ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: When Summer Ends

Author: Jessica Pennington

Publisher: Tor Teen/Macmillan

Release Date: April 9, 2019

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

When Summer Ends Cover

Synopsis:

Two teenagers discover how an unexpected turn of fate can bring new love to heal old wounds in Jessica Pennington’s stunning, romantic YA novel When Summer Ends.

Aiden Emerson is an all-star pitcher and the all-around golden boy of Riverton. Or at least he was, before he quit the team the last day of junior year without any explanation. How could he tell people he’s losing his vision at seventeen?

Straight-laced Olivia thought she had life all figured out. But when her dream internship falls apart, her estranged mother comes back into her life, and her long-time boyfriend ghosts her right before summer break, she’s starting to think fate has a weird sense of humor.

Each struggling to find a new direction, Aiden and Olivia decide to live summer by chance. Every fleeting adventure and stolen kiss is as fragile as a coin flip in this heartfelt journey to love and self-discovery from the author of Love Songs & Other Lies.

REVIEW

When Summer Ends is a wonderful book choice for your spring and/or summer TBR. It’s spring here where I live in the Northeast, and nothing is in bloom yet, so this book definitely gave me those summer vibes! It’s a sweet summer romance set in a Michigan beach town, and so much more.

The story follows Olivia and Aiden who meet when they’re both struggling to make sense of their lives the summer before their senior year. Aiden is the starting pitcher for their high school baseball team, and after an accident, he decides to work for his father’s company, River Depot rather than going to baseball camp like he does every summer. He also decides to explore one of his other passions. Olivia’s summer plans change when she doesn’t get the internship she was counting on, her Aunt whom she lives with is offered a job in another state and she may have to move, and her estranged mom comes back into town. She winds up getting a summer job at River Depot where she discovers Aiden works as well. What starts out as a friendship at work, evolves into more, and the two decide that they’re going to leave their summer up to chance.

I really enjoyed Aiden and Olivia together. So stinking cute! They just seemed to really bring out the best in each other without even realizing it. Throughout the book they begin to discover who they are as individuals and to fall for each other in the process. As I was reading, I was wishing that I had had an Aiden in high school. Relationship goals for sure! Besides the relationship between Aiden and Olivia, I liked that this book features a character with vision loss issues as I haven’t come across this rep before. I also like how the book showed different family dynamics, in that Olivia lives with her Aunt. Olivia’s relationship with her mother is also touched upon in the book. I loved some of the secondary characters, which included Aiden’s cousin Ellis and also Olivia’s BFF, Emma. They both gave me some smiles and laughs throughout the story.

If you’re looking for a quick, fun, swoon worthy summer love story, than this one is for you! I definitely recommend it and can’t wait to pick up a finished copy for my shelf.

*I received an E-Arc of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessica Pennington is no stranger to the combination of love and drama. She’s a wedding planner, after all. A writer since the age of ten—when she sought publication for her poem about a tree—Jessica likes the challenge of finding the humor in a sad situation or highlighting the awkwardness in a romantic one. A serial entrepreneur with a B.A. in public relations, Jessica has a passion for grassroots marketing. She lives in a Michigan beach town, where she owns more YA novels than many teens and spends most of her time on a laptop, rather than on a beach.