~**~ ARC Review: When Summer Ends by Jessica Pennington ~**~

***4 ‘Surprisingly Nice’ Stars***

This was a ‘surprisingly’ sweet, quick and ultimately fun character driven read that totally hooked me from page one and made it very hard for me to put to the side because I really wanted to see how things would end up for Aiden and Olivia, not only with their relationship, but to see who they’d become at the end of the summer.

Aiden and Olivia. It was hard not to like these two. Both are really good kids who fate, fickle biyatch that she is, has decided to toss a couple of curve balls at and now have to figure out new paths to follow which ends up leading them to each other. I thoroughly enjoyed watching as their relationship evolved throughout the story and how it helped them to gain more insight on who they wanted to be as individuals. Their bantering was all kinds of fun and sweet and I just really liked how well they flowed together throughout the story. Of course things aren’t smooth sailing for these two, from outside interference to their own decisions on how to deal with things, but, in the end, I really liked how everything worked out for them.

This is my first read by the author and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was sweet, funny and quite low on angst, which was a welcome change of pace. While this is YA, it does lean towards the more mature end of the spectrum, but not so much that they had crossed the line into NA side of the coin too much. The supporting cast of characters were all well written, from the adults to the teenagers, but my favs were Ellis and Emma hands down. So, if you enjoy YA and are looking for something that isn’t super angsty, then this will be the read for you.

~ Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley & voluntarily reviewed ~

Aiden Emerson is an all-star pitcher and the all-around golden boy of Riverton. Or at least he was, before he quit the team the last day of junior year without any explanation. How could he tell people he's losing his vision at seventeen?

Straight-laced Olivia thought she had life all figured out. But when her dream internship falls apart, her estranged mother comes back into her life, and her long-time boyfriend ghosts her right before summer break, she's starting to think fate has a weird sense of humor.

Each struggling to find a new direction, Aiden and Olivia decide to live summer by chance. Every fleeting adventure and stolen kiss is as fragile as a coin flip in this heartfelt journey to love and self-discovery from the author of Love Songs & Other Lies

Release Date: April 9th, 2019

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Jessica Pennington is no stranger to the combination of love and drama. She’s a wedding planner, after all. A writer since the age of ten—when she sought publication for her poem about a tree—Jessica likes the challenge of finding the humor in a sad situation or highlighting the awkwardness in a romantic one. She lives in a Michigan beach town suspiciously similar to the one in her novel, with her husband Josh and their son, Rory. She is the author of Love Songs & Other Lies, and When Summer Ends (April 2019).

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