For me this was a very cute read but also had some darker themes to it. I enjoyed it a lot and loved all the characters! I also liked that the author put in flashbacks of Hannah's last summer. It helped Hannah's character development and my understanding of her. It also shows you why Hannah and her best friend had a falling out.

The romance was amazing. Ethan was perfect and I love him so much. Nothing felt rushed and I love how Ethan and Hannah were there for each other when they were having family and also self problems.

I also enjoyed the other side characters in the book such as her brother, family, and other co workers at Bonanza. They all helped Hannah in her healing journey and all of them provided a lesson for her.

I would recommend this book to everyone looking for the perfect summer read.

Read this book if you like:

-friends to lovers
-brothers best friend
-jewish representation
-mending friendships
-healing from loss

a cute and sweet read! I enjoyed reading it and will definitely recommend it to people looking for a just a YA romance. I cant see myself picking this one up again for a reread though.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

Those summer night is a story of finding oneself as well as making amend for the mistakes you made in the past. We follow Hannah a year after the summer that changed her life and the melt down that happened after. we get flash backs of that summer as the story goes on. in this Story Hannah is trying to redeem herself from the previous summer and while she does that she finds her self again as well as mend broken relationship and find love.

A sort of meandering story with overtures of depth. It's a meditation on loss and finding a new future but doesn't have a lot of drive or purpose. Okay for a one-off read but likely lacking in staying power.

Another sweet book from Laura Silverman. I'll always appreciate a theme park setting (Adventureland is my fav movie!) and this was the perfect summer read.

This was a great contemporary YA novel! Overall, I would definitely recommend trying it!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

A fun and sweet YA with some Jewish representation.
Also me singing Grease songs every single time I opened this up on my ereader.
I smiled so much as well as had my heart strings tugged on! There are some heavy elements, for sure, but I also just really loved it and felt like such a warm hug!

This was such a quick read for me. I could not put it down. This book felt very relatable and i could picture 16 year old me loving this book. I loved the timeline of the book and how the story was told. it kept my interest throughout. Even though this book talks about some pretty serious topics, it felt like it was being done very well.

Hannah has spent the past year trying to distract herself from life. She has used anything to keep her mind somewhere else. It gets so bad that she is even sent to a boarding school by her parents. Now she is back for the summer and is feeling the pressure to be nothing but good. She gets a summer job at the local entertainment multiplex and it isn't too long before the days turn into Those Summer Nights.

Bonanza, the local entertainment multiplex, is the summer employment place for many teenagers around Hannah 's age. This includes Brie, who was her best friend until she started pushing her away. Hannah and Brie used t be attached at the hip doing almost everything together. They were both on the school soccer team which becomes a main point of contention when Hannah gets injured and has to leave the team. Prior to the injury soccer was her life and her future, and after she pushes everyone involved away.

I really enjoyed the way Brie and Hannah slowly reconnected. You can feel the tension between them but you can also feel the remaining love and support. Bonanza provides a bit of a middle ground for the characters especially once the annual tournament begins. Even though there are multiple activities to assist with somehow Hannah continuously finds herself in Brie's orbit. Their reconnection felt natural and I appreciated that there seemed to be actual closure instead of brushing everything under the rug.

There are two other characters that Hannah constantly finds in her orbit: Patrick and Ethan. Patrick is hot and flirty and a perfect distraction from everything going trough her mind. For me, I found him a bit cringeworthy. His whole persona is just ick for me. Meanwhile, I adored Ethan. Ethan is Hannah's younger brothers best friend - and although he has always been around - it seems like he has really grown up while Hannah was at boarding school. He is such a sweet character and the one on one moments between the two of them always made me smile. Ethan accepts Hannah as she is now but also gives her the ability to look back He also has his own issues going on which she is there to support him through. I just really enjoyed the development of their relationship. Although there were a couple of times when both were being slow to see what was right in front of them.

There was one more thing that had caused Hannah to spiral and shut down: the death of her grandmother. Her grandmother was her biggest supporter and to lose her on top of the ability to play soccer was a real punch in the gut. It puts her in a very dark place and she pushes away the rest of her family. Coming to terms with the death and her grief is a key role in Hannah's story. It's heartbreaking but also has a feeling of contentment. I though the family dynamic had just the right amount of tension.

Those Summer Night is such a good story of teenage self discovery nd healing. It hits all the components of a young adult book: friendship, romance, hijinks and shenanigans, and some sort of life lesson. It was a little slow to get into but once I did I had a hard time putting it down. The action really started getting a bit more intense when the annual Bonanza tournament starts and it was so much fun to read about. This was my fist experience reading Laura Silverman and I look forward to reading more from her soon.

Let me just begin by saying that I had planned to read this book by the pool on vacation, but I started it a few days before and devoured it before we ever reached our destination.

This story is one about loss, grief, searching, repentance, healing, romance, and community (to name a few!!). The entire novel is incredibly organic and feels truthful. Silverman wraps up this tumultuous storyline in a way that feels so real to me. Our main character, who has lost so much, is not miraculously healed/recovered/over it, but she finds peace in her situation, which is an exceptionally worthwhile story for YA readers.

I literally gave this book a hug when I finished it. It was just so delightful, I couldn't help myself. Both the main characters and secondary characters were so relatable, and I found myself really rooting for Hannah. The book nicely combined deeper themes of grief, community, finding oneself, and repentance with more lighthearted funny and romantic moments. Hannah is about to enter her senior year of high school, a year after being injured and losing her ability to play soccer. Soccer is everything to her - her friendships, her only real hobby, and her dream of competing in the Olympics. Her Olympic dream comes from her grandmother who herself competed in the Games, and so its also a way of connecting to her grandma. The relationship that Hannah has with her grandma is particularly touching, and I really enjoyed the flashback chapters to the previous summer. I also loved the Jewish Own Voices aspect to this, it felt really natural. I definitely recommend picking this one up! Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and Netgalley for this advanced copy.

Uhm this book was a little bit of a flop for me. There were some parts that seemed like really young YA and others that were older Ya (particularly regarding the romance). The characters made the story fun, but I don't think that it hit quite as deep of a message as was desired.

I think that this book would be much better for a high school audience, particularly student athletes. 2.5 stars rounded up.

Lauren Silverman is becoming one of my auto-read authors!

I loved that this book switched between present day and the previous summer. All of the characters were so likable (except Nick, iykyk).

I loved Hannah’s relationship with her family and how supportive everyone was. The camaraderie between the Bonanza employees was top-notch and so cute. Such an ideal summer work environment!

This book dealt with some serious subject matter and I really appreciated how it was handled.

Excellent YA Contemporary read, full of fun summer vibes. We follow Hannah as she picks up the pieces of the previous summer when she lashed out at everyone around her after losing both her grandmother and the sport she lived for. She sets out to achieve the four goals outlined by her parents, so that she can complete her senior year of high school at her old school, rather than being sent away again.

At first, Hannah just goes through the motions; she gets a job, she's nice to her family and co-workers, and she plans to basically 'fake it' with her parents' list. Until her job and co-workers turn out to be lots of fun, and reconnecting with her brother and old friends turns out to heal the soul. And her brother's best friend? He grew up in the year she was away.

3.5

a cutie little end-of-summer read!!! thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the e-copy!

first off, because i know why you’re all here, the romance. i was INVESTED. twirling my hair for sure. was it perfectly developed? no. does brother’s best friend, especially with the one-sided crush and the shared roof always hit? yes. there’s a love triangle of sorts, but not in an annoying way. and no third-act breakup!

i actually love all of hannah’s relationships - with brie, joey, her coworkers, the old ladies she befriends - all cute and add to hannah’s personal growth. they’re all amplified by the adorable setting and i need to visit bonanza asap.

okay, now for my not so fave part. this book is very strange tonally. hannah went through some very traumatic stuff and used even more dark ways to cope. the flashbacks match this vibe, but then the current day chapters are cutesy and way too neatly resolved. i think it could have leaned one way or the other more, as sometimes the deeper topics felt like they had less weight due to how precious the present pov felt. of course, it’s YA, but throwing in an addiction storyline should be a commitment.

the writing is also a bit rough at times. very tell, not very show. it made some parts feel slower just because i knew exciting stuff was happening but i didn’t feel like i was truly seeing it all.

overall, a super sweet and summery ya romcom with some darker elements. not perfectly written or delivered, but am i crying over every teenage summer i didn’t spend at a multiplex with hot guys and ridiculously fun competitions? 1000%

cws: substance abuse, addiction, traumatic injury, death of a loved one, terminal illness, grief, toxic parental relationships

Those Summer Nights is perfect for lovers of
Summertime job
Brothers best friend
Coworker crush
Jewish representation
Mending friendships
Healing from loss
Then and now storyline
Bucket-list (but in a homework way)

Those Summer Nights is about Hannah as she comes home from a year of boarding school. When Hannah returns home for a summer job she is facing the results of a summer of hardships and questionable life decisions following the passing of her bubbie and her soccer career coming to an abrupt halt.

Hannah gets a job at Bonanza with the help of her brother giving a job recommendation. Bonanza is a local entertainment multiplex that is filled with a variety of fun games and an eclectic group of coworkers and frequent customers.

Some of the best parts of this book included Hannah‘s healing journey as she is processing the weight of her loss both with her family and with her soccer career. I also really enjoyed the cast of characters that were built up in the bonanza. The Golden oldies stole the bowling alley for me. I love those women so much and would like to personally adopt all of them to be bonus grandmothers for me.

Hannah‘s brother Joey is a cinnamon roll of a human being and should be protected at all costs. Joey has such a caring and compassionate personality I enjoyed every single thing that he was on. He cares so much for his sister and bonanza. Silverman did an amazing job at bringing his character to life.

Ethan is yet another cinnamon bun that needs to be protected at all costs. Ethan and Hannah get to help each other learn how to talk about the things that weigh heavily on them and I think that that is a really special bonding experience to have with someone.

Thank you, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, Margaret K. McElderry Books, Laura Silverman herself, and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story about losing dreams...and finding new ones.  Hannah's life long revolved around soccer and her dream of winning a spot on the Olympic team one day, following in the footsteps of her beloved grandmother who was an Olympian.  But when a tackle in a game shatters her ankle, making it unlikely she will ever be able to play competitive soccer again, Hannah feels her future is lost.  After falling in with a bad crowd and too much partying, her parents send her away to boarding school for a year.  Now back at home for the summer, Hannah is hoping to prove to her parents that she is responsible and can be trusted to return to her regular high school in the fall.  

As part of her efforts to prove to her parents that she is responsible, Hannah gets a job at Bonanza on the recommendation of her younger brother, Joey, who is already a star employee at the local entertainment multiplex, with mini-golf, a bowling alley, and an arcade.  Hannah is hoping to keep her head down and has no plans to engage with her co-workers, particularly when she learns her ex-best friend and teammate, Brie, is on the staff.  But between her brother, a social butterfly; her older coworker, Daisey, who takes a shine to Hannah, and Patrick, her attractive and flirty co-worker (who just happens to be the brother of Joey's crush), Hannah finds herself drawn into the social scene of Bonanza. 

Hannah starts to feel more like her old self.  There are just two problems: One, despite her involvement with Patrick, Hannah can't stop thinking about Ethan, her brother's best friend who, over the year she was away, suddenly became very attractive and who is the one person who seems to really get what she is going through.  Two, it turns out Bonanza hosts an annual competition for staff called the Bonanaza Olympics that brings back all the feelings Hannah is trying to suppress about never going to the actual Olympics.  As Hannah struggles to deal with all her conflicting feels while trying to stay on the straight-and-narrow, she must confront what a new life will look like when she has lost the thing that defined her for so long.

I loved this book.  I enjoyed the author's previous novels, but this one may be my favorite. This is a highly engaging story, full of complex and compelling characters and an insightful exploration of what it means to lose a dream.  The author does an excellent job of capturing why soccer was so important to Hannah, how it defined her and her relationship with basically everyone in her life, and how the loss of the ability to play at an elite level threw her into a tailspin, especially coming so close in time to the loss of her beloved grandmother who was also her role-model in many ways.  Hannah's journey feels authentic -- her feelings of trauma, but also her realization how her single-minded focus blinded her to the experiences and perspectives of others in her life.  The author effectively shows how Hannah comes to appreciate that the people in her life are more complex than what they present to the world and how she was often unaware of others' struggles.  I particularly appreciated how the structure of the book, switching between the present and the past, allowed for the exploration of Hannah's relationships with her parents, her grandmother, Brie, and especially her brother.  Finally, the romance at the heart of the book is terrific.  Simply put, once I picked this book up, I couldn't put it down.

Definitely recommended!

I absolutely LOVE books with Jewish rep. I saw Those Summer Nights on a list of upcoming romance books with Jewish characters, and I requested it on NetGalley immediately. Imagine my surprise as I started reading and realized that Hannah Klein, the main character, lives in MY TOWN in New Jersey.

Hannah is a fascinating main character. In the beginning of the book, the reader finds her in an incredibly difficult place in her life. She is at a crossroads one year after losing her beloved bubbe (grandmother) and her dream of being an Olympic soccer player. She has alienated her parents and friends with her destructive behavior, and her parents have threatened to send her back to boarding school if she doesn’t turn things around.

The reader gets to watch Hannah dig herself out of that hole. She shows responsibility by getting a job at Bonanza, and she even grows to love working there. She slowly but surely works to repair her familial relationships and her friendships. I love a good redemption story, and Hannah certainly brings herself back from a dark place over the course of the book.

Ethan also immediately won me over almost immediately. He serves as a perfect foil to Patrick, the cute coworker Hannah hooks up with at the beginning of the book. Patrick and the way Hannah interacts with him (hooking up in the boss’ office) represent all of the destructive behavior she needs to leave behind. Ethan cares deeply about Hannah and is beloved by her family. The connection Hannah and Ethan have is deep and real. They are able to talk about real things like Ethan’s parents and their constant fighting, and Hannah’s continued grief over her grandmother.

I loved that Those Summer Nights doesn’t reveal everything that happened to Hannah that lead to her dark place all at once. The book ends almost every chapter with a flashback to a year earlier, and slowly reveals how Hannah arrives at the place where she begins the story.

I thouroughly enjoyed going on Hannah’s journey with her. I would even love to learn what happens next in her story. I certainly will be reading whatever Silverman writes next.

Extremely relatable and downright charming, Laura Silverman’s most recent young adult novel
Those Summer Nights is a captivating page turner. Alternating between the present and scenes
from the previous summer, Silverman molds the protagonist Hannah Klein into a complex
young woman, who is trying to find her new normal after a couple of lifechanging events. As
she begins her summer job at Bonanza, an entertainment multiplex with mini golf, bowling, and
other activities, Hannah must face her demons that continue to haunt on her on journey of self-
discovery.

As mentioned, Silverman goes back and forth between the current summer and the previous
one, which allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of Hannah’s character. Hannah’s one
true love was soccer, with hopes to make it to the Olympics, before her ankle was shattered.
Coupled with losing her bubbie in the same summer and making a string of catastrophic
decisions, Hannah is haunted by her own grief and her fall from high levels of competition that
she faces head on during her summer at Bonanza. It’s these hardships Hannah faces that make
her so relatable to all audiences, not just young adult ones. Bonanza serves as the catalyst for
helping Hannah work on herself, whether that’s through the friends she makes or the elderly
women’s bowling group she forms a connection with as they ask her all about her life and share
their stories.

Also, Silverman does an excellent job weaving in Jewish representation. Hannah’s relationship
to her beloved bubbie and having history with friends that date back to Hebrew school are just
part of what Jewish readers can identify with when reading this book. While Judaism isn’t
central to the storyline, Silverman makes sure to add in Jewish aspects to ensure there’s no
mistaking the protagonist’s Jewish identity.

Those Summer Nights is a great summer read that will appeal to a wide variety of readers,
outside of the teenage target audience. Silverman keeps the story lighthearted, all while
tackling larger issues that give this novel more depth.