I really liked the storyline of this books. But I had a big problem with the mental health aspect. We just didn't see enough of the healing process the main character went through. This aspect felt half done and rushed and that fell very wrong with me.

I really wanted to love this book but I just couldn’t get into it no matter how many times I picked it up - I did finish it but it was more because I’d gotten so far I didn’t want to just DNF rather than an actual desire to get to the end. I did really enjoy the summer camp vibe, and the set up at the start was well executed but unfortunately the characters and rest of the story just didn’t live up to the opening.

Thank you to Wattpad Books, NetGalley, and the author for the review copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

I like the characters, especially Gwen. I found the pacing uneven. The issues with Emma's mom are addressed in the beginning but then forgotten until the end of the book. When Emma gets together with her crush, their relationship escalates quickly. This makes it seem more like infatuation than love. The characters are developed well but there needs to be more details to tie the plot together.

All I gotta say is that I didn't like this book, it was not for me and although the plot was good and the cover was beautiful art, there's something that I really dislike about this book.

This book is precious! An extremely fluid and fun writing, I gave myself too much to the plot and I loved the characters and the cover is perfect! Incredible book

2 stars..
I really wanted to get into this book but it just was not for me it was not a bad book and im sure people will like it i just felt like it was a little cringy and just not up my alley.

I did like vivian alot and some other people in the book but i was expecting more dramatic moments to happen and it just didnt.

I liked the queer rep in this book and other things and i was not BORED but it just wasnt my type of book.

I really tried to read this book, but it was emotionally triggering and hard to get through the start of it. I found that the mother was so toxic and abusive and that the main character was treated so poorly that I didn't want to see her face that summer camp. I didn't want to read some kind of vindication that the mother could have for sending her back to a place of so much trauma.

2 stars
I really hate giving low ratings but this time I couldn't find a way to soften it.

Since her parents' divorce, Emma has spent every summer with her mother in an attempt to restore their shattered bond. This year, is no different, except that she is turning 18, and will be the last time she will go on with that burden. Once there, she could not have pictured a more horrible outcome: her mom got married without even telling her, let alone inviting her, and now was going on a cruise with her new husband. This is not all, Emma is not invited, in fact, she is unwittingly dropped in a summer camp, where she previously had a traumatizing experience that marked her for life with a phobia of the woods.
The idea of the story was nice but the execution was not that impressive at all. The plot was all over the place, jumping from one scene to another without much of an explanation. I couldn't follow the storyline and I've found myself repeating some chapters just to make sure I didn't miss something. I'm actually impressed I've finished reading it, though I definitely didn't I enjoy doing it.
well, the characters are not that loveable. Emma is simply a brat. I really felt sorry for her cabinmates. Vivan is actually not that charming, I thought she was just a snob. AND don't get me started on that mother! but what bothered me the most is the fact that a sexual predator was making advances on people and no one did a thing!
the cover is definitely wonderful and attractive, and I liked the premise but that was not enough.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my review copy.

OMG I hated this so much I don’t even know where to start.

Maybe the first warning sign was THE MOTHER at the, like, 2% of the book. I usually dislike absent or ridiculous parents that are like that just so we get to dislike them without even trying, but this took it out of the park, I mean.

“ - Why haven’t you reacted that way to your dad’s new relationship?
- He didn’t keep me in the dark about the relationship and introduce his wife at the same time he was ditching me at a camp for two months, a place where I told you for years I didn’t want to go to, a place where---
- I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”

I mean really? Yeah obviously I0’m gonna dislike this woman who pretends not to listen when her daughter tells her time and time again that she’s a lesbian and who will push her to get a ‘boyfriend’ in every-line she gets, but problems is… the author didn’t even try.

The mom’s character (does she even have a name?) is like EVERY CHARACTER IN THIS BOOK: one-dimensional and stereotyped and boring when not extremely disgusting.

Disgusting as, this book should start with LOTS of trigger warnings such as DEPRESSION (not properly depicted, no worked through, but there, they mention it), SEXUAL HARASSMENT (and this is treated like a subplot so I’ll come to this later), VIOLENT RELATIONSHIPS (not only verbal abuse, but also bullying, and physical violence? That goes unattended?) OMG, disastrous.

I was like, so happy to have a lesbian protagonist and… the protagonist doesn’t like calling herself a lesbian. It’s known the stigma that word still carries, and it would have been awesome to have a lesbian girl there, but no, she’s “still gay, mom!” – and the love interest is pansexual which YAY but still, no lesbian in this wlw book, sorry girls.

Ok, so Emma, the gay girl, ends up in a camp, and she hates it because she has a phobia because of something that happened there a few years back which is, again, told but never shown. I mean, yes, she has a panic attack but that’s it. That’s all the depiction of the phobia. We don’t know how it affects her besides that she was to LEAVE. Oh only if the camp counselor (older, and booooooring) weren’t so _Charming_ (not) and _mysterious_ (not). Vivien is quite controlling and possessive and seriously? What the hell? She NEVER does what she’s supposed to do according to her position in the camp (as in, look after the campers and admonish them when they break rules) but does a lot of things she TOTALLY SHOULDN’T not only as a counselor but as a PERSON? Like, getting romantically involved with a minor camper or, I don’t know, GOING THROUGH THEIR PHONE looking at the pictures there???? Or maybe, I don’t know, not saying sh!t when a camper SEXUAL HARASS ANOTHER CAMPER, or herself.
Because YES, we have a sexual predator, literally, Lauren. And no one does a thing about it because her dad is influential and rich? Like WHY. They don’t even handle it internally.
They TALK about consent and then they… just don’t care about who is respectful about it?

Oh yes, Lauren kind has a crush on Emma? And had a crush on Vivien or something the previous year? And apparently the only way she has to show love is though bullying and violence and black-mailing and actual.sexual.harassment I can’t stress this enough. So yes, no only we have a wlw book without lesbians, the character who may be a lesbian is a deeply disturbed sexual predator who NEEDS HELP ASAP. And of course no adults there, even tho the runners of the camp ALL know about it.

And no, I don’t know why anyone would have a crush on emma because she’s… unlikeable. You are never gonna like her, you’re not gonna feel sorry for her, you’re not gonna be happy when she gets the girl, or… no, just no. She’s a nothing sometimes, but mostly she’s repulsive.

The only character that I thought I was gonna like was Gwen but no, just another one-dimensional girl that’s there just to show us that the bad girls are bad (or, you know, BITCHES, as it’s say in the book. Because yes, this book does that, girls calling girls bitches), and that Emma is oh so nice for befriending the bullied girl.

For the writing in general… it sometimes felt like it was written by a 8yo without great imagination and then it would turn into purple prose, and the dialogues just --- god, no one talks like that. No one.
Once I reached the epilogue, I closed the book. Don’t ask too much, finishing this was a chore because I appreciate NetGalley, but I regret having asked for this.

I appreciated the representation and difficulty of coming out to family and navigating life and love as a queer person. The characters were powerful and well rounded and I loved seeing juxtaposed family dynamics. Emma’s strong relationship with her father but tumultuous relationship with her mother were well thought out and interesting to read. I did find the writing style a little choppy and hard to get through so it made getting through the book a little difficult.

The writing was a bit "raw" but the premise was interesting. All in all, was a cute story about summer camp but some things got in the way of my enjoyment and I really struggled with finishing it.
The plot in general could have had more depth but I think the main problem was the bidimensional characters. For starter, I didn't quite like Emma, the main character, which was detestable at best, but what really perplexed me was Lauren, the antagonist. While I feel like "the bully who actually likes you" is kind of an old trope it really felt illogical that a summer camp staff won't deal with an issue of this sort.
I had high hopes for this one since I saw the cover and without a doubt, it may be enjoyable for less demanding readers.

A really lovely and fun YA LGBTQ romance/romcom, with realistic characters and good relationship dynamics. Can’t wait to see what the author writes next.

This book has a beautiful story of self-acceptance running through it. I loved the female friendships represented in this book as well as the female/male friendship between Emma and Walter. The love story was filled with that angsty suspense that is so satisfying to read - especially as the book continued. There were some parts that required more of a stretch for believability, but overall a great read with an even more important pack of messages about loving yourself, accepting yourself, and taking care of yourself.

Really enjoyed this young adult/new adult novel. Pansexual and lesbian MCs.

Emma has faced a ton of challenges - depression, messy parent divorce, homophobic mum - but has finally graduated high school, is nearly 18 and has just one major hurdle left - two months court mandated visitation with her mum. But when she gets to Maine, her mum has decided to leave her behind at summer camp. Emma hates camp; is panic-inducingly afraid of the woods; and is stuck rooming with a mean-girl bully. But Emma also meets 19 year-old camp counselor, Vivian, so things may not be all bad.
I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this from NetGalley because I had heard good things, plus that cover and description convinced me to give it a go. Unfortunately I wasn't as pleased with it as I was by this cover. 

Emma thinks she is going to spend the summer with her mother repairing their relationship but instead is dumped off at a camp where she had a terrifying experience when she was younger, leading to a phobia of nature. She meets an old friend of hers, make a new friend and even finds another girl she really likes, Vivian Black, one of the counsellors. 

This book was such a mixed bag for me. There were parts which I really liked and other parts I didn't but when you put everything together, it wasn't a win for me. It started off in such a promising way. I really liked Emma and her relationship with her father. It was a very sweet, supportive relationship and we saw it more than were told it, and it made all the difference. Same as with her mother - we could tell that she had a fractured relationship with her mum from the get-go and so when her mum left her at the camp, we could see her disappointment about losing this opportunity to help mend her relationship with her mum. We got to see a bad parent, rather than an abusive parent, which was a great contrast with Emma's dad. I feel like people seem to try and classify parents as good or abusive and there is no in between. Emma's mother is distant, insensitive and homophobic - none of which would lead to a child being taken away or monitored by Social Services. But she is definitely a bad parent because that not is how you treat your child. So interesting parental relationships, I'm sorry they sort of dropped off when Emma went to camp. 

I also liked some scenes of Emma and Gwen and Emma and Vivian. Not all scenes, especially the ones in the first half of the book (Emma suddenly calling Gwen her best friend when they had barely hung out on page felt very out of the blue), but in the latter half of the book, I really liked seeing these two relationships together and having the platonic and romantic side by side as equally important to Emma. We got a lot of scenes between Emma and Vivian and I believed that they liked each other, which is one of the most important things I look for in a romance. 

That said, there were several things which detracted from my enjoyment. First of all, how Emma's phobia was treated. She has a phobia about the outdoors/nature and we see this interfere with her daily life in the first quarter of the book. Then Vivian takes out into the woods for a one night camping trip and Emma realised there was nothing to be afraid of and the phobia never came up again. That is not how phobias work, that isn't even how fears work! Exposure therapy is not 'force someone to spend one night in their fear and everything will be sorted' and it frustrated me that her fear was treated as an easily dealt with obstacle to the romance. It was disappointing, not only because it was made out of be a big part of the book, but also because when a phobia comes up, that is not how I want to see it dealt with. 

Another thing I didn't like was how Lauren was shown and treated. The predatory lesbian is a trope I hate, mostly because that was the homophobic trope I came across so much when I was growing up, and just because this is a female/female romance doesn't make it okay for that trope to come up. Yes, I'm not saying that just because a woman fancies other women doesn't make her a good person but this is a YA contemporary romance and they could have had Lauren as a villain without this kind of crap. I really liked Lauren's motivation about why she did what she did because that made her more of a well-rounded character who I could not like but felt sympathetic towards. I wasn't a huge fan of Lauren's ending because it felt like the adults around her failed her and she was punished for it. 

But I could have handled all of that, if not for the big thing. The writing style - it bored me. I put this book down at 70% and then didn't pick it up again for so long because it just did not flow for me. I was not reading to find out what happened, I didn't particularly care, I was reading to finish it. 

The premise was great and I liked parts of it, but so many parts fell short. 

3 stars!

This book 's concept was promising of summer romance and mental health representation and pride. However, it fell flat in many ways. Emma's narration and banter came off as annoying instead of funny. The tone reeks of 2010-harry-styles-wattpad type writing, instead of an actual novel. This made it hard to get through the book. Also, a lot of the things characters did made absolutely no sense plot-wise, and completely lacked motives for anything. This made a lot of the characters fall flat. This could have been better handled imo. The whole Lauren storyline was outright creepy. However, I liked the representation in this book.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love the premise of summer camp and queer romance, but ultimately the characters fell a little flat for me. It took a while for me to come around to Emma, I really enjoyed her initial dynamic with her dad, but her lack of connection with camp friends (especially one she had been writing to for so long) seemed a bit confusing. Similarly, I wasn't a fan Vivian's mean spiritedness that supposedly stemmed from attraction and the inherent power dynamic between the two. All in all, it was a decent read, but not necessarily one I would jump to reread or recommend.

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

“Night Owls And Summer Skies” is a young adult book that primarily takes place at a summer camp named Camp Mapplewood, and focuses on main character Emma Lane's experience at that camp throughout the course of the summer.

The beginning of the book reveals a lot about Emma's parents and the relationships they have with each other. She's very close with her dad, who is accepting of her sexuality, helped her get professional treatment for her mental illnesses, and is overall a very supportive father to her. Her mother, however, is homophobic. Emma hoped that seeing her mother would give the two of them a chance to fix their relationship, but instead, her mother not only tells Emma that she has remarried, but also drops her off at Camp Mapplewood rather than bringing her along on their honeymoon and spending more time with her

Initially, Emma does everything she can to try and get herself kicked out of the camp, but it doesn't work, and over time, she develops a friendship and eventual relationship with one of the camp counselors - Vivian. Vivian helps Emma deal with what she feels while being at camp (examples include checking on her and helping her through a panic attack) and stands up for Emma when she meets Emma's mom towards the end of the book.

I didn't like Lauren's actions in the story or her as a character in general, but that aside, I thought that this book was pretty good. I like how Vivian was there for Emma throughout the story, and how the book ended on a pretty positive note.

Reading Night Owls and Summer Skies was definitely an enjoyable read for me. With a haters to lovers trope, and a love rival present, it was fun reading this book.

The book starts off with Emma Lane, our 17 year old protagonist, being reluctantly dropped off by her dad, at her mom's place. Even before her parent's divorce, Emma had been a reclusive kid, and after a horrifying experience that caused her PTSD and depression, she has become even more avoidant of her mother. Not to mention, her mother still hasn't come to accept Emma's sexuality and thinks that she'll get over her sexuality once she gets a boyfriend.

After her father drops her off, Emma's mom suddenly announces that they are going on an oversees trip for two weeks and a car comes to take them. Soon Emma realizes that the driver is actually her mom's new husband and they are actually planning to take Emma to Camp Mapplewood for 8 weeks - the place that caused Emma's trauma as a child. Her phone is taken away at the entrance of the camp and unable to even contact her father, she is sent off to the camp by her mom.

Emma's plan is to steal her phone back and deliberately get caught by the camp counselors so that she can be thrown out of this place. Camp Mapplewood is owned by the Blacks and there she comes across Gwen Black, the youngest Black who is attending the camp as well. She takes a liking to Gwen only, but when she sees that her other cabinmates bully Gwen, under the leadership of Lauren, just because of a camp counselor position, Emma takes it upon herself to protect Gwen at all cost. Meanwhile, when Emma goes to steal her phone, she gets caught by Vivian Black, her cabin counselor, and also Gwen's sister. But Vivian is reluctant to kick Emma out of the camp and instead insists that staying in the camp would do her good.

Slowly, Emma comes to accept her life in the camp, but there still exists one problem. Lauren. The root cause of her trauma and Gwen's constant bullying. A number of events lead Emma to discover her feelings and the feelings of her cabinmates and Vivian as well.

I loved the characters. The whole Black family is awesome. I especially loved Gwen and Vivian's brother Walter. That dude is funny and cool. And Emma's character being a full of sarcasm makes her and Walter's interactions extra fun to read. I also loved Gwen's character. She's such a joyful and positive character. Vivian kind of didn't make a good impression on me though. But I loved how both Emma and Vivian helped make significant differences in each other's lives.

While on one hand Emma's mother couldn't accept her daughter's sexuality, Vivian's family have all their support to her. Emma's dad is one character that made my heart really happy. It gave me a sense of pleasure reading about Emma and her dad's interaction.

I won't give out much details, but there's a lot of love rivalry and yearning in this book. So it gets extra points from me.

This was a cute and fast read. I love camp books and considering this one is also queer, I was very excited to read it. First, the description of the camp was great and there was good worldbuilding. I felt like I was really there! However, I never felt a strong connection with the main character. And, although the descriptions were good, the dialogue felt forced. I also would have liked to see more of the backstory shown rather than told. Overall, this was a good book and is an easy read. I liked the love story and the setting. I'd recommend this as a good book for pre-teens and teens.