Five Summers by Una LaMarche

    Written by: Una LaMarche

 reviewed by:Amanda Peake

I had high hopes for this book. I received it as an ARC and have been reading it SLOWLY for a while now. This book is an attempt to take four “best” friends back to the camp where they all met and became the inseparable J.E.M.S every summer. The book floats back and forth in time and changes POV from 1^st to 3^rd person. All of this makes this cute book frustrating to read. The storyline itself isn't a bad idea. However as a reader knowing how the book going to turn out by the end of chapter two doesn't leave a lot of desire to read it. I would also go on to say this story idea is so good it's been done before and really well too, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Ms. LaMarche changes the pants into this artistic journal that they all write rules to being best friends called “The Pact”. Despite all of that she did make me nostalgic for summer camp days gone by, So much so that I went and looked up a couple of my summer friends. Speaking of friends the girls in this book each have secrets and struggles so lets get to them.


Jo- The J in J.E.M.S comes from a broken home and spends all year with her mom but, the summers are for Camp. Her Dad (Mack) is the owner and Leader of the camp. Jo herself is basically his second in command and gets called Mini-Mack which is something she hates. She comes across as having no sense of humor and never breaking the rules. However as the story progresses she starts changing, She starts liking a guy who's been in love with her for years, breaking a few rules, and deciding she wants more than just camp for the rest of her life. She changed in the best ways and by the end seemed to really have it together.


Emma- The E in J.E.M.S is who our story starts with. She's an Ivy-League College Bound girl who has had to fight tooth and nail to get the grades and recommendations to get into her choice schools. As a young camper she had a crush on Adam another camper who was known as a flirt. Her last year of camp he tried to kiss her and she turned her head. The reason was because she didn't want her friendship with him to change. (seems really unrealistic since she was twelve and liked him for four years.) Now as a senior in High School she comes back to camp to reconnect with her friends and re-do that last night with Adam. Things have changed and secrets kept which leads this innocent crush into a drama filled reunion weekend.


Maddie- The M in J.E.M.S. She is the sweetest liar you'll ever meet. She comes from a broken family too. Her mom and step dad are constantly fighting and at nine she wanted to find her biological father to escape her home. After writing a letter to Mack, Maddie finds herself in an escape called CAMP. She reinvents her life and before long it's to late to tell the truth. Now back at the reunion she wants to set the record straight but is it to late?


Skylar- You guessed it the S in J.E.M.S. This chick is just trying to hard in all aspects of her life. She's starved for attention and love. She's heartbroken and reacting horribly. She betraying her best friends and gets swept away as the girl who “gets around” at camp. This isn't who she really is inside she has an artistic soul and is really hurting and confused. She changes through the book and by the end I don't hate her. I will say I wouldn't be able to do what Emma has...


I'm not going to go into the guys because while Adam stirs up the drama and almost kills a friendship he was just boring to me. His best friend Nate is far more interesting and talked about far less.



This book over all was a good attempt at showing how friendships you make when your young will either thrive while you change and they do too or they will fail. It's a good reminder that sometimes your best friends are the ones that are right in front of you. That being said this book could have been a cute tween novel and hit it's mark well. As a late teen book with the running theme of sex I think it's a miss. I am going to give this book two stars. 

                2 Stars

Rules of Summer

Rules of Summer

Written by: Joanna Philbin

Reviewed by: Amanda Peake

Jonanna Philbin  was born in Los Angeles and grew up in New York City. She spent her summers hanging out in The Hamptons. Her last name sounds familiar because her father is the famous Regis Philbin. She has helped her father co write The daughter Series. This is her first time writing solo.

Rules of Summer takes us through a summer in the hamptons. We meet our narrator Rory McShane as she is packing to take a job working in the hamptons for The Rule family as an errand girl. She quickly learns that not all things are as they seem when working for the rich. The Rule family is very kind and sweet except for the youngest daughter Isabel. Isabel spends the summers breaking rules and getting into all kinds of trouble. However after spending a year away from her family she is finding it harder and harder to fit back in her old role. Mr. Rule is away for most of the summer working in the city. He pops in for the weekends to spend time at the Country Club. The two older Rule children are picture perfect sequels to their parents. The oldest son works with his father during the week and golfs with him on the weekend. The oldest girl is going to be an interior designer like all hampton wives are. Connor is the exception to his families rules. He does things to appear to be the perfect son while quietly living his own life. Rory quickly finds out that the demands for her time and attention will also lead her to life long friendships and possibly love. Yet the secrets she keeps aren’t the only ones going on in the Rule house.  A quote from the book that sums it up ..”Not every picture is as pretty as it seems.”

The good of this book is it’s a fun easy beach read which is what Joanna Philbin was aiming for. It’s easy to see right from the start that our author knows first hand how the country club scene at The Hamptons works. The settings are perfect right down to the cracks in the pretty polish. The main characters are believable they aren’t always written to be liked which is refreshing. I love the way she takes the house manager almost a parody of what she should be with the fact she watches The Downton Abbey during dinner. The stories within stories of this book are funny to offset the semi serious tone that the major story takes.

The thing that Philbin misses with this novel is story plot. The main story is way too predictable. I knew from twenty pages in what the end was going to be. She gets going strong on the secrets the family keeps. However how the big secret is revealed falls horribly flat and not believable at all.

I am going to say that this novel gets two out of five stars because the characters are interesting enough that I finished the predictable story anyway. I don’t plan on searching out Philbin's next book. However if it pops into my hands for free like this one did I’ll read it anyway.

  As always HAPPY READING!!