growing on me. Plus, I loved seeing the camp staff as a friend group. They had their issues, but they still had a great relationship and plenty of hilarious banter.
The plot itself fell a little flat for me. From the beginning, there was a big deal made out of an issue throughout the whole book that never came to fruition. Avery and Lauren lied to/deceived their parents and snuck out quite a bit, though there were some consequences for some of it.
The drama kicked up a notch in the last half of the book, and I rolled me eyes a few times, but it wasn’t too terribly painful.
All in all, it was a light summery read!
Content: euphemisms; talk of “the universe” and “signs” and “positive thoughts”; kissing
☀️
“‘Sometimes staying in the box we've made for ourselves is so easy. It's comfortable and familiar in there. And a lot of times, the people around us want us to stay in there, too, because that's how they've always known us: in that box….But sometimes we start to change, grow, and the box begins to get small and cramped. And yet we fight to stay inside because the walls are high and climbing out seems harder than staying.’”
☀️
Avery is a decent teenaged girl and pretty relatable. She’s undramatic, level, sensible, quiet, predictable, kinda grumpy, stuck in her comfort zone, bookish, and music loving.
Avery’s sister Lauren, the typical drama teen girl, both made me laugh and severely got on my nerves. While I didn’t really like Brooks in the beginning, he ended up growing on me. Plus, I loved seeing the camp staff as a friend group. They had their issues, but they still had a great relationship and plenty of hilarious banter.
The plot itself fell a little flat for me. From the beginning, there was a big deal made out of an issue throughout the whole book that never came to fruition. Avery and Lauren lied to/deceived their parents and snuck out quite a bit, though there were some consequences for some of it.
The drama kicked up a notch in the last half of the book, and I rolled me eyes a few times, but it wasn’t too terribly painful.
All in all, it was a light summery read!
Content: euphemisms; talk of “the universe” and “signs” and “positive thoughts”; kissing
☀️
“‘Sometimes staying in the box we've made for ourselves is so easy. It's comfortable and familiar in there. And a lot of times, the people around us want us to stay in there, too, because that's how they've always known us: in that box….But sometimes we start to change, grow, and the box begins to get small and cramped. And yet we fight to stay inside because the walls are high and climbing out seems harder than staying.’”
☀️
I love Dirty Dancing, one of my favourite movies of all time, and this book reminded me so much of it. It just needed "nobody puts baby in the corner" and it would have been it. I felt that a lot of this book was just "surface", never getting deeper into what was happening. I have loved West's books and I just wanted more for character development and relationship development. I felt that the conflict was too quickly resolved and never really got into emotions and feelings. It's a great, light summer read and I enjoyed it!
Fun, simple read
This book was so sweet. It’s a simple story, but so well written. This is exactly what I needed to get me out of my slump.
This book was so sweet. It’s a simple story, but so well written. This is exactly what I needed to get me out of my slump.
This was an overall fun, swooning, angsty, and emotionally filled ride with just the right amount of cheese, but enough heart to it with realistic dilemma that it's not corny. I would best describe this novel as a remixed version of Dirty Dancing. Avery goes through an awakening here where she has to conquer her biggest fears, but also her greatest, deepest desires of which her fear is holding her back from.
Like I said, I appreciated the camp scenes where Kasie paints a pretty good picture of what the characters go through, and it has me wanting to go to a lodge myself for the next time I go camping. Form the moment they meet, I can feel the tension between Avery and Brooks, and I love that it's a slow burn so that you have a chance to feel that longing Avery feels. The way the author ties together Avery's biggest fears and what holds her back in life along with her feelings for Brooks is actually quite brilliant. He helps her find herself in exchange for helping him write lyrics, which forces her to confront her fears as well as well develop her feelings for Brooks, and the friendship the two develop blooms into something much more.
Now, in the end, Avery does not compromise her happiness for the sake of everyone else's and to hold onto her budding relationship. In the end, when she decides to sing in the festival, she did it for just her, not him. She ends up with both while staying true to her heart.
I love how Kasie takes the reader into the emotional journey of the reader so they care and feel invested in what happens. There's funny, cheesy moments, but it keeps it lighthearted instead of corny and stupid. It does spell a good message that people should hold onto hope, even in the face of losing everything, because the growth that results from putting aside your fears is well worth it. Now, in Avery's case, because it is a campy, feel good book, everyone has a neat, happy ending, and it's something that we occasionally all need.
Like I said, I appreciated the camp scenes where Kasie paints a pretty good picture of what the characters go through, and it has me wanting to go to a lodge myself for the next time I go camping. Form the moment they meet, I can feel the tension between Avery and Brooks, and I love that it's a slow burn so that you have a chance to feel that longing Avery feels. The way the author ties together Avery's biggest fears and what holds her back in life along with her feelings for Brooks is actually quite brilliant. He helps her find herself in exchange for helping him write lyrics, which forces her to confront her fears as well as well develop her feelings for Brooks, and the friendship the two develop blooms into something much more.
Now, in the end, Avery does not compromise her happiness for the sake of everyone else's and to hold onto her budding relationship. In the end, when she decides to sing in the festival, she did it for just her, not him. She ends up with both while staying true to her heart.
I love how Kasie takes the reader into the emotional journey of the reader so they care and feel invested in what happens. There's funny, cheesy moments, but it keeps it lighthearted instead of corny and stupid. It does spell a good message that people should hold onto hope, even in the face of losing everything, because the growth that results from putting aside your fears is well worth it. Now, in Avery's case, because it is a campy, feel good book, everyone has a neat, happy ending, and it's something that we occasionally all need.
It was cute and I enjoyed it so that feels worthy of 4 ⭐️.