Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

This was a quaint story about tragedy, unexpected friends, love, and family. I fell in love with Lexi and her navigation through the tragedy and how she fared. I also would mind going to Mackinac Island and ride around on a bike. The story felt quite descriptive and I felt as if I was there too.

Ultimately this is a long, labored reveal of a family secret. A reveal that is overly convoluted and doesn't carry much surprise. Not especially compelling.

“Postcards from Summer” by Cynthia Platt is a young adult novel filled with many relatable themes: grief, first love, the innocence of youth, figuring out who you are, navigating family expectations, and the realization that the adults in your life aren’t perfect. The novel is written from the points of view of a mother and daughter when they are both around age 17. In the present, Lexie has always had questions about her mom who passed away when she was a little girl. Her father doesn’t like to talk about her so Lexie has always felt the ache of sadness and curiosity about her. Then, out of the blue Lexie receives a package from.the nursing home where her estranged grandmother had been living until her recent passing. Inside, Lexie finds a mosaic chest filled with mementos from her mom’s teenage years. This is how we learn more about Emma’s summers living in scenic Mackinac Island, Michigan. Lexie decides to test the waters of defiance and independence by secretly going to the island in the hopes of learning about her Mom’s past. Throughout this trip Lexie is confronted with more questions than answers… Throughout the novel the reader slowly learns the answers to these questions (as does Lexie, eventually). I found myself anxiously reading chapter after chapter to figure out the answers to these questions. I found some of the characters frustrating at times but one of the highlights of the novel is the character development/growth.. I really enjoyed this novel and give 5 stars.

Postcards from Summer is both a heartwarming and heart-wrenching coming-of-age story told in a then & now style. On the surface, this story serves up a mystery, a beautiful location, summer adventures with friends and a love triangle. But it doesn’t stop there. These characters face overbearing parental pressure, heartbreak and loss. Platt delivers so much depth in this book.

The then & now style really made this shine. Platt’s writing is beautiful. She paints a vivid picture of everything - the setting, the characters and the emotions - perfectly capturing teenage angst. These characters are so real and relatable, they feel like old friends. The slow-burn love story was infuriating in the best of ways, with lots of miscommunication, unsaid words and anticipation on the readers part.

Let’s talk about the length. This is a long story, 576 pages to be exact and the audiobook is 20 hours. This wasn’t personally a dislike for me BUT I think it will be an issue for some readers. Other reviewers mention that some parts dragged a little and that this story could have been told just as well in 300 pages. I don’t disagree necessarily, but I liked the fact that I got to hold onto these characters longer.

Lexi was a character who personally annoyed me several times. I had to keep reminding myself she was only a teenager who was dealing with a loss. Yet I wanted to tell her to get out of her feelings, look at all of the things in the chest more carefully and just go explore the island!

Some reviewers commented that this was predictable, but I feel like that’s not the point here. The then & now style builds in some obvious predictability, but it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey and the development of these characters.

In conclusion, when they say ‘Love & Gelato meets The Notebook’ they weren’t kidding. This was a perfect summer read. Some readers won’t like the length and may feel there are parts that drag on. For me personally, this is a comfort read filled with characters who feel like friends. I’ll definitely be buying a physical copy to add to my library. And I can’t wait for Platt to write more YA books!

Thank you Netgalley, Simon & Schuster and Cynthia Platt!

After Lexi’s mom dies and her dad won’t talk about her or keep her memories in the house Lexi is forced to live with the memories of her mom disappearing from her. Then suddenly a box from her grandma arrives at her house with her mothers memories and Lexi goes on a journey to find out about her mother, Emma.

Y’all this is a wonderful book. The dual timelines and narrators brought the story to life and the journey that both Emma and Lexi go on in the book are so good.

**2.5 STARS**
I really love the cover of this book and that’s the main reason I requested it.

Lexi doesn’t know much about her mom but when her estranged grandmother dies and leaves her a box of her mom’s things she wants to find out more. With encouragement from her step-sister Chloe, they concoct a plan for her to find out more about her mom and visiting Mackinac Island in Michigan. It requires lying to her dad and step-mom, but Lexi feels like she has no choice.

The story starts off fine and we have two timelines going on – Emma (Lexi’s mom), is telling her story in the past, and Lexi continues in the present. Emma is a sunshine girl, who’s life has been easy so far. Her parents own a lovely hotel resort on Mackinac Island. She’s friendly with the employees, especially one guy named JR who she’s known from when they were little kids. But this summer is different – Emma has befriended brother and sisters, Linda and Ryan. They become a foursome all summer long until things start to change.

Emma is a sweet girl who loves art, she’s always late to things, she loves her summer dresses and being carefree. Her parents want her to learn more responsibility though because they hope she will take over the hotel business but Emma doesn’t want the hotel to be her future. She’s not sure what she wants. Even when it comes to guys. JR is her best friend, and he’s known her forever but Ryan has an amazing smile and a charming personality like her.

I was invested in finding out Emma’s history for Lexi’s sake. Lexi just needs to know more about her mom, and I sympathized with her. But I had a few issues with the story. Lexi’s character wasn’t someone I could connect to. I felt like a lot of the characters weren’t very developed outside of Emma, JR, Ryan and Linda. Lexi is a very indecisive character and needs encouragement from her step-sister Chloe who we only get to know over the phone. Chloe is there in the beginning of the story but barely there, anywhere else in the story. For someone who is investigating her mother’s history, Lexi was strangely reluctant to follow the plan she has, even ignoring advice from people on the island – which was so strange to me. Instead she tries to force some random worker to help her and clearly he doesn’t want to. It was bizarre.

I was drawn to Emma’s upbringing in the beginning, mostly because the setting of Mackinac Island sounded wonderful, but she is as indecisive as Lexi. She gets herself into a love triangle and it’s super frustrating. I usually don’t mind love triangles but Emma comes off as innocent yet has two guys in love with her and she can’t seem to choose which one she wants to be with. It ruins the friendship between all of them, including Linda. It was just sad. Everything revolved around Emma even beyond her death.

Another thing that wasn’t vibing with me was the whole mystery of Emma’s life and Lexi’s investigation of it. It was slow, add the love triangle to it and I felt unsatisfied with the story. I guess I thought from the cover this would be a more light-hearted story.


Why you should read it:
*Mackinac Island setting
*summer of friendship

Why you might not want to read it:
*love triangle with a girl who couldn’t really make a choice and stick with it (until it had ruined relationships)
*slow developing story, Lexi’s investigation went nowhere at times
*indecisive characters: Emma and Lexi

My Thoughts:

I love the cover and the concept of the story. The setting was wonderful and I even had to Google it to see if it was real! It is. The setting was my favorite part. The execution of the story fell short for me. I didn’t connect to Emma or Lexi, they were both way too indecisive for me. The story moved a bit too slowly and I didn’t enjoy the love triangle. Unfortunately this story wasn’t for me.

i'm sorry but this one is a no from me! :( i think i just keep trying with contemporary rom-coms, but they are no longer really my thing. objectively this book was alright, but i just found myself getting annoyed with the slow pace and underdeveloped characters.