Hello Everyone :)
I hope you're all doing well, and that you're enjoying the lovely spring weather wherever you are.
If any of you read my 2018 Most Anticipated Releases Post, you would know that Jennifer Salvato Doktorski's August and Everything After was one that I was really excited about. I had adored her earlier novel, The Summer After You and Me, and I couldn't wait to jump into this one.
Today I'm here to share with you all what I ended up thinking about her newest release.
August and Everything After by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski:
Source: Library
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: May 1st, 2018
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary
Synopsis:
Summer on the New Jersey shore offers Quinn a new start at life and love, but only if she can come to terms with her past
Graduation can't come soon enough. Desperate for a fresh start, Quinn is eager to escape to her aunt's house on the New Jersey shore for the summer…away from teenage drama and having to answer everyone's questions about "what comes next" after high school.
Quinn can't bear to focus on the future. She doesn't even think she deserves one—not after her best friend died in a car accident that Quinn feels responsible for. But when Quinn meets Malcolm, a musician who has been trying to escape his own demons, she starts to believe in second chances.
******synopsis from goodreads*****
My Review:
When I first read the synopsis for this book on goodreads, I had a very different idea in my mind as to how everything was going to play out. I was expecting a swoon worthy romance set on the Jersey shore with plenty of angsty moments, like with Jennifer's previous novel, The Summer After You and Me. However, this was definitely not what this novel ended up being, and I was fairly disappointed when I finally finished this one.
Quinn has lived with the guilt surrounding her best friend's death for the last few years, and after a bad decision she's made comes public, her and her mom decide it might be for the best for her to live with her aunt for the summer. She's settled into a pretty nice routine with her aunt, including working at the local bar as a waitress, but she's still struggling to find the purpose for her life that her mother keeps insisting she needs. When musician Malcolm takes the stage at the bar on his way to a comeback, Quinn feels an instant connection with him, after all he's been through his own tragedies, and just might be the only person who can truly understand what she's going through. What follows is a whirlwind romance that wraps around Quinn joining Malcolm's band to help him record a professional demo. Soon Quinn is so wrapped up in Malcolm's world that she's almost forgotten about her own, a notion that makes all of her family uneasy after the poor decisions she's made in the past.
Unfortunately, this novel was just not for me. I really struggled with relating to or sympathizing with Quinn, as her character never did grow on me. I wasn't a fan of the way she treated any of her family, especially her aunt, and she seemed to have no respect with anyone she came into contact with. On the other end, Malcolm rubbed me the wrong way right from his character's introduction into the story, and I couldn't support their relationship in the slightest considering it was both toxic and superficial. It was also a perfect example of too much too soon, and that gave it an insta-love feel which everyone knows I can't stand in any books, but especially in young adult ones. On top of the romance, I also had a really hard time connecting to the story line as it just didn't interest me, and I found that it dragged terribly.
This actually would have been a one star novel for me, especially considering the amount of swearing and language was way more than I was comfortable with, and was completely unnecessary to the plot. However, I did really enjoy reading about the music industry, and I thought that Jennifer Salvato Doktorski had done a really good job of highlighting all the background music info, and making it pretty interesting to read about. I also was quite surprised with how she chose to end the novel, and I applaud her for ending it in a non-predictable way even if it was a tad confusing and left me wondering if she's intending to set it up for a sequel. For those reasons I'm bumping it up to two stars, but it was definitely a disappointment considering how much I'd loved her last novel, and I won't be recommending this one unfortunately.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you all again on Wednesday for more bookish content!
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
I hope you're all doing well, and that you're enjoying the lovely spring weather wherever you are.
If any of you read my 2018 Most Anticipated Releases Post, you would know that Jennifer Salvato Doktorski's August and Everything After was one that I was really excited about. I had adored her earlier novel, The Summer After You and Me, and I couldn't wait to jump into this one.
Today I'm here to share with you all what I ended up thinking about her newest release.
August and Everything After by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski:
Source: Library
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: May 1st, 2018
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary
Synopsis:
Summer on the New Jersey shore offers Quinn a new start at life and love, but only if she can come to terms with her past
Graduation can't come soon enough. Desperate for a fresh start, Quinn is eager to escape to her aunt's house on the New Jersey shore for the summer…away from teenage drama and having to answer everyone's questions about "what comes next" after high school.
Quinn can't bear to focus on the future. She doesn't even think she deserves one—not after her best friend died in a car accident that Quinn feels responsible for. But when Quinn meets Malcolm, a musician who has been trying to escape his own demons, she starts to believe in second chances.
******synopsis from goodreads*****
My Review:
When I first read the synopsis for this book on goodreads, I had a very different idea in my mind as to how everything was going to play out. I was expecting a swoon worthy romance set on the Jersey shore with plenty of angsty moments, like with Jennifer's previous novel, The Summer After You and Me. However, this was definitely not what this novel ended up being, and I was fairly disappointed when I finally finished this one.
Quinn has lived with the guilt surrounding her best friend's death for the last few years, and after a bad decision she's made comes public, her and her mom decide it might be for the best for her to live with her aunt for the summer. She's settled into a pretty nice routine with her aunt, including working at the local bar as a waitress, but she's still struggling to find the purpose for her life that her mother keeps insisting she needs. When musician Malcolm takes the stage at the bar on his way to a comeback, Quinn feels an instant connection with him, after all he's been through his own tragedies, and just might be the only person who can truly understand what she's going through. What follows is a whirlwind romance that wraps around Quinn joining Malcolm's band to help him record a professional demo. Soon Quinn is so wrapped up in Malcolm's world that she's almost forgotten about her own, a notion that makes all of her family uneasy after the poor decisions she's made in the past.
Unfortunately, this novel was just not for me. I really struggled with relating to or sympathizing with Quinn, as her character never did grow on me. I wasn't a fan of the way she treated any of her family, especially her aunt, and she seemed to have no respect with anyone she came into contact with. On the other end, Malcolm rubbed me the wrong way right from his character's introduction into the story, and I couldn't support their relationship in the slightest considering it was both toxic and superficial. It was also a perfect example of too much too soon, and that gave it an insta-love feel which everyone knows I can't stand in any books, but especially in young adult ones. On top of the romance, I also had a really hard time connecting to the story line as it just didn't interest me, and I found that it dragged terribly.
This actually would have been a one star novel for me, especially considering the amount of swearing and language was way more than I was comfortable with, and was completely unnecessary to the plot. However, I did really enjoy reading about the music industry, and I thought that Jennifer Salvato Doktorski had done a really good job of highlighting all the background music info, and making it pretty interesting to read about. I also was quite surprised with how she chose to end the novel, and I applaud her for ending it in a non-predictable way even if it was a tad confusing and left me wondering if she's intending to set it up for a sequel. For those reasons I'm bumping it up to two stars, but it was definitely a disappointment considering how much I'd loved her last novel, and I won't be recommending this one unfortunately.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you all again on Wednesday for more bookish content!
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
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