Summer camp – I never experienced the joy of summer camp, unless you count me watching Salute Your Shorts on Nickelodeon or Bug Juice on Disney Channel. Recently, I watched a show on Bravo about camp counselors for a camp that has kids during the week and adults on the weekend. It looked fun! That was in my head coming into this book.

Just A Girl Trying To Buy A Little Book

Sarah Mlynowski is one of my favorite authors. She started writing “chick-lit” and I fell in love with her stories. She then moved into young adult, middle grade, and children’s books. Occasionally, she will write a YA novel again. When I saw that she had a new book coming out, I pre-ordered it and then waited. And waited. And then something happened with another piece of the order, and somehow it got cancelled! So hubs ordered it. And it never came. I finally ran to our local bookstore and had my hands on it!

And then I got sad. It has felt like forever since Mlynowski has written something for people older than middle grade. So I set it to the side to wait for a special moment where I could appreciate it. I found that moment last weekend, when my husband said those special words:

“I’ll take the children. You go run a bubble bath.“

Just a Girl With Little Thoughts

I completely forgot that this was a sequel to “I See London, I See France.” That story was meh for me, so I’m glad I forgot about this fact. This book reads great as a standalone, so please proceed if you have not read the first one! The first book is about Sydney going on a backpacking trip with her best friend. There is a small piece of the book where they meet up with Sydney’s friend Kat, who is dating Gavin long distance. They meet Eli and his friends while they are travelling, who also has a girlfriend, Sam. Sam and Gavin just happen to be camp counselors at the same camp! What are the odds! Book 2 tells the story of Sam and Gavin.

Maybe it’s the nostalgia of being a kid again. Maybe it is knowing that I always wanted to go to camp, but never could. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed this story. I read it in one day – that is A BIG DEAL! I can’t remember the last time I did that!

The story is told from 19-year old Sam’s point of view as she becomes a camp counselor for the summer to the youngest campers. We meet her co-counselors, and the rest of the camp staff. There are mean girls, there are camp “hook-ups” that make this book for older fans of YA. There are relationships with the kids, and there is cheating going on (trigger warning!).

For me, the story worked. It was quite the summer for Sam, and one that brought me back to when I was in college and working odd jobs during the summer. I never had boyfriends that would leave for an overseas trip though, as we were all too poor for that! This was something I needed to read after reading so many heavy subject matter books – this was a simple story with no shocking twist endings or mysteries to solve.

Just a Girl Scratching Her Little Head

As I mentioned earlier, this book is classified as YA. I recall reading YA when I was in junior high, and I’m not sure if this is appropriate for that age. There is a scene about a hairbrush and a female’s anatomy (keeping it as PG as I can here!) It’s in a weird category, as it is a bit older than YA (in my head) but younger than New Adult.

In reading other reviews of this book, I see that many were turned off by the cheating aspects. In reviews I have done in the past where the main plotline involves cheating (I’m looking at you Something Borrowed) I have given only 2 stars for it. So why was I ok with the cheating aspect in this book but not others?

There are a few reasons for this:

1. The main characters in this book are around 18-20. That’s the time of your life where you are getting to know yourself and the time that you are making mistakes. It felt organic. It felt like when I was 19 and had a similar situation. But the characters learned about themselves and navigated their lives from there. In Something Borrowed, the characters were older, knew better, but did it anyways.
2. Also take into account where the reader is at the time in their life when they are reading the story. When I was reading books like Something Borrowed, I was single, and was very bitter over my previous relationships, in which I was the Darcy. Now? I’m married. I have kids. I’m much more secure with myself and my relationship with hubs. As opposed to being “in” that situation, I am too far removed from being 19.
3. Many people thought the whole book was a “reason to cheat” get out of jail free card. I didn’t find that at all – I found it pretty true to form on how your brain tries to reason away what you want at the moment vs. what you know is the right thing to do. The right thing isn’t always easy.

What do you think about controversial topics that can hit too close to home? Do you read it objectively, or do you take it to heart? Let me know in the comments!