Review: SUMMER OF YESTERDAY by Gaby Triana

Title: Summer of Yesterday
Author: Gaby Triana
Publication date: June 17, 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Back to the Future meets Fast Times at Ridgemont High when Haley’s summer vacation takes a turn for the retro in this totally rad romantic fantasy.

Summer officially sucks. Thanks to a stupid seizure she had a few months earlier, Haley’s stuck going on vacation with her dad and his new family to Disney’s Fort Wilderness instead of enjoying the last session of summer camp back home with her friends. Fort Wilderness holds lots of childhood memories for her father, but surely nothing for Haley. But then a new seizure triggers something she’s never before experienced—time travel—and she ends up in River Country, the campground’s long-abandoned water park, during its heyday.

The year? 1982.

And there—with its amusing fashion, “oldies” music, and primitive technology—she runs into familiar faces: teenage Dad and Mom before they’d even met. Somehow, Haley must find her way back to the twenty-first century before her present-day parents anguish over her disappearance, a difficult feat now that she’s met Jason, one of the park’s summer residents and employees, who takes the strangely dressed stowaway under his wing.

Seizures aside, Haley’s used to controlling her life, and she has no idea how to deal with this dilemma. How can she be falling for a boy whose future she can’t share?

So. Much. Potential. 

Actually, its potential wasn't fully wasted because I liked this book for the most part. I stayed up reading it until way after midnight and thought about it for an extra 30 minutes or so. So where did it go wrong? 

Well, first, I'll tell you where it was right. Gaby Triana's writing style and voice connected with me. Again, I had a problem nearing the end, but in all, Haley's narration sucked me in. She made quips and didn't bore me. I felt like I could picture the setting, both in the past and future. I knew from the beginning that I'd pick up another Triana book right away because her writing captivated me in a fun way. 

Another plus was the first half of the plot, which kept me reading. I was interested to see the past and meet Haley's teenage parents and explore the surprise with her. I loved reading about how Haley was trying to deal with it all and I begged for more. 

Unfortunately, that's where it ends. It might not seem like it, but those plusses weighed a lot in my mind so I don't consider this a bad book, perse. I just expected something different. 

The plot for me

THE PLOT. Oh, what great things it could have done. In the synopsis, it introduces cute Jason, a boy Haley meets in her parents' era. In the beginning of the book, it introduces the idea that Haley feels out of place with her dad and his stepfamily and whatnot. So when I kept reading, I figured there would be romance, but that Haley would actually resolve familial issues along the way...or AT LEAST at the end. Unless I misunderstood, I thought that if the author implies trouble in an area and busts open a door for a conflict for the MC to overcome and satisfyingly resolve, the MC would, you know, do so. Instead, We saw her parents a couple of times (not even a handful, I think), focusing on this unbreakable, meant-to-be mumbo jumbo love between Haley and Jason, the boy who is her PARENTS' age. 

Let's get this straight real quick. Jason and Haley meet and she's in his era for a grand total of, I think, three days. In that already limited time, they're only together for about 50-75% of that because she's napping or on the run or he's at work. So they might share some "deep" information, but I personally believe it's still superficial in the grand scheme of things. Then Haley considers STAYING with Jason and this is where I'd like to remind you all once again that he is the same age as her parents. Same. Age. Yes, she only knows him as a teenager, but it's just...wrong. Her wanting to grow up with her parents is wrong. It's all wrong. 

It continues to be wrong when THINGS happen at the end. Things that I can't talk about because it's spoilery. Basically, it made me very, very peeved. One of the non-spoilery things at the end that made me angry was the fact that familial issues were not resolved. I think the author made an attempt for resolution, but I wasn't fooled. More superficial things happened, but none of Haley's complaints and problems were actually addressed. Do you know what that makes me? Dissatisfied. 

Verdict: Some people may love the direction it took, but I would have liked it a whole lot more if it was less romance and more family and exploration.

A DNF and a Mini Review

Title: The Edge of Falling
Author: Rebecca Serle
Publication date: March 18, 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source: an e-galley provided by the publisher for an honest review

Growing up in privileged, Manhattan social circles, Caggie’s life should be perfect, and it almost was until the day that her younger sister drowned when Caggie was supposed to be watching her. Stricken by grief, Caggie pulls away from her friends and family, only to have everyone misinterpret a crucial moment when she supposedly saves a fellow classmate from suicide. Now she’s famous for something she didn’t do and everyone lauds her as a hero. But inside she still blames herself for the death of her sister and continues to pull away from everything in her life, best friend and perfect boyfriend included. Then Caggie meets Astor, the new boy at school, about whom rumours are swirling and known facts are few. In Astor she finds someone who just might understand her pain, because he has an inner pain of his own. But the more Caggie pulls away from her former life to be with Astor, the more she realises that his pain might be darker, and deeper, than anything she’s ever felt. His pain might be enough to end his life…and Caggie’s as well.

First line: Most great works of literature have a hero at their core, but this story is an exception.

In the beginning of this year, I constantly won in my winning. I rated my book choices usually around four stars and it actually grew to the point where I was nervous to start a book because I didn't want my winning streak to be over. Fast forward a month or two and you can see that I'm now completely the opposite. They haven't all been too bad, but I don't feel like any of the books I've read recently would appear on the End of the Year Book Survey, that's for sure.

All in all, this book was disappointing. I kept wondering if I would have liked it better if I read it after I read a really good book. Maybe...no. I reminded myself (I talk to myself a lot, if you can't tell) that a book shouldn't depend on another to keep me going, especially an unrelated book. If I like it, I like it.

The prominent problem I had was the boredom. The character, the plot, the writing...it all produced boredom for me. I'm sure Ms. Serle is a great writer and I might pick up one of her other books someday, but this? Yeah, this was boring for me. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for it, but the effect it had on me was still enough that I didn't want to keep trying. So I DNF'd it.

Verdict: Hopefully you all will have the opposite experience, but I couldn't care less about anything in this.

Title: The Treatment (The Program #2)
Author: Suzanne Young
Publication date: April 29, 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source: an e-galley provided by the publisher for an honest review

Can Sloane and James survive the lies and secrets surrounding them, or will The Program claim them in the end? Find out in this sequel to The Program, which Publishers Weekly called “chilling and suspenseful.”

How do you stop an epidemic?

Sloane and James are on the run after barely surviving the suicide epidemic and The Program. But they’re not out of danger. Huge pieces of their memories are still missing, and although Sloane and James have found their way back to each other, The Program isn’t ready to let them go.

Escaping with a group of troubled rebels, Sloane and James will have to figure out who they can trust, and how to take down The Program. But for as far as they’ve come, there’s still a lot Sloane and James can’t remember. The key to unlocking their past lies with the Treatment—a pill that can bring back forgotten memories, but at a high cost. And there’s only one dose.

Ultimately when the stakes are at their highest, can Sloane and James survive the many lies and secrets surrounding them, or will The Program claim them in the end?

First line: James stares straight ahead, with no immediate reaction to what I've just told him.

I'm going to channel my inner Augustus and Hazel (if you haven't read The Fault in Our Stars, I suggest you do so NOW) and say that this was okay. What kind of adjective is okay? 

Okay is meant for books that you don't have much to say on (hence the mini review) because it stayed on the middle road for the entire book. There were no scenes that had me on the edge of my seat like the first book, scenes that pulled the emotion out of me, or actually any moment that made me feel as connected with Sloane as I did in the first book. But all of those things don't mean that I viewed this book in a negative way. It was okay. 

We interrupt this review with random, but The Fault in Our Stars-related sobbing.

I still appreciated the thought-provoking questions of mental disorders and suicides and how our society could become. I give Ms. Young a thumbs-up for trying to make me feel urgency as they were on the run from The Program. However, it didn't stick. I didn't feel anything in particular or get that captivated feeling I had while reading the first book in this duology. Thankfully, my feelings for this were much more positive than The Edge of Falling because despite the words above, I wasn't bored. It felt dragging in parts, yes, but I still cared about what happened to them in this messed-up society. 

But to all of you who hate love shapes (triangle, square, etc.), here's your warning: for a time, there was this weird love square or quadrilateral-kind-of shape hey, look at the sucky math girl using geometry terms! happening. While it wasn't a huge deal for me, it also wasn't okay. 

Verdict: An okay sequel to a book I loved greatly. Le sigh.