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Each week Stephanie, Lillian and I will be featuring a SUMMER OF LOVE review on our blogs.  If you missed Stephanie’s post from yesterday, check it out at Once Upon a Chapter.  And look for Lillian’s review this Thursday at Mom With a Reading Problem.

Welcome to my fourth review for the SUMMER OF LOVE!  As I mentioned in week one, I actually already read a lot of contemporary romance, but there’s just something about summer reading that screams contemp for me.  And I’m using these 12 weeks to showcase books in different categories.  The fourth category is:

Summer

Yeah, I know, SHOCKER.  What I specifically mean is books that take place over the summer, and/or have Summer in the title.  And the book I chose couldn’t have been a more perfect “takes place over summer” and “has summer in the title” book.

Recommendations:

• I actually wrote a Top Ten Tuesday post about Beach Reads that happens to be all about books set in the summer, so definitely check them out…because I was going to list most of them anyways.  😉  I’ll add a few more, though honestly I bet I have a lot more…I just did the easy thing and searched “Summer” in my Goodreads for the most part.
• You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria
• Sweet Tea and Summer Love by Regan Claire
• The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler
• The Summer I Became a Nerd (Nerd #1) by Leah Rae Miller

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Title: The Summer of Jordi Pérez (and the Best Burger in Los Ángeles)
Author: Amy Spalding
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Release Date: April 3, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Cassandra Morris
Length: 6 hours and 30 minutes
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult, Coming of Age
Source: Libby
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Summer, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iTunes ✩ Libro.FM
My rating:

Blurb:

Seventeen, fashion-obsessed, and gay, Abby Ives has always been content playing the sidekick in other people's lives. While her friends and sister have plunged headfirst into the world of dating and romances, Abby has stayed focused on her plus-size style blog and her dreams of taking the fashion industry by storm. When she lands a prized internship at her favorite local boutique, she’s thrilled to take her first step into her dream career. She doesn't expect to fall for her fellow intern, Jordi Perez. Abby knows it's a big no-no to fall for a colleague. She also knows that Jordi documents her whole life in photographs, while Abby would prefer to stay behind the scenes.

Then again, nothing is going as expected this summer. She's competing against the girl she's kissing to win a paid job at the boutique. She's somehow managed to befriend Jax, a lacrosse-playing bro type who needs help in a project that involves eating burgers across L.A.'s eastside. Suddenly, she doesn't feel like a sidekick. Is it possible Abby's finally in her own story?

But when Jordi's photography puts Abby in the spotlight, it feels like a betrayal, rather than a starring role. Can Abby find a way to reconcile her positive yet private sense of self with the image that other people have of her?

Is this just Abby’s summer of fashion? Or will it truly be The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles)?

My Review:

4.5 stars — Well shit, that was everything I love in a YA wrapped up in a bubbly bow.

I wonder if I would have enjoyed it to quite the same degree if I hadn’t listened to it.  The narrator was the fucking bomb.  She epitomized Abby, and I could imagine her as a real person.  The way she did all her internal thoughts, it was absolute perfection.  And everything from her pacing to her emotions to her distinct voices made the performance just stand out.  Like, I could listen to this one again and again when I need to be delighted and happy.

I just wanted to hug Abby so much, I could see tiny pieces of myself in her.  I loved the thousand thoughts running through her brain, the second guessing about how she’s coming across…that vulnerability hit me right there.  And the spacing out?  Oh yeah, can totally vibe with that.  She was a perfectly flawed but loveable teenager.

I ACHED at how low her self-esteem was at times, and how some of the most innocuous things can really fuck up your sense of self, even if you’ve misinterpreted what other people mean.  I did kind of want a bit more from her at the end with Jordi…her remorse?  Basically how she made it up to her was more subtle and less overt.  But it’s not as though I don’t understand where her insecurities come from…it was just not as balanced a conclusion as I would have liked.  But probably a bit more real.

Jordi was pretty freaking great, and a wonderful balance to Abby’s over the topness at times.  I kind of loved their relationship — from the crushes to more, it was just so ridiculously cute and happiness inducing.

And I kind of loved that we got not only an epically adorable love story, but also a fantastically abnormal friendship story.  Jax was hilarious.  I loved that most hetero love stories have the quirky gay secondary character, but in this one we got the quirky straight secondary character.  Their friendship was really unique and adorable, and I loved how it was something different from what Abby had with her other girlfriends.

I even appreciated the bumps in the road Abby experienced with some of the people she was closest to — because that happens.  From Malia, to her sister Rachel, to her Mom.  It showed how people can grow and change, and that’s not always easy.

All in all, I suppose I can see how this might not be everyone’s bag, but it was TOTALLY mine.  It hit all the Lenore buttons.