booking_along 's review for:

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
4.5
funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
was motivation a thing that other people were simply born with? and when the time came to make their way in the world, they simply acted? should she have been looking for a purpose this whole time? 

i really enjoyed this. 

i loved that piper was very much herself -fun and flirty but just full of life and hopefulness and happiness- but other people where just incapable of seeing that because all they wanted to see was a rich airhead, not caring what they say to her or how it could hurt her. 

so most of the people in this book? sucked. 
which was realistic in many ways.
if you don’t fit into what they want from you, most people dismiss you easily and very quickly. 

i absolutely hated daniel -the sisters stepdad- it’s very clear from the beginning that he saw money as comping and stand in for love. but at the same time he but expectations on the girls without every really voicing what he expected or wanted from them, until he reacted a point where he was so unhappy that he just tore into them brutally. 
what kind of horrendous parent are you to do that?
you can’t just shove money at your kids -or step kids doesn’t matter- and basically tell do what they want with it and than turn around and shame them for not knowing any better. 

the sisters mom clearly wasn’t any better since she just let it happens and seemed to care nothing at all about what her kids might need, especially if it might be something that could get emotional for her. 


what’s it like having such an accurate sense of where things belong? and who belongs where? i can be in a room full of people that i know a d still not feel like i belong.

Brendan and Piper - they were good.
i think it all moved a bit too fast and became too serious to quickly especially since their are such different people and from such different lives. 
i am not saying that wouldn’t work or can’t work.
sure they can work. but it’s not always easy and i think that especially someone that grover for 7 years might struggle a bit more? and someone that is used to people just throwing her away easily would struggle more to know that it’s real? and that’s just the beginning of all the issues they would have to deal with to actually make it work.

but they were fun together and it was a nice story. 
so let’s just… it’s a book and clearly not really life so it’s fine.

how original. another man who thought she was worthless? how positively breathtaking. he didn’t matter. his opinion was moot.

i loved the sisters and their relationship.
how protective and helpful they were with each other and always there for the other. 
how they supported the others interest even thought it wasn’t their own. 
that’s lovely to see! 


i also really liked how the town helped them see more clearly. and how both sisters learned something from being away from the glitz and glamor they were used to. but at the same time they stayed themselves. 

it was a lovely book, well written and great characters and a nice romance and a wonderful sister story.