Hey there guys!
Happy Friday! I hope you had a good week and have some nice plans for this weekend! This is one of my longest weeks at work, since I work 3 to 10 pm shift from Mon-Thurs and then night shift on Friday and Sunday... So I kinda cannot wait till next Monday!
Today I have another pair of mini-reviews as my
Friday Reads! One of them was June's book for
The Reader's Lounge Book Club (that I failed to read in time...) that will count towards my
2015 Debut Author Challenge (since I can count 2014 debuts too) and as part of my
105 Challenge as a book that has been in my physical TBR pile since last year! The other one will also count towards the
105 Challenge as a Middle Grade read!
The Stars of Summer by
Tara Dairman
My rating:
4 of 5 stars
Another wonderful adventure for Gladys trying to navigate normalcy as a kid at camp, finding things in common with her parents and a few unexpected complications while she tries to find the best hot dog in New York!
Gladys now has friends and can cook at home, she also has a job as freelance critic, so things are looking up, right? But things aren't as simple as they'd seem! Her friends aren't friends with each other, all of them too different to really click, she gets invited to camp so she won't have all the cooking time she wanted this summer, and she gets a really odd assignment from her editor at the paper.
Time for a confession, I've never been to camp so I felt like I was vicariously living the experience with Gladys! I'm not big on directed activities and the like, so I'd be pissed if I had to give up a summer of enjoying my hobbies to go to camp. But I liked how Gladys gave it a try because it was her friend's camp and also tried to make the most of it by thinking of it as cover for her hot dog escapades.
My favourite part of the book has to be how Gladys spends more time with her parents while trying to complete her hot dog assignment and it ends up being more than just an excuse to complete her job and instead is a way to find common ground and a way to connect together as a family!
The kid author celebrity was an unexpected twist added and a way for Gladys to see her less endearing qualities magnified in someone else. It had a bit of a tongue-in-cheek feel with how he was characterized, but I love that we get to seem some more layers and not so much of a two dimensional character.
There's an awards night, a conspiracy solved, some friendships got challenged and came out stronger and at the end of the day Gladys decided that she needed to be honest with those she love more than anything else.
All the food talk in this book makes me hungry and now I want to sample some of the awesome hot dogs featured here, as well as reading more of Gladys' adventures, which I do hope we'll get!! More Gladys next summer please!!
Open Road Summer by
Emery Lord
My rating:
5 of 5 stars
Well, now this is the kind of contemporary that I love reading! The one that makes me feel everything, that makes me smile and laugh and cry my eyes out! Instant Emery Lord fan for sure here!
Proper review to come once I've stopped being overwhelmed with ALL THE FEELS!!
This book was June's book for my book club and had been in my TBR pile for many months, and my friend Becca from Reading Teen had pushed it to me MANY a time, and holy crow if she wasn't right!
Reagan is not an easy character to like. She was flawed and angry and bitter and had a thing for judging others in a way she hates to be judged that annoyed me quite a bit, but she felt real and raw and she grows so much throughout the book! Her best quality had to be her loyalty to Dee and how she always put her first, even when she was feeling selfish or underappreciated.
Dee is a great character, one that deals with her dream coming true and the difficulties that fame and fortune do bring with them. Papparazzi and lies that not only hurt her but those she loves. I loved how we see the inside of a tour and the real life behind all the glamour.
The best part of this book is the friendship, such a positive and supportive friendship between such different girls as Reagan and Dee. There's also a lovely romance with a great character such as Matt that manages to get under Reagan's skin and turn her upside down a bit!
A very much recommended book for lovers of contemporary books as well as those like myself that don't pick a contemporary as their first option. Give Reagan a chance, she'll show you that even when you want to shake her, she'll get better and grow!
FIVE stars and well deserved!
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