Extremely predictable and paint by numbers but I liked the author’s last adult book so much I finished it. The title is a bit deceiving. It’s not really about a break up with a guy but the main character’s break up with her old self. It’s like this book was written by committee trying to appeal to young teens now with ZigZag aka a TikTok rip off and a girl who codes and is a Taylor Swift super fan. Definitely for middle grade/lower YA.

This was a delightfully fun read! I loved the plot from first reading the synopsis and it was so easy to love the protagonist and go on her journey with her! I found myself drawn in and would definitely read this again. Would happily read this again.

A cute spring break teen story! I loved that it centered around a teen girl in tech, but I think that was the best part of the story.

Overall it was cute but not that memorable, and I didn’t find any chemistry between the main characters romantically and wish it would’ve been just a platonic friend story.

I felt it was a little too young of a read for me, but that being said, 5 or 6 years ago in high school I’m sure I would’ve totally related more to the level the main character is at and liked it more as well.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3/5 stars

My Epic Spring Break (Up) was a cute, though unmemorable, coming of age story.

My Epic Spring Break (Up) was more or less exactly what I thought it would be: entertaining, but unmemorable. I did like it more than I expected, but that's not saying much. To be fair, that's more of my expectations for contemporary books, not this one in particular.

For Ashley, the only point of high school is to prepare for college. Romance has never even been something she considered. When her plans start to fall apart, Ashley realizes she may be missing out on part of the high school experience. When spring break rolls around, she decides to have more fun. Starting with her crush, Walker Beech. But with her childhood friend Jason Eisler in the picture, things aren't as simple as she'd like.

The main issue I had with this novel was just how cheesy it was. I know some people who like a good amount of cheese, but this was excessive cheese. I could barely get through the first two chapters because the main character used the time to ogle Walker and describe him in painful detail.

Sometimes you come across characters that break the mold. You never have to yell at them, you never feel second-hand embarrassment. Well, that wasn't Ashley. It wasn't that I didn't like her, but she kept making choices that were obviously wrong. It was so annoying to be the reader just watching her!

Although I had issues with My Spring Break (Up), I liked the romance that we got at the end. I love friends to lovers, and this was a great example of it. Jason was great too, probably better than Ashley.

All in all, I wasn't the biggest fan of this book. It was fine, but I'm not going to buy a physical copy or read it again.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc!

Super quick and cute read! The voice felt a little juvenile for an older high schooler, but otherwise it was enjoyable enough. Her passion for coding was a nice bonus and I would definitely recommend this for younger readers.

A fun and cute book! Such a refreshing read and such a quick sweet read. I would recommend this to anyone looking for an exciting and relatable YA-fiction book. Honestly I really related to the main character, we are so similar in many ways so this book was especially fun for me. That being said, it pretty much solidified itself as a sweet read, nothing particularly special about it but enjoyable all the same!

I enjoyed reading this, but it felt really underdeveloped, which left me feeling "meh" about the book as a whole. I think it would have benefitted from more fleshing out. And it definitely could've been longer! That being said, I never turn down a realizing-you're-in-love-with-the-person-who's-always-been-there story. So. Still swooned.

Seventeen year old Ashley's from Brooklyn life is all about getting ready for the college of her dreams after high school. She knows everything about coding, and her dream is to get into an internship by the Zig-Zag (something like tiktok) company and move to Silicon Valley. But then she isn't accepted into the program, and her dream seems shattered into pieces, because not getting into the program. She starts questioning all the choices she made, and all the things she didn't experienced because she is always busy with school and college prepping. She never has been on a date. She decides to let everything a bit more loose and have some more fun before her high school years are over. She goes on a date with Walker. Beech, a guy in her American History class she has a crush on. But she finds out that he is not the right guy for her, as at a Taylor Swift concert he texts other girls totally leaves her stranded in the middle of NYC in the middle of the night. And earlier he also turner her over to get a tattoo, without the consent of her mother..

Maybe she has to focus on her career again, and that might be happening at the coding convention she and a few of her best friends, including prankster Jason are going to in the end of the story; Hackathon, a 24 hour coding contest with a huge prize.

This is such a fun, fun read! I already loved the cute cover and synopsis but during reading this book totally won me over! It is written in a fun and fast paced way and on every pages something is happening, and the storyline and characters totally are amazing! Ashley knows what she wants for school and after that and has everything planned, but she gets into trouble quite a few times which leads to friction with her mom, her boyfriend Walker truly was a bad influence, but things get better when she finds out what he's up to, and then everything turns out for the better for her. (altough Walker truly destroyed that awesome Taylor Swift concert) Will she, Jason and their team win the big prize at the Hackathon convention? Find out in this fun and cute read that is one of the YA books to pick for this spring, recommend it!!

I’ll preface this review by stating, for the record, that my thoughts on this novel are likely influenced by the fact that I’m not the target audience for this story. While I’ve often found it easier to still love young adult in other genres, it’s been difficult for me to really fall in love with YA contemporary reads these days. My Epic Spring Break(Up) was, ultimately, just okay. The novel centers around Ashley, a planner who has taken all the steps she’s deemed necessary in order to achieve the future she wants. Her spring break plans change completely when everything she’s set up for herself falls apart and she decides that it might be time to embrace a bit of fun and follow her heart… including connecting with her crush Walker and reconnecting with her childhood friend Jason. But will everything really go according to her (non) plan? Now, the truth is, there’s nothing inherently bad about My Epic Spring Break(Up). It has a simple enough premise that plays out fairly well, and includes nods to NYC and Taylor Swift. In fact, I’m pretty confident in saying that teen Alexa would probably have loved this one a whole lot more than adult Alexa did. But adult Alexa can easily say that this fell short of being memorable in the sea of similar stories, and it’s ultimately going to get lost among the rest (at least for me). At the end of the day, if the premise of My Epic Spring Break(Up) sounds appealing, I’d still encourage you to try it (especially since it’s a very quick read).

Spoilers Ahead!
This was a fun and light read, if a bt exhasterating at times. Our MC, Ashley, had a lot of great qualities, and had a LOT going for her - good friends, good grades, and fun hobbies - and she made some really dumb mistakes in the name of impressing a guy. Typical teen. I definitely knew Walker was bad news from the first time they hung out. He will make someone a terrible husband some day, with his woe-is-me attitude and constant gaslighting, But then we have Jason who is THE BEST. I loved him from the get-go, with his silly pranks and genuine support of Ashley.
I did knock a star off of this because of some of the overly dramatic bits that had me rolling my eyes hard. "I think we broke up" - no, Ashely, you went on one date - that does not make him your boyfriend. "I love him!" - well that seems a quick jump from being stupidly gaga for Walker and considering Jason "just a friend" 3 minutes ago. I think this really only bothered me because it felt rushed and underdeveloped, but with the book clocking in at under 300 pages, thats to be expected. All in all, still a worthwhile read!

Such a great PG-13 YA novel! I loved the characters and the attraction to both males in this book - very relatable in real life for a teen! And I love, love, love that Ashley is into math and coding - what a great example for tweens reading this book! As a non-New Yorker, I loved reading about Brooklyn and the many sides to it that we don't see in movies and other books.

For a book that's titled break (up), it doesn't really explore the hurt or angst of a high school breakup. The story was relatively simple and quite frankly, predictable.

On the plus side, it doesn't come off boring and manages to keep the reader engaged throughout the book. Also personally I am a little tired of too many young adult books being based in and around New York City, although I understand it makes for a good setting/movie prospect!

3.5 stars.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an early copy of the book! #Netgalley

This book was super cute to read a good read for YA, I would have liked it to be a little more quick pace. Definitely understand why people have enjoyed this book, this is a very enjoyable read.

Ashley Bergen has one thing, and one thing only on her mind: the future. Between her immaculate vision board, her stellar SAT scores, her math/coding/tutoring extracurriculars, and her top notch grades, Ashley’s acceptance to the summer internship of her dreams should be a no-brainer. Also a no-brainer is Ashley’s non-existent love life. Or social life. Or any life beyond getting out of Brooklyn and into Silicon Valley.

However, you can’t force life to go your way, and when Ashley finds all her plans burnt to smithereens, her childhood best friend and rising social media prankster, Jason, challenges her to let go and let loose because they only get to experience high school once.

Rattled by rejection, Ashley decides to make a change. She’s saying yes instead of no (TS reference is a yes here because Ashley is a huge Swiftie!).

Enter Walker Beech, the beautiful, charismatic, mysterious boy from Ashley’s history class that Ashley has been secretly crushing on for more than a year. When fate throws Ashley a chance, she decides to jump then fall into Walker. Then all hell breaks loose.
For context: Walker is high key “The Way I Loved You” and “I Knew You Were Trouble” vibes and...
Jason is “You Belong With Me” and “Lover” vibes.

Needless to say, Ashley has some breaking up and coming undone to go through, and maybe even a rollercoaster kind of rush or two before it’s all said and done.

This was just a sweet, adorable read, nothing heavy and a nice way to spend a gentle afternoon. I loved that the main focus of the novel was girls in a STEM setting, and as it made me feel like I'd like to know a little more about coding, hopefully it can have that affect on those a bit younger than me too. It's always great to be in a New York setting, even if there were only brief snatches of Manhattan here and there throughout the novel.

There is a clear winner in the love interest space from just a few pages in, and I was rooting for him the whole time. Ashley herself was a good amount of naive whilst still having her own thoughts and goals, which made the story and the characters feel believable.

My only criticism is the almost instalove scenario, and two of the characters declaring their love for each other before they've even kissed. It made the book and the characters themselves feel a little more juvenile, which didn't really feel like it fitted with the rest of the book. 'I really like you' would have worked so much better!

All in all, a super readable book that would make a lovely beach read in the summer months!

This book didn't break new ground as far as YA contemporaries go, but it was an overall cute, fun and easy read. I really enjoyed the girls in STEM representation and the fact that the main character, Ashley, was such a big Swiftie which was totally relatable. I did find her a bit irritating at times however, and it was sometimes difficult to root for her.
I liked the city setting and I think that the story as a whole completely fit the spring break vibes. The friends to lovers romance was sweet and I was happy with how things wrapped up. This didn't blow away but I still had a good time reading it.

This was a very cute story, that was super easy to read and went by really fast. Ashley reminded me of myself in high school, which made me laugh, loved her friendships, felt kind of bad for her because of her dad, I wanted to shake him as a mom, and her decisions made me cringe. So glad that I’m not in high school anymore. Overall I enjoyed the story, there were a lot of Taylor Swift references that got overboard but other than that it was a good story.

Themen: coming of age (Charaktere sind um die 17), Leben für die Zukunft oder die Gegenwarrt?, erste Liebe

Der lockere Jugendroman von Kristin Rockway lässt sich gut lesen. Ich habe bereits ein anderes Buch der Autorin gelesen und empfinde ihren Schreibstil als angenehm und lebendig. Beim Lesen bin ich in einen sehr guten Lesefluss gekommen und konnte mir die Charaktere durchaus als echte Personen vorstellen. Das ist für mich beim Lesen immer ein großer Pluspunkt.

Die Geschichte entwickelt sich flott und vorhersehbar, damit konnte ich aber gut leben. Teils hätte ich auf bestimmte kleinere Entwicklungen verzichten können und hätte es bevorzugt, wenn die großen Handlungsstränge mehr Beachtung gefunden hätten.

Die Hauptcharaktere waren interssant und sympathisch, ihnen fehlte es phasenweise aber etwas an Tiefe. Die Nebencharaktere waren teils eine Bereicherung für die Geschichte, teils waren sie zu flach und es war klar, dass sie nur in der Geschichte sind, um als Katalysator für bestimmte Entwicklungen zu dienen.

Die großen Themen der Geschichte sollte für 15-18 jährige interessant und relevant sein. Für erwachsene Leser:innen wird das nur bedingt zutreffen.

Ich gebe dem Buch 3,25-3-5 Sterne.

- Rezension eines Leseexemplars -

God, this book was not it. It starts off characterizing the MC as a TOTAL nerd, and that's fine because that's exactly how I was in high school too. What bothered me is that the story lacked any real conflict and I felt like I read a 10k fic on Tumblr instead of an actual published novel.

However, as a CS major myself, I appreciated the realistic depiction of coding instead of what some writers do, which is make up a bunch of weird technical terms for no reason instead of real research.

The first love interest had no intriguing hook and the chemistry was lacking. That even goes for the second love interest.

Overall, this book was not good but not bad enough to warrant a 1 star review.

Quintessentially high school. Fun setting, stem characters and all the Taylor Swift references. Teens will enjoy this short and sweet novel.