Forever Obsession: Summer by Summer

ISBN: 0310729637
Pages: 288
Source: BookLooks/Harper Collins

Appearance:

Summary:

When Summer took a job as a nanny for a couple vacationing in Belize, she imagined it would be a fresh start before starting college in the fall. And while she adores her charge, Josh, she can’t say the same for her employers’ oldest son, Bray. He’s cocky, inconsiderate, and makes her feel she’s a chore he has to put up with. In short, he’s everything she dislikes in a guy.
Bray had a plan for the summer: party, hang out with friends, and forget all the responsibilities waiting for him back home. But every time he’s forced to be around Summer, her dour, serious mood sets him off. Not to mention she has a habit of picking up on what he already knows is wrong with him.
Then the two find themselves on a dive trip gone wrong, stranded on a remote island. As they focus on survival, their differences melt away, and they find being together may be what both needed all along.

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another review, so I'm FINALLY posting my Summer by Summer review because it's been a while since I said I was going to put my review up. Let's get right into it~

Summer is beyond thrilled when she is accepted to be a nanny for Josh Garrison and tag along the annual Garrison family trip Belize. It is going to be the perfect summer vacation before she starts college in the fall however she soon discovers that the vacation may just have one pretty major annoyance in the form of Bray Garrison. He's everything she despises in a person and worst, Mrs. Garrison is constantly pushing for them to spend time together. When Summer and Bray go on a diving trip and end up stranded on an island, they have to work out their differences to find out a way to survive.

I was originally super pumped for this book because it seemed like a really fun read. The beginning of the book just hooks you in and you can't even stop turning pages. However, the more I read, the more exhausted I became. The story is full of really common cliches involving stranded island thrillers, romance, and survival. There are some parts of the story where I was rolling my eyes so hard because there was a line or scene that you could replicate over a couple stranded island movies or books. For me that kind of killed the story because I started anticipating things that I knew were coming based on how present things were going. Also, while being stranded is no fun experience, Summer and Bray were definitely really lucky over the course of things.

The unique aspect of the story definitely came through in the characters. While Bray does identify as your rich frat boy, he shows more depth and a different side to him as the story progresses. He's got some wicked survival skills and definitely someone I want with me if I'm ever in that position. Summer is like a mish mosh of stereotypes. She hates rich people but her reason is actually quite surprising and it makes your sympathize with her more. She's passionate about children (as seen with Josh) and writing. At the same time she's protective of who she lets inside her heart because she's been hurt too many times. The characters overall made the story more alive, but they still embodied a cliched relationship especially with that ending.

For me in particular, I was expecting something more with the story. I can't exactly place what, but going into it knowing that it was Christian Lit kind of had me anticipating being blown away. However, if I overlook that for a minute, this book wasn't that bad. It had the right elements to keep me interested to some extent through the entire story and while some parts were a bit hard to get through because of certain parts, it still delivered a solid story.