Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Mourn the loss of your first love before it even gets off the ground. Throw in a healthy dose of lie to your best friend for some added angsty drama and then top it off with forgiveness and growth. I enjoyed this one.
Love, love, love this book!!! basically read it in one sitting.
There were parts of this book that were sweet and meaningful, and the rest of it felt juvenile. Yes, I realize this is a YA novel, but there is a ton out there that don't necessarily feel that way. One thing I enjoy about current YA are the roles of family and other adults in the protagonist's life and that's absent here. Anna suffers so much by not talking about what's going on in her life, which was hard to watch. What I loved about the book was Anna giving herself permission to love again, and finding her own identity seprarte from her best friends. There so much YA out there that's stronger, I can't say I recommend this one.
I found this book to be quite boring to start off with but it picked up towards the middle and I ended up enjoying it.
Anna, Frankie and Matt. 3 best friends for as long as anyone can remember. Frankie and Matt are brothers. Anna and Frankie are best friends. Anna and Matt are best friends turned a little bit more after Matt makes all her wishes come true when he kisses her on her 15th birthday. Matt and Anna plan to tell Frankie about the two of them but Matt begs Anna to let him break it to her on their annual trip to California. Anna agrees. A day before they leave however, Matt has a heart problem which causes an accident killing him instantly. Frankie and Anna, the passengers, survive. Anna promised Matt not to tell Frankie about them and to let him do it. Now that he is gone, Anna sees this one promise as a way to stay true to Matt so she honours the promise. A year passes and Anna goes on the Californian holiday that Matt never got to last year with their family. Frankie, now boy crazy, makes a plan to meet twenty boys during their vacation. Anna reluctantly agrees. In her mind, as soon as she starts liking a new boy, Matt will be replaced. But once Anna and Frankie meet Jack and Sam, things change and Anna finds herself wanting to forget Matt as she falls hard and fast for Sam.
Frankie, the expert of boys and sex (since losing her virginity to Jonas on the soccer field last year) primps and primes Anna up urging her to wear more make up and more revealing clothes. She encourages Anna to lose her virginity on the trip. Anna ends up losing it to Sam and when she returns the next morning to share the goss with Frankie, Frankie flips out on her. She flaps Anna's diary in her face screaming at her about keeping Matt a secret. After saying many things she will regret she hurls Anna's diary into the ocean. After a couple of days of not talking the girls grudgingly begin a mutual truce, definitely not friends again, but not quite wanting to kill each other.
Once they get back to New York Anna sees Frankie lying out the back in a deck chair reading magazines on her own. Seeing as this is something they used to do together Anna feels guilty and heads over to apologise. The girls end up talking things through, with Frankie giving Anna Matt's favourite necklace to keep.
This book was good. Touching and sad but good. I would have liked Frankie's parents to wake up to the fact that the girls were sneaking out every night and sneaking around with boys. I feel like Frankie was acting out to get attention. Attention that only Matt received - even though he was no longer around. Frankie even admits to this a couple of times in the book. I would've liked a bit more of a reunion between parents and daughter at the end of this book. This book was a nice quick read over the weekend for me which I enjoyed.
Anna, Frankie and Matt. 3 best friends for as long as anyone can remember. Frankie and Matt are brothers. Anna and Frankie are best friends. Anna and Matt are best friends turned a little bit more after Matt makes all her wishes come true when he kisses her on her 15th birthday. Matt and Anna plan to tell Frankie about the two of them but Matt begs Anna to let him break it to her on their annual trip to California. Anna agrees. A day before they leave however, Matt has a heart problem which causes an accident killing him instantly. Frankie and Anna, the passengers, survive. Anna promised Matt not to tell Frankie about them and to let him do it. Now that he is gone, Anna sees this one promise as a way to stay true to Matt so she honours the promise. A year passes and Anna goes on the Californian holiday that Matt never got to last year with their family. Frankie, now boy crazy, makes a plan to meet twenty boys during their vacation. Anna reluctantly agrees. In her mind, as soon as she starts liking a new boy, Matt will be replaced. But once Anna and Frankie meet Jack and Sam, things change and Anna finds herself wanting to forget Matt as she falls hard and fast for Sam.
Once they get back to New York Anna sees Frankie lying out the back in a deck chair reading magazines on her own. Seeing as this is something they used to do together Anna feels guilty and heads over to apologise. The girls end up talking things through, with Frankie giving Anna Matt's favourite necklace to keep.
This book was good. Touching and sad but good. I would have liked Frankie's parents to wake up to the fact that the girls were sneaking out every night and sneaking around with boys. I feel like Frankie was acting out to get attention. Attention that only Matt received - even though he was no longer around. Frankie even admits to this a couple of times in the book. I would've liked a bit more of a reunion between parents and daughter at the end of this book. This book was a nice quick read over the weekend for me which I enjoyed.
I had wanted to read this book for AGES. Unfortunately, every time I ordered my books, I forgot this one and only remembered it later that day, which is always frustrating. So when I did get it, I was ecstatic because I had read so many great things about this book.
This book can only be described with one word. Beautiful. Ockler writes so beautifully, and the story itself is so beautiful and heart-breaking I couldn't not give it a 5-star rating.
The book is wonderfully written, and the story is said in Anna's perspective, and Ockler somehow makes Anna's sadness show, in fact, the whole writing exhales sadness and grief. That alone would have made me love this book. But adding to the fantastic writing, there's also a fantastic story.
Anna and Matt's romance, which was only shown in the beginning of the book, was very sweet and my favorite kind-they childhood sweethearts! Even I felt the magic element, and understood what Anna was feeling about her friendship, not only with Matt, but also with his sister, her best friend, Frankie. So when the accident happens I'm sad, and once again Ockler's writing only augmented my sadness. The way it's written...it's simply heart-wrenching.
When Anna and Frankie go to Zanzibar Bay... I admit, I had no idea of what would happen. Anna was so afraid to erase Matt of her head... I don't want to give anything away because it would certainly ruin your reading experience, but when Anna understands she'll always have Matt with her, I teared up a little. I just didn't start crying because I was not alone, and it was hard. Hard not to cry, hard to read, but even harder to stop. And impossible to forget.
So, all in all, I really, really, REALLY recommend this book to teens, but beware: your emotions will be felt very strongly while you're reading it.
This book can only be described with one word. Beautiful. Ockler writes so beautifully, and the story itself is so beautiful and heart-breaking I couldn't not give it a 5-star rating.
The book is wonderfully written, and the story is said in Anna's perspective, and Ockler somehow makes Anna's sadness show, in fact, the whole writing exhales sadness and grief. That alone would have made me love this book. But adding to the fantastic writing, there's also a fantastic story.
Anna and Matt's romance, which was only shown in the beginning of the book, was very sweet and my favorite kind-they childhood sweethearts! Even I felt the magic element, and understood what Anna was feeling about her friendship, not only with Matt, but also with his sister, her best friend, Frankie. So when the accident happens I'm sad, and once again Ockler's writing only augmented my sadness. The way it's written...it's simply heart-wrenching.
When Anna and Frankie go to Zanzibar Bay... I admit, I had no idea of what would happen. Anna was so afraid to erase Matt of her head... I don't want to give anything away because it would certainly ruin your reading experience, but when Anna understands she'll always have Matt with her, I teared up a little. I just didn't start crying because I was not alone, and it was hard. Hard not to cry, hard to read, but even harder to stop. And impossible to forget.
So, all in all, I really, really, REALLY recommend this book to teens, but beware: your emotions will be felt very strongly while you're reading it.
This book, I felt, was way more than I expected. The title and description led me to believe that this would be an easy, fluffy read. I was wrong. And, to be honest, I love it. Being proved wrong when it comes to books that I'm skeptical about makes me happy.
Twenty Boy Summer written in a way that rang true to me and I actually found myself falling in intense like with the characters; something that doesn't happen to me too often anymore.
I will definitely be telling my friends to buy this and read it.
Twenty Boy Summer written in a way that rang true to me and I actually found myself falling in intense like with the characters; something that doesn't happen to me too often anymore.
I will definitely be telling my friends to buy this and read it.
After seeing all of the glowing recommendations about this book, I knew that I had to give it a read. I was expecting something like [b:The Sky is Everywhere|6604794|The Sky Is Everywhere|Jandy Nelson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348272658s/6604794.jpg|6798696] based on the blurb, but unfortunately what I read was neither as touching nor as poignant as I had hoped.
I wasn't really a fan of any of the characters. Anna's relationship with Matt was sweet to read, but the all-encompassing feelings she had for him seemed to be her defining feature when she was alone. She was far too passive and I quickly became annoyed with her willingness to go along with anything that Frankie suggested including the plan to lose her virginity in which her internal monologue on the subject was swept away by thoughts of Matt's death or how she could be there for Frankie. Honestly, that whole plan and the aftermath was something that I was not okay with . Frankie came across as shallow, self-absorbed and cruel. While I understood that her rebelliousness was a response to her brother's death, I didn't truly feel any sympathy towards her until the end - and even then, I couldn't quite excuse the way that she treated both Anna and her parents. As for Sam, he had a lot of potential to be a strong, likeable character, but instead he was a strange mix of sweet and caring and detached.
While many of the scenes felt like fillers that I skimmed over, the writing itself was quite beautiful and poetic. There were many standout lines that I wish I could have highlighted, such as: I really don't even know you, and yet, in my life, you are forever entangled; to my history, inextricably bound. As an added bonus, the cover is not only beautiful; it's actually related to the plot.
Overall, Twenty Boy Summer was nowhere near what I expected. If the characters were given as much attention as the countless descriptions of the beach, this might have been a more enjoyable read.
This review can also be found at The In-Between Place.
I wasn't really a fan of any of the characters. Anna's relationship with Matt was sweet to read, but the all-encompassing feelings she had for him seemed to be her defining feature when she was alone. She was far too passive and I quickly became annoyed with her willingness to go along with anything that Frankie suggested
While many of the scenes felt like fillers that I skimmed over, the writing itself was quite beautiful and poetic. There were many standout lines that I wish I could have highlighted, such as: I really don't even know you, and yet, in my life, you are forever entangled; to my history, inextricably bound. As an added bonus, the cover is not only beautiful; it's actually related to the plot.
Overall, Twenty Boy Summer was nowhere near what I expected. If the characters were given as much attention as the countless descriptions of the beach, this might have been a more enjoyable read.
This review can also be found at The In-Between Place.