e-Audio, 08:41:17
Narrated by: Valerie Rose Lohman
Release Date: June 4, 2024
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: June 4-5, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: PRH App (I received a copy of this e-audio from the publisher’s audio app in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Cursing, Cancer, Death, Medical content, Emotional abuse
For Readers Interested In: Romance, 2sLGBTQIAP+ (Lesbian), Set at a Camp, Summer Lovin, YAJuliette doesn’t hate Priya Pendley.
At least, not in the way teen movies say she should hate the hot popular girl. They don’t do cat fights, love triangles, or betrayal. To survive their intertwined small town lives, they agree to a truce: complete group projects without fighting, don’t gossip to mutual friends, and stand on opposite sides of photos so it’s easy to crop each other out.
Priya seems to have everything during the school year—social media stardom, the handsome track captain boyfriend, and millions of adoring fans. And Juliette is at peace with that, because she has Fogridge Sleepaway Camp, the one place she never feels like “too much.”
But Juliette’s dreams of five Priya-free weeks in paradise are shattered when her rival shows up on move-in day… as her cabinmate, no less. Juliette is determined to enjoy her final summer at camp, even if it means (gag) tolerating Priya Pendley, but fate seems has other plans. If Juliette can’t find something to like about her situation—and about Priya—she risks hating the only home she’s ever had, right before she says goodbye to it forever.
*MY THOUGHTS*
For the most part I liked this, but at some points the main character was getting a bit annoying. And I know that this is a YA book, but even with my YA brain working she was still a bit childish to me. She was mad at the girl because she was jealous? I was annoyed lol
So what I did enjoy was the story-telling. Idk how or why, but I sat down with this book and couldn’t stop reading it. I just sat down and read it in a whole work day. And it was a day that I had no meetings and I just read it straight through. It seemed like candy to me, but in reality, I know I was just in the mood for a summer romance and this one GAVE!
The main character tho? She was one of the main reasons why I was a bit annoyed by this story. She was so stubborn and mean for no damn reason. Like why are you being like this? And to someone she supposedly liked? Idk it wasn’t giving I like you. To me it was giving, “I’m jealous of you.” Maybe I’m jaded and I just don’t like people, but she was rude af for now reason lol And I guess I was mad because girl wtf this girl has been nothing but nice to you and you got all these people “hating on” her? It was weird. Even when they got together she was still a bit mean to her. And that annoyed me. Like girl she could have changed the trajectory of that thing at the end. But she didn’t. Stop pouting lol Now, was the other FMC pretentious? Yes. But she WAS ALWAYS like that. It didn’t just start at camp. And she had a reason why. You were just mean because you assumed she was lol
The two of them together was just ok. For me, I just didn’t see it. This is a REAL DEAL opposites attract but not really. Because spoiler: she just thought she was mean and nasty. She actually had a very valid reason for doing things the way she did. I also am not a fan of those relationships where one of them is mean to the other. This is why friends to lovers is my favorite. Because Lordt knows this Scorpio’s attitude is too much for one of them lol
I know this is lame, but the setting was indeed the best part. I’ve never been to a summer camp away from home, so this was just like I got on a camp bus and escaped my parents lol And even though they didn’t go into full detail on ALL the camp events that they had, it still had the camp vibe if that makes sense. I remember being in the middle of the book and slapping at mosquitoes because I felt like they were in the vicinity.
This book was a little weird for me. I liked it yes, but I’m more of a character driven reader. I normally would have been so mad reading this lol But because the rest of the book was so good, I think I blacked out everything else. It just didn’t matter to me. And THAT my dears, is the power of a good plot and a good setting. I forgot about everything else lolol
Overall, I give this
