Published: June 5th, 2012
A Midsummer's Nightmare
By: Kody Keplinger
Poppy
ISBN-13: 9780316084222
Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.
Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.
Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.
Review
Whitley Johnson is definitely ready to get away from everyone and everything by going to college. But first she's spending the summer hanging with her Dad, away from her shrewish Mom. But then everything is ruined when her Dad springs on her the fact that he's engaged! To a woman (Sylvia) with two kids, and moving out of his condo. Oh yeah and Sylvia's son, Nathan, is her one night stand from graduation! Whitley spends the summer partying hard and doing everything she can to let Sylvia and her kids know that she views them as interlopers. Somewhere along the way she manages to get herself a best friend and a new family that cares about her. How can Whitley make things right with her Mom and Dad, if they want to pretend the bad things never happened? Can she decide to be a better person that she ever imagined, by leaving the past behind? So, I feel like every one of Keplinger's main characters are slutty, loner, damaged girls. It seems to be a trend in her books. Maybe I had a hard time relating to Whitley because of casual way she treated sex and how she was always drunk. And yeah, she had a really bad relationship with her Mom, brother and Dad. But most people don't use those things as the answers to their problems. Not to mention the pretty shitty way she treated her soon-to-be step-sister Bailey for almost the whole book. The romance with Nathan was well-written and believable, but the way he kept liking her even after she treated him like crap and totally crushed him with angry words kind of baffled me. Before reading this book I never realized just what a nice Midwesterner that I am at heart. I just don't get this kind of behavior. I did like Whitley though and was glad that she got her happy ending - nice Midwesterner or not, I definitely know how much parents can screw you up! :)
VERDICT: 3.5/5 Stars
* *No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**
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