I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review..

This book is a young adult title suited for young high school aged readers. I guess you can call it a “coming of age” story of sorts. Beyond that I am not sure what the book aims to be.

It’s about a young man, Jesse who is entering his junior year of high school in the Fall of 2019. He spends the summer in a vacation community in Pennsylvania with his two female best friends of whom he has crushes on both of them, not knowing which one he truly likes.

The story goes through his summer with the girls and talks about his parents deteriorating marriage. Other life hiccups take place as well. He starts his Junior year and it takes us to 2020 and the CoVid-19 Pandemic.

The book overall was fine. I liked the fact that it was a teen male protagonist who detailed the ups and downs of being a teen. In that aspect it’s a decent enough story for young men to identify with. The challenge is it doesn’t have enough of a hook or a riveting storyline for said teen to want to connect with it right off.

The biggest issue I had was the retelling of the Covid part of the book. The author rewrote a bit of history in the time line aspect. For instance it was roughly late January or the start of February and Jesse was contemplating shut downs and wanting to visit him grandparents in case he wasnt allowed to. He wanted to get them supplies to know they would be ok. However his feelings didn’t make sense for the timeline of the book. So it took you out of the reality of the story as it appeared that Jesse was a bit clairvoyant to have the thoughts and feelings he did. However, most could probably get past it.

Overall I recommend this book for younger readers as it’s always good to have teen male characters to identify with.

link to goodreads review below

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6275373308