A girl's mostly-absent father comes into her life, only to take her halfway around the world. While Amy is a little bit of a spoiled brat, it would throw any teen off. However, Amy has a lot to gain from this trip, if only she give Isreal a chance! ( )

I'm sorry, is it just me or this book actually feels broken and incomplete?

Ok, let's start from the beginning. The protagonist Amy is one of the most annoying characters I've ever encountered in a book. And I mean it. Her head is a hollow space filled with crazy thoughts, constantly triggered by what appears to be ADD on the loose, and a boobs fixation that's just about over the roof. And her emotions? Don't even get me started there, 'coz there's nothing positive I can say about that. People, she's very deep into Oompa Loopma Land, that's fo show...

There is something missing in this story, and it's missing really bad. So bad, that I caught myself asking: Was Simone Elkeles in some kind of a hurry while writing this book? Was she rushing things so much that she missed some obviously important parts of the storyline? To put it simple--things happened. But how, that I cannot say. Why? Because the most important stuff was never written.

Nevertheless, this book actually made me laugh a couple of times (and quite frankly I'm feeling generous tonight), so I'm giving it 2 stars. Although I'm not sure if I'll read the other two books of the series or any other of Simone Elkeles' books, for that matter. ( )

Part of me worried that this would be ridiculously shallow and silly and I'd hate it, but not even close. Not. Even. Close. Instead I found myself craving the next books but unable to order them and now that I can, I worry I'll drop everything to read them.

Amy isn't quite as shallow as she seems, but she's pretty close. The growth she experiences in How to Ruin a Summer Vacation is incredible and she still has so much more potential. I grew to love Amy and I want to adopt her as my honorary best friend because if she was my actual best friend, my real best friends would probably hurt me.

It took a while for me to come to love Amy's new friends and her love interest, but it was meant to be that way. I learned a lot about the cultural differences and how that effects the way we view each other. It was this huge source of tension between Amy and those her age in Israel and it was a hurdle they all had to go over together. By the end, I loved all of them, though.

But this story?

I loved the setting, so different from most YA, and the fact it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows and happiness and there were a lot of dark spots to what seems so shallow. It was real and honest and well researched and just lskfgnhshngjwngsa And the romance? Oy. To. The. Vey. So much adorable.

But really, what else would you expect from Simone Elkeles? She tells stories so, so well. I wasn't crazy in love with her Perfect Chemistry series (I have no intention of picking up book 3 since book 2 was a let down for me), but she knows how to write a damn good story.

Basically, I think this is Simone's under appreciated series and it deserves SO MUCH MORE ATTENTION. All three books are out, you might even be able to score the bind up, and if not they're all in paperback and pretty easy to find on the internet. GO NOW AND BUYZ. These are the perfect reads to go with the warm weather! Or...any weather really! JUST BUY AND READ PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. ( )

Synopsis:Moshav? What’s a moshav? Is it “shopping mall” in Hebrew? I mean, from what Jessica was telling me, Israeli stores have the latest fashions from Europe. That black dress Jessica has is really awesome. I know I’d be selling out if I go with the Sperm Donor to a mall, but I keep thinking about all the great stuff I could bring back home. Unfortunately for 16-year-old Amy Nelson, “moshav” is not Hebrew for “shopping mall.” Not even close. Think goats, not Gucci. Going to Israel with her estranged Israeli father is the last thing Amy wants to do this summer. She’s got a serious grudge against her dad, a.k.a. “Sperm Donor,” for showing up so rarely in her life. Now he’s dragging her to a war zone to meet a family she’s never known, where she’ll probably be drafted into the army. At the very least, she’ll be stuck in a house with no AC and only one bathroom for seven people all summer—no best friend, no boyfriend, no shopping, no cell phone… Review:After reading Perfect Chemistry and loving it I simply had to try some of Elkeles' other books. I chose this one to start as it had sequels already published. And I was not disappointed!If you want a great summer read then this is perfect. It tells the story of Amy, an 'accident' of birth, an opinionated but thoroughly fun sixteen year old. She attends a posh school, her mother buys her designer clothes and she doesn't go anywhere without her cell phone. Enter her almost non-existent father, who's Israeli, and soon she's whisked away to Israel to meet her sick grandmother she's never met.From the minute you pick up this book you get sucked into the story. Amy is fun, girly and speaks her mind. She's witty and intelligent. When she meets Avi, a sheep herder, on the communal farm her thoughts and emotions take an unsteady, unwanted turn. She hates him, he hates her. The other teenagers don't give her a break either and she's pretty much hating everything about her summer. But she soon learns to love her grandmother who is the only person to speak to her like a grown up.The writing is fast paced, Amy is hilarious, Avi is gorgeous and the romance is gradual but effective.A great read. ( )

Semi-cute little novel about a very whiny 16-year-old (who acts much younger) who is forced to go to Israel with her absentee father and goes from hating everything to loving everything. And she has huge pendulous boobs - just a heads-up that you'll encounter them every few pages or so. The story line is very predictable and the younger characters are somewhat annoying, but the story has some really funny descriptions of the culture clash between an American teenager and the inhabitants of an Israeli moshav, which make the read at least partly worthwhile. You will need to suspend your beliefs quite a bit to see the set-up as a probable scenario, but you might be in for a treat if you're willing to do so as long as you are in the right age group - some YA books are fine for adults too, but I think this isn't one of them. ( )