Review: Someone Else's Summer

Author: Rachel Bateman
Started reading: March 13th 2017
Finished the book: March 18th 2017
Pages: 320
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, YA
Published: Expected May 9th 2017
Source: Netgalley - Kindle edition
Goodreads score: 3.81
My score:

Synopsis:
Anna's always idolized her older sister, Storm. So when Storm dies in a tragic car accident on the night of her high school graduation, Anna is completely lost and her family is torn apart. That is, until she finds Storm's summer bucket list and decides to honor her sister by having the best summer ever - which includes taking an epic road trip to the coast from her sleepy Iowa town. Setting out to do everything on Storm's list along with her sisters best friend Cameron - the boy next door - who knew that Storm's dream summer would eventually lead to Anna's own self-discovery?

My thoughts

This book gave me a summer-feeling, and I even forgot the hars subject of a sister dying at some points. It was a nice read. Not the greatest ever, but I enjoyed reading it.

Pros

• Summerfeeling: The book gave me a real summerfeeling. The title of the book totally fits it and I love the scenery where the story takes part. At some points I could even smell the sea and it made me long for summer! I was reading this book inside while rain was poring down outside...
• Light read: It's a real light read, this book. At some point I had to read 20% to end the book and that went rather fast. I finished the book within the hour. My kindle knows my reading speed and overall it took me around 4 hours to finish the book.
• Nicely written: This book is nicely written, that's also why it feels like a light read. You rush through the pages and totally get into the story because of the writing style. I never had to re-read a sentence because I didn't get it or because I didn't understand that one word.

Cons

• Moodswings: Anna is coping with serious mood swings. At some points in the book she is mad with Cameron and then a page later she is totally happy and laughing with him. I felt that if she was really mad, they would speak about the issue more or she would take her time off to think. Because she forgot about being angry so fast, it felt more like moodswings to me.
• No shocking plot: I don't know if the plot was meant to be shocking or a surprise, but I knew before the revelation in the book. It didn't feel shocking to me at all, but it has a big impact on Anna. The way she deals with it was a more interesting part for me.
• It's all too easy: This book needed to feel light and summery and that's why everything is so easy, I guess. Two teenagers leaving for a road trip, paying for all those expensive things. Everybody on the way being nice to them, not one bit of bad luck along the way. I think the book couldn't be this light read if it wasn't all that easy, but sometimes it gnawed at me. So at the one side it's a good thing, but sometimes I felt my mind wandering off and thinking how easy it all went.

Overall

It's a compliment to Rachel Bateman that a book with such a harsh subject can turn into a light summer read. I really think this book would be a great script for a movie with the beautiful scenery. It's not a bad book at all, felt like a quick, light read for me.

Memorable quotes from this book

"But that's the thing about truth - even when you think you know it, it can still sneak up behind you and knock you down."

What book gave you that ultimate summerfeeling?