Endless Summer

Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols

Simon Pulse, 2010

298 pages

YA; contemporary; romance

2 books in 1

4/5 stars

Source: Bought

Summary: Lori and Adam are together! Except on their first official date, they stay out all night incurring the wrath of her father and causing him to demand that the two stay apart. Lori hatches a plan whereby she will date guys with worse behavior than Adam so that her dad will relent. Adam can't believe that Lori is actually interested in him and wants to make sure she doesn't fall for some other guy.

Thoughts: I loved The Boys Next Door (my favorite Simon Romantic Comedy with sawoony boys) and I've been enjoying some other Echols books. I was excited to read what happened for Lori and Adam next.

First this picks up right after the first one ends. And it uses alternating perspective between Lori and Adam to tell the story which is useful in order to see Adam and more of his interactions with his family especially his mother and brother Sean. Second Lori's plan is stupid, Stupid, STUPID! And it results in tangled webs of actions and feelings that confused and annoyed me. Adam, while thinking that Lori is totally awesome, still believes that she harbors feelings for Sean; understandable given that she spent most of the first book thinking he's great. Lori meanwhile is somewhat insecure given that he had just dated some other girl and in fact dated a lot of girls prior to her; understandable as she is just now seeing herself as a valid romantic partner.

Families: I understand that Lori's dad worried about his daughter but I found him most even-tempered in TBND and thus somewhat unbelievable in his extreme treatment of Lori and especially Adam. I was hoping to see more development in the relationship between Sean and Adam, who has always been picked on by Sean and I am pleased to announce that there is some more maturity there.

Some funny bits especially how Lori and Adam imply the use of a certain swear word without actually using it.

Overall: It was really choppy (possibly because of the split narration) and I did not love it as much as The Boys Next Door and it ALMOST makes me love TBND less.

Cover: I'm not pleased that they've stopped using the cartoon covers because I adore them as I've outlined before but this cover is fine. Lori is blonde and I think Adam has dark hair (I have a tendency to ignore the descriptions of the male love interest in books and just think of them however I want.)