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A review by drakoulis
The Summer of Everything by Julian Winters
3.0
This book suffers from an underwhelming ending.
I really enjoyed the whole concept. The bookstore, the falling-for-your-best-friend tope, the geekiness, Wes' friend group, the mother/famous-author.
And the buildup was great.
The effort to save the bookstore was from an 80s movie - in a very good sense of the way.
But then, when I reached the point where everything had to fall in place....it just didn't.
We didn't get a single romantic scene between Wes and Nico, they were all extremely awkward from the moment they got together.
A lot of weird talking, no atmosphere, no swetness, no magic, no anything + the author preaching about "when the time is ready for the step forward" which I found really annoying.
The bookstore plot ended in a sad way, the bookstore just shuts down.
Not only that, but the owner dies and we talk about it even in the epilogue, no make it even sadder and grimmer.
Nico doesn't change his mind and keeps following a future away to chase the memory of his dead father instead of his own dreams. And just does long-distance with Wes and even this is not described in an optimistic way.
For me the author either downright refused to write a good ending for his own reasons or couldn't.
It's a pity because it was a great story that didn't get the closure it deserved...
I really enjoyed the whole concept. The bookstore, the falling-for-your-best-friend tope, the geekiness, Wes' friend group, the mother/famous-author.
And the buildup was great.
Spoiler
Everyone could see that Wes was hard-crushing on Nico except Wes himself and it was sweet and hilarious.The effort to save the bookstore was from an 80s movie - in a very good sense of the way.
But then, when I reached the point where everything had to fall in place....it just didn't.
We didn't get a single romantic scene between Wes and Nico, they were all extremely awkward from the moment they got together.
A lot of weird talking, no atmosphere, no swetness, no magic, no anything + the author preaching about "when the time is ready for the step forward" which I found really annoying.
The bookstore plot ended in a sad way, the bookstore just shuts down.
Not only that, but the owner dies and we talk about it even in the epilogue, no make it even sadder and grimmer.
Nico doesn't change his mind and keeps following a future away to chase the memory of his dead father instead of his own dreams. And just does long-distance with Wes and even this is not described in an optimistic way.
For me the author either downright refused to write a good ending for his own reasons or couldn't.
It's a pity because it was a great story that didn't get the closure it deserved...