Book Review: Sixteenth Summer by Michelle Dalton

5/5***** A sweet summer read about first love and ice cream

Advance Reading Copy

Title:
Sixteenth Summer
Author:
Michelle Dalton
Publication History:
US Paperback May 3rd 2011 by Simon Pulse
Kindle May 3rd 2011 by Simon Pulse
Genre:
YA, Fiction, Chick-Lit, Romance







Review:
This is the kind of summer read that I like!
Sweet, emotional and believable + beach, sunshine and ice cream; lots of ice cream.
Anna is a sweet, yet slightly introverted girl who has lived on Dune Island for all her life. In summer the island is flooded with tourists, a fact Anna and her friends are less than ecstatic about. That is until Anna meets Will.
But Will will leave the island at the end of the summer and are three months of bliss worth the heartbreak that is sure to follow?

Sixteenth Summer is amazingly well written for a debut. The emotions portrayed (awkward, sweet, excited, romantic, sad and devastated, hopeful) are layered and more than believable and so is the plot line which - luckily - isn't singular and doesn't end in a fairy tale ending. Yes, summer will end and Will will leave. The question is just how you deal with it. Staying away from him because departure is inevitable or will you give love a chance and live in the present for one summer? Life is what you make of it.
Same goes for Anna's friends Caroline and Sam, who have been best friends since Sam moved to Dune Island and now their friendship has turned into something more and they are afraid of messing it up.

Sixteenth Summer is a must-read for summer worshippers and those in desperate need of a full dose of blissful sunlight!