Review: Someone Else's Summer

Someone Else's Summer by Rachel Bateman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

* I received an e-galley from Net Galley for review. The quotes that I utilized in this review may not be final.

Someone Else's Summer is about a girl named Anna , who is recovering from her sister, Storm, passing away on graduation night. She finds a list that Storm wrote before she passed away of things she wanted to do during the summer. Anna begins to complete the list with her late sister's best friend, Cameron.

I liked this book because it covered grief, and dealing with the death of a close one. It also showed the recovery process. I enjoyed seeing Cameron and Anna's interactions, and the adventures they went on to complete the list. Cameron helped to bring Anna out of her comfort zone, and she grew from their experiences.

There were certain plot points that I found to be not so great. Earlier in the book, Anna is at a party with her friend Piper, and she begins to feel uncomfortable. Then, when a man attempts to sexually assault her, she tells Piper that she is leaving, while her friend remains at the party. In a situation where the girls don't know anyone else at the party, and Anna was almost assaulted, it's dangerous to leave her drunk friend alone with older men who are strangers.

Also, Anna's Aunt Morgan let her get away with everything, which eventually meant that Anna was allowed to leave home for up to 3 weeks with a boy, staying in hotels/ B & B's alone. I could see this happening if Anna was in college, but for her Aunt to let her have free reign, regardless of the consequences was questionable. Furthermore, Aunt Morgan did not really support Anna's need to remain connected to her sister by completing the list. She basically told Anna that she needed to find her own place in the world, separate from Storm, rather than supporting her need to remain connected to her sister after she passed away.

In the first few chapters of the book, the author continued to use strange descriptions, such as "his bloodshot and wet, framed by splotchy skin and pure devastation, mine clear and steely", and "His body is all sharp corners and acute angles, pieced together with tape and a child's glue stick". These descriptions felt a little strange, and elaborate, and didn't really connect with the story.

Overall, the story is about overcoming loss, while remembering people you loved, and still loving them after death. It has romance, and grief, and it makes for a cute contemporary, despite the way it starts. I give this 3.5 stars.

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Diversity Bingo Update!

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon is a Young Adult Contemporary novel that is relatively a new release. It discusses immigration and deportation, and the story is told through multiple perspectives. The main characters, Natasha and Daniel are both immigrants. Natasha is undocumented, and her parents immigrated from Jamaica. Daniel's parents legally immigrated from South Korea. Overall, I liked the use of multiple perspectives, and how Daniel and Natasha's culture impacted their story. I did a review on my BookTube channel if you want to check out more of my thoughts.

*This book will fulfill "An immigrant/refugee MC" for Diversity bingo

I also read "of Fire and Stars" by Audrey Coulthurst. This is a fantasy novel in which a Princess is betrothed to a Prince from a foreign kingdom, only to fall in love with his sister. Also, the Princess hides her ability to use magic, something that is forbidden in their world. I was glad to see a non-heterosexual couple romance, but that was the only part of the book that was interesting! The world building wasn't well done, and I couldn't tell what the plot was until almost the ending!

*This book will fulfill "Bisexual MC: Own voices" for Diversity Bingo.