"Tobin won't miss anything about life in Normal, Maine, when he leaves for conservatory... except for his dream girl.Jonah would give up his player ways-- and his best friend-- for a chance with his best friend's girlfriend.
Lexi desperately hopes that her crush will see her in a new light, but fears that her love will remain unrequited.
Matt is anxiously clinging to the past, afraid that he won't be part of his girl friend's brighter future.
Mary-Tyler wishes people would look past her weight and wealth and accept her for who she is.
And then there's Anabelle, the one who ties them all together. Expecting a quiet summer at home before heading off to college, instead she finds herself trying to sort out her love life and make sense of her increasingly complicated friendships. Anabelle begins to question how well her friends really know her... and how well she knows herself.
With wry observations and quirky humor, critically acclaimed novelist Hillary Frank give life to six unique teens whose voices intertwine to tell the shared story of a shared summer of love, family, and friendship."
What a good read! Allow me to elaborate...
The characters-- they were all so distinctive from each other. There aren't very many books that can make you care about the people in them and Hillary Frank did that for me. I would even go so far as to say she did this for the majority of the people who read this book (though of course, I don't have any statistics to back up this thought). What's cool is that Tobin, Jonah, Lexi, Matt, Mary-Tyler, and Anabelle could be anyone. They are very relate-able and special people.
I liked this book because I could relate to the situation that Anabelle was in. This is still a year ahead of me, but I'm still trying to sort out my friendships, acquaintances, and relationship just so I know what's going to happen in the years to come. On the one hand, I would love to keep in touch with everyone I know, but on the other hand, I don't want to go to college stuck in a high school mindset. Plus, everyone is probably going to go in twenty different directions and the only way I'll be able to keep up with everyone is through social networking... and even then, those updates will probably be things that I won't understand or will be things that I could have easily lived without knowing.
Back on topic!
There are little pictures in the beginnings of every chapter that I just loved! That's one of the things that I liked about Harry Potter as well. It's really cool to see the two things that I love come together and compliment each other's beauty.
Overall, excellent book! I'm not sure if Hillary Frank has written any other books, but if she has, I'm going on a treasure hunt!
Thanks for reading!
--Jude
I liked the pictures in the Mitford series too. Don't see it very often these days.
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