Five Summers Book Review + I'm Back?!

I'm just going to proceed this review by saying that it's been almost a year since I've posted on this blog. I'm not going to make up any unnecessary excuses as to why I've been gone, I'm just going to lay down the facts and tell the truth. I've forgotten about it. Forgetting to post for one day leads to more and more and eventually I was just so wrapped up in my real life that I forgot to update this blog. I'm sorry and I hope I can get back to updating this regularly soon!



Bittersweet, funny, and achingly honest, Five Summersis a story of friendship, love, and growing up that is perfect for fans of Ann Brashare's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Judy Blume's Summer Sisters. 

Four best friends, five summers of camp memories 

Emma, Skylar, Jo, and Maddie have all come back to camp for a weekend of tipsy canoe trips to the island, midnight skinny dipping in the lake, and an epic game of capture the flag—boys versus girls. But the weekend isn't quite as sunwashed as they'd imagined as the memories come flooding back. . . .

The summer we were nine: Emma was branded “Skylar’s friend Emma” by the infamous Adam Loring . . .
The summer we were ten: Maddie realized she was too far into her lies to think about telling the truth . . .
The summer we were eleven: Johanna totally freaked out during her first game of Spin the Bottle . . .
The summer we were twelve: Skylar’s love letters from her boyfriend back home were exciting to all of us—except Skylar . . .
Our last summer together: Emma and Adam almost kissed. Jo found out Maddie’s secret. Skylar did something unthinkable . . . and whether we knew it then or not, five summers of friendship began to fall apart.

A young adult book with a friendship story that will last long after the last s'more is gone.
(synopsis taken from goodreads.com)

Five Summers by Una LaMarche was a book I picked up last summer at Walmart. I was camping and decided to get a book for the trip, but I never ended up reading it during that time. So as I was perusing my shelves looking for a nice summer-y book to read, my eyes skimmed right past this one. i found myself doubling back and found this book. Intrigued, I read the back and decided that this would be my next read.

I had no expectations of this book whatsoever, so I figured this could turn out to be an amazing book that will blow me away or a total and utter waste of my time. All I knew about it was that it followed four best friends across five summers at a sleep-away camp. I never went to sleep-away camp as a child so I didn't really know what to expect from this book other than the fact that it was about friendship and was compared to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares. 

Luckily for me and my oh-so-precious time, this book blew me away. I was definitely surprised by this book and the messages and meanings surrounding it. There was the main conflict of this book, of course, that everyone sees and experiences whilst reading it, but the underlying messages, themes, and conflicts of this book is what really made me fall in love with it. It captured the essence of friendship so perfectly and what it means to be a good and loyal friend. The book doesn't shy away from real teen issues either while the four girls meet up again at the reunion. Being a teen myself, I enjoyed seeing the honesty of the situations presented and I'm glad the author didn't sugarcoat the outcomes and consequences.

Since this book follows four different POV's I definitely connected more to some of the characters than others. I really felt as if I connected with Maddie and Emma more than Skylar and Jo but that doesn't mean I love them any less. LaMarche did a great job at really making the characters feel real and alive and I don't usually experience that with a standalone contemporary novel. Even the side characters made the story have more depth and become more exciting to read about.

This book is on the longer side of contemporaries, but I never felt like it dragged. I never found myself skimming or looking ahead to see what happened. I also never found myself wishing for this book to be over. I loved all the aspects of this book and the four POV's whether it took place during the present time reunion or during one of the 5 past summers.

Overall, I strongly suggest you guys read and pick up this book. It's so underrated and I feel as if it deserves more recognition and love. It's light and fun but deals with real world teen issues at the same time which makes it feel like a realistic book that almost everyone can relate to. 

5/5 stars.