I was really looking forward to this one - I'm such a sucker for summer reads - but unfortunately, this one didn't quite hit the mark with me.

I'll start out with the things I enjoyed. I love that Meade Creamery has a history that stems all the way back to WWII. It made me nostalgic for the past, and I can imagine, just like the main character Amelia does, that it was a time where etiquette towards one another was a way of life, where you had to make due because war called away so many men, and shortages of food and materials existed, prompting ingenuity. Women, in a lot of ways had to stand up and take charge. Which is exactly what Molly Meade did, so she'd have something to focus on while her fiancee was away. And to her astonishment, she comes up with and perfects 4 flavors of ice cream, including Home Sweet Home, that people can't get enough of. This type of courageous passion and vision is inspiring and will certainly be for young readers.

Working at the Meade Creamery stand is an honor and a privilege. But this summer starts a little differently for Amelia, who is supposed to be "Head Girl" this year, which means she'll be in charge. Except instead, and to her shock, she finds Molly dead and sprawled on the floor of the stand. (I'm not giving anything away as this happens right at the beginning and is in the synopsis). What comes after, is what really made this just an okay read for me.

Molly's grandnephew, Grady, learns that he has inherited the ice cream stand, although he's never been involved before. This really throws everything out of whack and what I thought would be a story about friendships and fun between the ladies who worked the stand, ultimately just became a quest for Amelia to help Grady keep the stand running, at all costs. Amelia really is a pushover, to the detriment of her role as "Head Girl" and her friendship with her best friend Cate. It made me a little bit angry as the story went on and probably why I didn't like Grady very much. And since this is a contemporary read where romance is a staple, Amelia and Grady develop a summer romance but I didn't feel invested in the slightest.

I really wish I would have liked this one more but I definitely believe some books are "it's me, not you" and I always encourage others to read books even if it didn't particularly resonate with me. That's what makes the love of reading so fantastic!

As always, happy reading!

Siobhan Vivian’s Stay Sweet was quite the interesting read for me. Ice cream, friendship like sisterhood, and summertime fun are what I thought I was getting, but unfortunately this book pushed those things to the side and instead delivered flat characters, a disjointed plot, and too much description of things I didn’t really care much about, that seemed to act more as filler rather than actual story.

Amelia is not the greatest main character. From the start she doubts herself and never really gains much in the form of self esteem, instead always talking up her best friend Cate or comparing herself to Cate, and quite frankly, Cate isn’t much of gem either. She’s not the greatest friend to Amelia which is very disappointing in a book where strong female friendship is touted as one of the main themes.

And then there’s Grady, the love interest. Amelia basically lets him walk all over her to further his business, and he kind of uses her to make himself look better in the eyes of his father. He drives wedges between Amelia and the other girls, really only looking to further his own career and resume. The romance between the two of them felt extremely weak, producing no chemistry whatsoever.

There were cute aspects to the novel overall, but the negatives were far too glaring to overlook. I love a nice sweet fluffy contemporary novel but this was one I had to push myself to get through. I was really hoping this would be a fun summertime read, and to some it still may be, but for me it was a bit of a letdown.

*Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing and Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This book is as sweet as the title suggests. I can't imagine a more perfect setting for a summer read - a homemade small town ice cream shop! There is a nice balance of character growth, romance, and friendship in the book. If you are a fan of YA contemporary pick this book up to read over the summer (while eating ice cream of course).

I really loved the history of the ice cream shop behind this book and the whole process of making ice cream. It was a fun, light summer read but it didn't wow me. I thought the main character's best friend was petty and I wanted their friendship to grow and blossom. The romance fell flat for me as well.
So overall it's an enjoyable, light read I think perfect for summer.
I did love the ice cream in this book a ton! I want to work at this shop!!

Unfortunately I am unable to read this book. The PDF won’t open on my iPad and is minuscule on my phone. For some reason it won’t let me change the font size or zoom in.

I apologize for not being able to read and review. I look forward to reading this book upon release.

I’m rating it three stars in NetGalley because the site requires me to include a rating before I can submit anything.

This was a perfectly sweet summery read! I liked Amelia and Cate.
I loved Meade’s Creamery the entire time. Molly’s story was something that was revealed bit by bit throughout the book. It wasn’t until later that we truly got to know what happened to Molly and who she was as a woman. I loved this part. It was something that once it happened I couldn’t imagine being any other way.

This book was about self-discovery. I loved that though Amelia is flawed, she is portrayed in an honest way. She loves so intensely and is so passionate about the ice cream stand. Her loyalty is unwavering.

A fun read!

Super cute and fun YA romantic read. I will be grabbing a copy for my classroom. Realistic and believable characters!

Amelia starts off her first day as Head Girl for Meade's Creamery by finding the dead body of owner Molly Meade inside the ice cream stand. Thinking this is the end to her summer job and the business, she accepts the truth that her planned summer has been broken into shambles until Molly's great nephew arrives in town. A young entrepreneur, Grady announces that he's taking over the business and the girls sprint around to make the stand presentable for opening day. Everything runs smoothly until Grady and Amelia realize that they are running low on the ice cream that Molly prepared, and without the recipes to replicate the ice cream, the business is going to tank.

I only had two problems with his story. The first was the complete lack of chemistry between Grady and Amelia. They only talked about the ice cream stand, how to make a profit, and searched Molly's house for the missing recipes for 65% of the book. This book didn't even need a romance component since it stressed the importance of a feminist theme. Why not a story about girls banding together to save a business centered around the principle of women intelligence?

The second issue was Amelia's best friend Cate who was utterly immature, self-absorbed, and hypocritical. Cate gives Amelia the cold shoulder and throws tantrums because Amelia spends her time looking for the recipes and making ice cream in hopes to keep the business afloat and the girls (including Cate) paid their $15 an hour salary which is ludicrous since all they did was scoop ice cream, laugh, blast music, and chatter. Amelia even sacrifices her title as Head Girl and transfers it to Cate to appease her jealous BFF, but Cate is an awful boss who doesn't know how to do anything and then throws a party in the ice cream stand, invites half the school, let's 13 year olds drink alcohol and then leaves the stand looking like a pigsty for Amelia to find the following morning. Cate had to be the center of attention, and when Amelia dedicated so much of her time to keep the business afloat, Cate whined and stamped her feet and then ignored Amelia until Amelia apologized for hurting Cate's inflated ego and making it up to her somehow.

Anyway, I couldn't stand Cate's character and wish she had been written different because she's currently a dead weight to the story.

I received an ARC from Edelweiss and NetGalley.

I am choosing to DNF this book after 29% due to a number of instances of heteronormative language that have made me, as a queer person, very uncomfortable. The main character and her friends seem to truly believe that 1. everyone experiences romantic and sexual attraction, and 2. all girls feel this attraction towards guys and vice versa. One microaggression like this, I would have (and did!) let slide. However, I've now read at least four instances of heteronormative language. I have no desire to read further in this book because it clearly takes place in a fantasy world in which people like me don't exist.