Hello Everyone :)
I hope you're all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me today on The Preppy Book Princess.
I am a huge fan of young adult fiction, but I definitely prefer to read the cleaner ones as much as possible. I've started to notice a trend that a lot of what's being aimed at the young adult market is really pushing the bar for what I consider acceptable, and I've started being a lot more careful about what I choose to pick up to read.
Because of this trend, I've started looking more into Christian young adult books that I haven't read before, and I've actually ended up discovering quite a few. I happened to stumble upon the Sweet Seasons series on goodreads, and I knew it was definitely something I wanted to pick up and try out for myself. I finished the first one a little while ago, and today I want to share with all of you what I thought about it.
The Summer of Cotton Candy by Debbie Viguie:
Source: Library
Publisher: Zondervan
Publication Date: May 11th, 2008
Genre: Christian Fiction/Young Adult Fiction/Contemporary
Series: Sweet Seasons
Synopsis:
Most people think The Zone is an amusement park, but Candy Thompson knows it’s really a slave labor camp. What else would you call a summer job that requires a sixteen-year-old girl to set aside her whole social life for the privilege of standing out in the hot sun selling cotton candy? Still, there are perks—particularly the mysterious hunk in the Lone Ranger costume. Behind that mask are the most amazing eyes Candy has ever seen. Who is that masked man? But someone else is just as interested. And romantic competition isn’t the only problem. Besides being hard work, The Zone is eating up major time. How is Candy supposed to stay involved in church? Worse yet, will she lose her best friend, Tamara, who resents how Candy’s job limits their time together? This is NOT the summer Candy hoped for! But as she is about to discover, the summer of cotton candy will be the greatest summer of her life.
******synopsis from goodreads*****
My Review:
Candace Thompson's summer is not shaping up to be what she was hoping for. See her parent's are determined that she learn the importance of earning money for herself, and because of this she's stuck working a summer job at the Zone, a local amusement park. At least she didn't get stuck cleaning the theme park bathrooms, but her job of selling sticky, sugary cotton candy in the hot, humid weather is not much better. So far this job has caused her to have a falling out with her best friend Tamara, has given her the obnoxious nickname of cotton candy, and has had a target painted on her back by a fellow food service worker named Lisa. Candace doesn't see how her summer can possibly go on like this without her losing her mind, but with faith, hard work, and an open mind this summer might just shape up to be different from anything she could have expected.
While I definitely think this story could have had a little more substance to it, I really did find myself enjoying it. Candace was a character who was easily relatable, and I loved how even though her parent's were definitely rooting for her through everything, they were still determined that she learn how to earn her own spending money instead of handing everything to her. The cast of characters employed by the Zone was vast and varied, and there were some secondary characters who definitely stood out, and made this an even better story. While I didn't find myself liking the love interest, Kurt, that much, I really enjoyed the friends she makes in Becca, Josh, Martha, Roger, and even Pete. I also appreciated that while Debbie Viguie chose to include the romance element, it didn't play center stage here, and instead a big focus of the story was more on friendship and faith than it was on romance.
So if I was only taking all these factors into play, this probably would have been a three star read for me. It was cute and sweet and kept me entertained with likable characters, but it felt like it was missing a little more substance to make it a truly great read. However, I have to take the amazingly vivid setting into consideration, and that pulled this up to a four star read for me. Debbie Viguie's descriptions of the Zone are spot on, and I ended up wishing that this theme park actually existed as I'm sure it would have given Disney a run for their money if it did. I definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a clean, Christian young adult novel, and I really enjoyed it even though I was definitely not part of the target audience.
I can't wait to continue on with the rest of the series, especially since the next two books take place around fall and Christmas which are my two favorite times of the year.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thanks so much for reading guys! I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you all again soon.
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 I want to thank you all for joining me today on The Preppy Book Princess.
I am a huge fan of young adult fiction, but I definitely prefer to read the cleaner ones as much as possible. I've started to notice a trend that a lot of what's being aimed at the young adult market is really pushing the bar for what I consider acceptable, and I've started being a lot more careful about what I choose to pick up to read.
Because of this trend, I've started looking more into Christian young adult books that I haven't read before, and I've actually ended up discovering quite a few. I happened to stumble upon the Sweet Seasons series on goodreads, and I knew it was definitely something I wanted to pick up and try out for myself. I finished the first one a little while ago, and today I want to share with all of you what I thought about it.
The Summer of Cotton Candy by Debbie Viguie:
Source: Library
Publisher: Zondervan
Publication Date: May 11th, 2008
Genre: Christian Fiction/Young Adult Fiction/Contemporary
Series: Sweet Seasons
Synopsis:
Most people think The Zone is an amusement park, but Candy Thompson knows it’s really a slave labor camp. What else would you call a summer job that requires a sixteen-year-old girl to set aside her whole social life for the privilege of standing out in the hot sun selling cotton candy? Still, there are perks—particularly the mysterious hunk in the Lone Ranger costume. Behind that mask are the most amazing eyes Candy has ever seen. Who is that masked man? But someone else is just as interested. And romantic competition isn’t the only problem. Besides being hard work, The Zone is eating up major time. How is Candy supposed to stay involved in church? Worse yet, will she lose her best friend, Tamara, who resents how Candy’s job limits their time together? This is NOT the summer Candy hoped for! But as she is about to discover, the summer of cotton candy will be the greatest summer of her life.
******synopsis from goodreads*****
My Review:
Candace Thompson's summer is not shaping up to be what she was hoping for. See her parent's are determined that she learn the importance of earning money for herself, and because of this she's stuck working a summer job at the Zone, a local amusement park. At least she didn't get stuck cleaning the theme park bathrooms, but her job of selling sticky, sugary cotton candy in the hot, humid weather is not much better. So far this job has caused her to have a falling out with her best friend Tamara, has given her the obnoxious nickname of cotton candy, and has had a target painted on her back by a fellow food service worker named Lisa. Candace doesn't see how her summer can possibly go on like this without her losing her mind, but with faith, hard work, and an open mind this summer might just shape up to be different from anything she could have expected.
While I definitely think this story could have had a little more substance to it, I really did find myself enjoying it. Candace was a character who was easily relatable, and I loved how even though her parent's were definitely rooting for her through everything, they were still determined that she learn how to earn her own spending money instead of handing everything to her. The cast of characters employed by the Zone was vast and varied, and there were some secondary characters who definitely stood out, and made this an even better story. While I didn't find myself liking the love interest, Kurt, that much, I really enjoyed the friends she makes in Becca, Josh, Martha, Roger, and even Pete. I also appreciated that while Debbie Viguie chose to include the romance element, it didn't play center stage here, and instead a big focus of the story was more on friendship and faith than it was on romance.
So if I was only taking all these factors into play, this probably would have been a three star read for me. It was cute and sweet and kept me entertained with likable characters, but it felt like it was missing a little more substance to make it a truly great read. However, I have to take the amazingly vivid setting into consideration, and that pulled this up to a four star read for me. Debbie Viguie's descriptions of the Zone are spot on, and I ended up wishing that this theme park actually existed as I'm sure it would have given Disney a run for their money if it did. I definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a clean, Christian young adult novel, and I really enjoyed it even though I was definitely not part of the target audience.
I can't wait to continue on with the rest of the series, especially since the next two books take place around fall and Christmas which are my two favorite times of the year.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thanks so much for reading guys! I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you all again soon.
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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