Island Summer: Review

Synopsis: Nikki may spend the school year on the New England mainland at the ritzy Richfield Academy (on scholarship), but during the summer, she returns home to the decidedly less-posh Pelican Island. Despite an invite from her rich friend Blair, Nikki has to spend the summer working at her parents' sandwich shop. During one of her deliveries to the mainland, she meets Daniel Bab ...more Nikki may spend the school year on the New England mainland at the ritzy Richfield Academy (on scholarship), but during the summer, she returns home to the decidedly less-posh Pelican Island. Despite an invite from her rich friend Blair, Nikki has to spend the summer working at her parents' sandwich shop. During one of her deliveries to the mainland, she meets Daniel Babcock, and they begin a whirlwind summer romance. But when Blair invites Nikki to spend the weekend, Nikki sees her walking hand in hand...with Daniel! 

Can summer love survive?

Details: Island Summer by Jeanine Le Ny, 192 pages, 4.00 stars on Goodreads


My Thoughts: I read this for the Rom-Com Reading Challenge I entered a few months ago (I know, I finally got started on that!), and I have to say, I was quite disappointed. I realize that this is meant to just be a fun, relaxing read, but I just felt rather irritated throughout most of this. Reading Island Summer was tedious, and several parts just dragged on and on and on.


The characters bothered me a lot. Nikki lacked a personality; if tomorrow I got stuck in an elevator with her for six hours, I wouldn't recognize her. She wasn't even annoying or whiny, just completely zero-dimensional. I complain sometimes about one-dimensional characters, but at least those have characteristics. Blair is a little bit better, but she didn't have a personality either. 


But as much as this annoyed me, the romance was worse. Nikki and Daniel met by bumping into each other in the street, but that wasn't what bugged me. When I first read that scene, I thought it could turn out cute. However, just randomly, for reasons I still don't understand, Daniel called her. You accidentally run over a guy with your bike. You apologize. You find the other guy sort of nice and (of course) wonderfully amazingly hot (because all love interests in the entire world are hot and the ugly or plain people just sit at home staring at a wall), and then inexplicably, he calls you? No mention of, I don't know, how he gets your number or why he would feel romantically attracted to you after talking with you for five seconds? 


The romance didn't even have anything going on. They were in love. Some minor incident occurred to freak Nikki out, but it's okay, because five pages later everything is resolved. They were in love. Another minor incident occurred to freak Nikki out, but it's okay, because five pages later everything is resolved. Even what was mentioned in the synopsis - Nikki catching Blair holding hands with Daniel - was a conflict that lasted about ten pages, because of course * predictable spoiler, highlight to read * absolutely nothing was going on. She just happened to be holding hands with him, and since there was no plot, that's what got in the synopsis.

I don't want to say that every aspect of this book is bad, of course. There were funny spots that made crack a smile, and in the end, this is just meant to be something light to read. If you're a major fan of romantic comedies, you'll probably like this, but if you don't like them or - like me - just have a casual interest in them, it's not worth the read.

Plot - 1/5
Characters - 1/5
Writing - 2.5/5
Impact - 1/5
Inability to put it down - 0/5

Overall - 22% = D-