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graceom03_ 's review for:
One Summer in Santorini
by Sandy Barker
[b:One Summer in Santorini|45318147|One Summer in Santorini (Holiday Romance, #1)|Sandy Barker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556409957l/45318147._SY75_.jpg|70055346]
Before I begin this lengthy review I want to let you know that my review contains spoilers!! BUT, they are obvious spoilers that you would have already figured out just by reading the back covers of the rest of the books in this series! More on what I mean below. But now let's review!
Sarah, the main character in this book, One Summer in Santorini, is a freshly single gal, who booked a sailing trip through the greek islands on a whim to try to reintroduce herself to her love for traveling. She promises herself that she won't fall for someone on this trip, but lone behold she meets two men. Josh, the young, techy, handsome American, and James, the mature, rich and suave silver fox. We'd think this book would be juicy and full of all kinds of hot circumstances, romantic dinners, and some yacht filled dancing. No. Wrong. That's not how this book was at all.
Firstly, we do get to know our characters and what makes them tick, but we see very minimal character development, and are constantly listening to Sarah whining about which man she should and shouldn't pick, how boring her life is at home (which granted, it may be) and her intrusive thoughts about her ex. Our main girl is so caught up in her head she only gets laid in the last 45 or so pages of the book. AND THERE WAS NO DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS OF HOW GOOD THE LAY IS. I'm not expecting to read smut here, but there was so much anticipation and tension between the man she did sleep with and the only thing our author could give us was "they had sex"! I was fuming.
Secondly, the way some of the other characters are written rubbed me the wrong way and so does Sarah's response to those characters. Sarah's bunkmate on the boat, Hannah was a serious little brat and we never knew what we were going to get from her attitude wise. Hot or cold? Couldn't tell ya. There may be a reason our author wrote the character that way, but there was no deeper meaning that I could seem to find. Josh's character was also odd to me towards the end because of the way he treated Sarah. He wanted her, but didn't want a relationship, would tell her not to see James (our other love interest) but was careless when the topic of a relationship was brought up. He was allowed to walk all over Sarah's feelings and let her believe he sort of used her for sex, even though we as readers know that he quietly has feelings for her, he is too shy to admit them. Sarah's reactions to everyone around her also often seem bitchy and unkind to the point where in some points of the books it was hard to tell how she really felt about some of the supporting characters.
Finally, the way I spoiled this book for myself is ridiculous. If there is one thing I could advise you to maybe do, it would be to skip the first book entirely. Everything we find out at the beginning of the book is all the same information we get retold throughout the whole novel, just written 50 million different ways. I was slowly getting sick of reading the same 10 sentences over and over in the book, and listening to Sarah whine and complain and make it such a huge deal that she had to choose between two men, so I came to Goodreads to see the reviews on the rest of the books of the series. TA-DAAA spoiled it all for myself by just reading the back covers on books #2#5. Sarah chooses Josh, the silver fox isn't mentioned again on the back covers except on book #3, and either her or her sister gets married. YAY happy ending!!! :|
I felt dumb after reading this book because of the amount of time I wasted. I took it with me as a summer read to Italy and the South of France, and while it's scenic descriptions of yachts and pretty oceans and good food, made me feel like I was there, the novel was a waste of space in my carry-on and I could have picked up a different read that would have filled my cup a little more.
I do want to note that the author Sandy Barker stated that this novel was loosely based on her love story with her husband. No offense to either of them, because I love love and what better way to tell your real life love story than by letting the world read it? I think that's beautiful! But, the novel was not for me, and I think book #1 in this series could have been 5 chapters in books #2 or #3. I don't recommend this book and I hope if you are traveling this summer you pick up a read that is more worthwhile.
Bon Voyage!!
Before I begin this lengthy review I want to let you know that my review contains spoilers!! BUT, they are obvious spoilers that you would have already figured out just by reading the back covers of the rest of the books in this series! More on what I mean below. But now let's review!
Sarah, the main character in this book, One Summer in Santorini, is a freshly single gal, who booked a sailing trip through the greek islands on a whim to try to reintroduce herself to her love for traveling. She promises herself that she won't fall for someone on this trip, but lone behold she meets two men. Josh, the young, techy, handsome American, and James, the mature, rich and suave silver fox. We'd think this book would be juicy and full of all kinds of hot circumstances, romantic dinners, and some yacht filled dancing. No. Wrong. That's not how this book was at all.
Firstly, we do get to know our characters and what makes them tick, but we see very minimal character development, and are constantly listening to Sarah whining about which man she should and shouldn't pick, how boring her life is at home (which granted, it may be) and her intrusive thoughts about her ex. Our main girl is so caught up in her head she only gets laid in the last 45 or so pages of the book. AND THERE WAS NO DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS OF HOW GOOD THE LAY IS. I'm not expecting to read smut here, but there was so much anticipation and tension between the man she did sleep with and the only thing our author could give us was "they had sex"! I was fuming.
Secondly, the way some of the other characters are written rubbed me the wrong way and so does Sarah's response to those characters. Sarah's bunkmate on the boat, Hannah was a serious little brat and we never knew what we were going to get from her attitude wise. Hot or cold? Couldn't tell ya. There may be a reason our author wrote the character that way, but there was no deeper meaning that I could seem to find. Josh's character was also odd to me towards the end because of the way he treated Sarah. He wanted her, but didn't want a relationship, would tell her not to see James (our other love interest) but was careless when the topic of a relationship was brought up. He was allowed to walk all over Sarah's feelings and let her believe he sort of used her for sex, even though we as readers know that he quietly has feelings for her, he is too shy to admit them. Sarah's reactions to everyone around her also often seem bitchy and unkind to the point where in some points of the books it was hard to tell how she really felt about some of the supporting characters.
Finally, the way I spoiled this book for myself is ridiculous. If there is one thing I could advise you to maybe do, it would be to skip the first book entirely. Everything we find out at the beginning of the book is all the same information we get retold throughout the whole novel, just written 50 million different ways. I was slowly getting sick of reading the same 10 sentences over and over in the book, and listening to Sarah whine and complain and make it such a huge deal that she had to choose between two men, so I came to Goodreads to see the reviews on the rest of the books of the series. TA-DAAA spoiled it all for myself by just reading the back covers on books #2#5. Sarah chooses Josh, the silver fox isn't mentioned again on the back covers except on book #3, and either her or her sister gets married. YAY happy ending!!! :|
I felt dumb after reading this book because of the amount of time I wasted. I took it with me as a summer read to Italy and the South of France, and while it's scenic descriptions of yachts and pretty oceans and good food, made me feel like I was there, the novel was a waste of space in my carry-on and I could have picked up a different read that would have filled my cup a little more.
I do want to note that the author Sandy Barker stated that this novel was loosely based on her love story with her husband. No offense to either of them, because I love love and what better way to tell your real life love story than by letting the world read it? I think that's beautiful! But, the novel was not for me, and I think book #1 in this series could have been 5 chapters in books #2 or #3. I don't recommend this book and I hope if you are traveling this summer you pick up a read that is more worthwhile.
Bon Voyage!!