I have mixed feelings about The Summer of Firsts and Lasts. I gave it 4 stars because I loved the idea of the subject matter of the book (and kind of envied it-I wish I had sisters that I could have related to while growing up) The plot was great and so was the story line...

BUT...

I thought is was a slower, harder book to read. I found myself lost because each chapter was another sisters point of view. I found that this made it hard to read and hard to comprehend. However, I do understand that some readers enjoy that type of flow.

I would recommend this book to others-it was just different than what I usually read :-) ( )

This book is SO much fun to read! I mean look at the cover. It just screams "you will enjoy reading this book and crave ice cream the entire time!"

It is a book about sisterhood, camp, boys, finding yourself, and sticking up for yourself and others. The camp parts are what everyone wants camp to be, but (at least in my one experience of camp) it never is. There are hookups and sneaking out. There are competitions and dances and everything you see in the movies about camp. Yeah, it may be a little unrealistic, but it is fun and it makes me long to go back to Camp Fitch...even if it was nothing like this book!

It still made me nostalgic, which any good summer camp book should.

The book has a bad guy (well girl) who I was wary of the entire time (and for goo reason!). She is really bad news, but is portrayed in a way that makes her look fun and exciting. It is easy to see why anyone would trust her and want her as a friend, which was great. She felt more real than the usual "mean girls" because she wasn't one.

It is a book with a lot of fun, romance, and heart. I loved reading every second of it and think i will have to check out other books by Terra Elan McVoy (after I go eat some ice cream). ( )

I tore through this pretty quick, but it wasn't as light as I expected it to be. Not everything was resolved all hunky dory at the end which was a nice surprise. Less about romance than relationships between sisters and friends (although there's definitely still some romance), McVoy tells the story of one session of summer camp through the rotating viewpoints of three sisters. Daisy is a sophomore just beginning to discover her talent for running but plagued by her cabinmates' mean girl antics. Violet's a senior who is trying to balance her new friendship with the camp wild child and a hot, forbidden romance with a counselor. Calla, the oldest, will be off to college in the fall, but for her last summer at camp she's won the only office intern spot which leaves her in a unique position somewhere between staff and counselor - not really fitting in with either group and struggling with her feelings for Duncan, her best friend at camp for years and now a counselor himself. All three girls know this is their last summer together at camp and they're determined to make it a summer they'll never forget. The relationships among the three sisters are extremely complex and well-depicted; I also really liked that the three girls had distinct personalities, not just different interests. The whole summer camp experience as depicted here was fascinating to me - I remember going away to camp as a kid, but I never did it as a teenager and I wonder if this is really what it was like. All in all, an excellent summer read that won't rot your brain. ( )

REVIEW ORIGINALLY POSTED http://hobbitsies.net/wordpress/?p=3088

I really, really liked The Summer of Firsts and Lasts. I might be a bit biased – I was a camper for many, many years so a lot of the setting was very familiar to me, but I really enjoyed reading the book.

I admit, the beginning was a bit slow. It took me a while to get into it. I was very confused by the changing point of views and I had to keep rereading the summary to figure out which girl was which. I figured it out, though!

I think I liked all of the girls equally. I loved reading about Daisy’s adventures with running. It’s something I don’t know that I could ever do, but the author, through Daisy’s eyes, actually made it sound fun. I didn’t get a whole lot of Violet with her art, but I loved her story with James. It’s always the forbiddenish romances that get me. And Calla. I loved Calla and her desire for everything to be how it was before – I could really relate to that.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Summer of Firsts and Lasts. The feel of the book really made me nostalgic for my summer camp days and I really enjoyed all three of the girls’ stories. I’ll certainly be awaiting more books from Terra Elan McVoy. ( )

I really liked this book. I enjoyed the relationship between the sisters, and to me, that's what the book was about. The background of camp really had less to do with the story line than other people make it seem. I, however, (Spoiler!) was unhappy about Duncan not being in love with Calla also, but that's probably because I love romance and such. I could see this becoming a sequel and not minding at all. ( )