Beth Merlin

The summer camp setting is what drew me to this one so I was disappointed that so much of the novel consisted of flashbacks away from the camp featuring Gigi’s affair with her best friend’s longtime boyfriend. Also, heavy use of flashbacks just isn’t a storytelling structure that I tend to favor, those readers who don’t mind that though will probably fair better with this one than I did.

As far as what happened in the flashbacks, I wanted to see what made the best friend’s guy so appealing, I wanted to understand why Gigi would jeopardize a friendship and let her career get sidetracked because of him, but to me he only ever came across as a jerk, someone really not worth pining over let alone blowing up your life over.

Gigi does have another love interest here and while I liked him better than the best friend’s guy, their early animosity felt somewhat forced and the pacing seemed a bit off (maybe too quick or something?) in the transition from hate to love.

If the strong later scenes between Gigi, her mom, her dad, and her best friend were any indication, I think I may have appreciated this one more had it focused on non-romantic relationships, there was a genuineness there that I liked more than either of the guy situations. I also would have liked it had this explored more of a mentorship between Gigi and the camper who reminded Gigi a little of herself, not only might that have provided more of the summer camp vibes I’d craved, I’d have been interested in seeing Gigi maybe gain some insight into herself through that girl.… (meer)