Review Detail

Part of me worried that this would be ridiculously shallow and silly and I'd hate it, but not even close. Not. Even. Close. Instead I found myself craving the next books but unable to order them and now that I can, I worry I'll drop everything to read them.

Amy isn't quite as shallow as she seems, but she's pretty close. The growth she experiences in How to Ruin a Summer Vacation is incredible and she still has so much more potential. I grew to love Amy and I want to adopt her as my honorary best friend because if she was my actual best friend, my real best friends would probably hurt me.

It took a while for me to come to love Amy's new friends and her love interest, but it was meant to be that way. I learned a lot about the cultural differences and how that effects the way we view each other. It was this huge source of tension between Amy and those her age in Israel and it was a hurdle they all had to go over together. By the end, I loved all of them, though.

But this story?

I loved the setting, so different from most YA, and the fact it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows and happiness and there were a lot of dark spots to what seems so shallow. It was real and honest and well researched and just lskfgnhshngjwngsa And the romance? Oy. To. The. Vey. So much adorable.

But really, what else would you expect from Simone Elkeles? She tells stories so, so well. I wasn't crazy in love with her Perfect Chemistry series (I have no intention of picking up book 3 since book 2 was a let down for me), but she knows how to write a damn good story.

Basically, I think this is Simone's under appreciated series and it deserves SO MUCH MORE ATTENTION. All three books are out, you might even be able to score the bind up, and if not they're all in paperback and pretty easy to find on the internet. GO NOW AND BUYZ. These are the perfect reads to go with the warm weather! Or...any weather really! JUST BUY AND READ PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.