It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han -- Book Review

It’s Not Summer Without You is a quick summer/beach read with a young voice but an ending and point-of-view issues that left me feeling unsatisfied. 

Summary: 
For as long as Belly can remember summer has always been about Cousins Beach with the boys — Jeremiah and Conrad. But when her mother’s best friend and the boys’ mother dies summer will never be the same. Ever since Susannah’s death Belly’s relationship with the Jeremiah and Conrad has been in shambles. Then Conrad goes missing and Jeremiah asks for Belly’s help in finding him. So together they take one last trip to Cousins and battle through grief and love and all the complications that come with it.

Commentary:
The beach and summer setting make this book a perfect summer read. It’s quick and is filled with intense emotions and unanswered questions that will keep you reading as you lounge at the beach or pool. Though this is the second book in the series, after The Summer I Turned Pretty, I think the story stands well on its own.

Belly as a character and narrator has a good voice that is nice to read. Her narration feels genuine for a 17-year-old girl dealing with lost love and grief. For me, this novel falls on the lower end of the maturity scale when compared to other Young Adult novels. The emotional complications will ring true for an early teen reader more so then with a mature teen or adult reader.

While the story really only takes place over about a week it also tells the story of an entire lifetime through sporadically placed flashbacks. This construction bothered me not because the time was hard to follow (Han makes it very clear when this is a scene from the past) but because it seemed like a cop-out for constructing a story in the present that builds a world in the here and now. I wish the information the reader learns from these flashbacks was more eloquently interspersed in the main story line.

Additionally, the narrative is limited by Belly’s first-person point of view, sort of. Jeremiah serves as a part-time narrator but only to fill in the gaps that readers can’t see through Belly. This flip in narration wouldn’t have bothered me if Jeremiah developed as a character in more ways than to just fill in the back-story between the threesome and as a way to build romantic tension.

The ending of this book is one of the most disappointing I have read in a long time. Personality quirks are explained away by saying, “that’s just the way things have always been.” And things are left too-widely open so that none of the characters get any closure in a way that leaves the story feeling very incomplete. The trilogy continues with We’ll Always Have Summer, but I feel that the ending should stand alone as much as the rest of the story.

Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater -- Book Review

Maggie Stiefvater does it again in the spin-off of The Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy, keeping true to character and providing promised heart-wrenching angst between the tumultuous duo of Cole and Isabel.

Summary: 
Impulsive and recalcitrant Cole St. Clair is in Los Angeles for Isabel, the girl who lost her brother to the toxins Cole willingly pumps through his veins, wolf toxins. But L.A. also brings Cole a new album and a reality TV show deal that make being with Isabel and staying human, as opposed to wolf, very difficult. Cole and Isabel had a past back in Minnesota but a lot has changed since then. He wants to make things right but will his destructive nature be too much for Isabel?

Commentary: 
Cole and Isabel have always been known for their very distinctive characteristics that are almost impossible to describe in just a few words. They are really better described in actions. Take Cole for instance, who would rather walk several miles to L.A. than sit in traffic in his limo. Cole and Isabel's character quirks only escalate from there. Stiefvater keeps true to the characters quirks all throughout the book and the duo really drive the novel. Both of the characters are also dealing with a lot and the emotions ring true through the writing. The minor characters are also fully fleshed out and bring another level to the story. Fans of the Mercy Falls Trilogy will enjoy a bunch of fresh faces that interact with Cole and Isabel nicely.

Stiefvater never fails to create a story that feels genuine and is consistent throughout and Sinner is no exception.

The writing style can be a little jumpy and leave the reader hanging at the end of emotional scenes but the story as a whole is worth pushing through.

The perpetually sunny L.A. plays nicely into the story and as someone who hated the snow and freezing climate of Mercy Falls in the trilogy, this was a nice change for me. The setting is also an ironic back drop to the emotional rollercoaster ride in Sinner.

Overall, Sinner is steamy and unpredictable and everything I could have asked for in a spin-off with two of the most frustratingly lovable characters in fiction.