Started on May 24th, 2022
DNF'd on May 25th, 2022
DNF'd at 34%

Unfortunately, The Summer of Everything just didn't click with me. Like most YA contemporary this story was incredibly character-centric and I just didn't connect with the protagonist Wes. A story about a kid struggling to figure out what he's going to do post-high school may have connected with me more when I was in high school but as of now while I felt for his situation it didn't do much for me. Further, the pining central to the romance of this story didn't grip me either.

From reading some reviews other readers also love the friendship vibes in this novel's bookstore setting and unfortunately I found most of the supporting cast grating, especially Wes's best friend and obnoxious emo girl Ella and the bookstore's resident Instagram influencer Cooper.

It didn't help that Julian Winter's writing style didn't work for me. I found his delivery of exposition and background information clunky. He was fond of long description that was supposed to flesh out characters but to me just halted the momentum of any given scene and made the begging of the novel especially difficult to push through.

While I hold no ill will to this book and I'm sure the target demographic will eat it up I'm definitely okay with leaving this book unfinished.