The Summer of Everything: A YA Romance Bind-up – Two Novels of Summer Love and Self-Discovery

by Catherine Clark

This bind-up features two repackaged fan-favorite novels that are sure to delight readers of Stephanie Perkins, Jennifer Echols, and, of course, Catherine Clark. Summer vacation isn’t just about working on your tan line and flirting with the lifeguard. . . . For two teenage girls in two irresistibly romantic novels it’s also a chance to learn that sometimes leaving home is the best way to find yourself. In Picture Perfect , Emily can’t wait to spend her summer on the beautiful beaches of the Outer Banks, North Carolina. It has been two years since she went on a trip with her three closest childhood friends—two years that she’s hoping will erase the memory of the last time she saw Spencer, the boy who broke her heart. And what better way to forget about Spencer than to have the perfect summer fling with Blake, the boy living in the beach house next door? But embarking on a new romance is more difficult than she expected when her feelings for her first love aren’t exactly a thing of the past. In Wish You Were Here , Ariel is embarking on the summer vacation of a lifetime—at least, she hopes this is the only trip like this she’ll ever take. Stuck on an “America’s Heartland” bus tour with her family, leaving her amazing boyfriend back home, and maintaining her track-team endurance by sprinting through rest stop parking lots? Who could survive four weeks of that? But as she spends more time with the intriguing, also-miserable Andre, Ariel begins to learn that sometimes you just have to go where the road takes you—even if the tour bus won’t.

Genres: Young Adult, Summer, Romance

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2016

About the author

I love reading books for children, young adults, new adults and all the old people after that.

I love writing for pretty much the same audiences.

Reviews

[Kyra · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 in 1

Picture Perfect: enjoyed it

Wish You Were Here: DNF

[Viola Sung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two equally sweet romances and a taste of that sweet sixteen love.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5/5

Since this contained 2 books, here are the individual reviews

Picture Perfect: 5/5
Wish You Were Here: 4/5

[Kelsy Gonzalez Del Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the first story, Picture Perfect, Emily goes on vacation with her family. Throughout the vacation, Emily falls in love with her closest friend Spencer. I believe that Spencer's relationship with Emily impacted the actions Emily took. This also results in conflict over Emily's emotions because she is stuck between her closest friend and a guy that lives next door. I would recommend this book to someone who likes summer love stories.
In the second story, Wish You Were Here, Ariel's parents go through a separation and her mother thought it was a good idea to plan a secret trip across the states with her mother's side of the family. I feel like her mother wasn't in the right state of mind because, after a terrible divorce, she needed to keep herself busy instead of releasing her emotions. Emily also expresses her emotions to her mother in a very rude and disruptive ways at times. I wouldn't recommend this book unless their going through something similar.

[Joanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so … boring. I am not the type of person to never finish a book, in fact it is practically unheard of for me to put away a book before I have finished it. Same thing applies to how I feel about giving a book away, I have to keep a good, finished book in my collection - but these stories? Horrible. I am surprised by the lack of reviews saying how dull and unenthusiastic this entire read was.
I made it through the entire first story, took me longer than a book normally would because I wasn’t very into it but I didn’t completely hate it.
As for the second story, I could not finish it. It shouldn’t have been included, I don’t know why it was even written. The characters were horrific. It was like one long repeat of the same few words trying to sound good but really they were too tired to put any effort into it and failed.

I do not recommend this as a summer read.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picture perfect: 2
Wish U Were Here: 3.5
It was a pretty good book. Picture Perfect, I expected there to be a bit more to, but it was just kinda one thing happened and then that was it. Whereas with WUWH, there was a lot more going on, and it wasn't as repetitive as the other one was (and it wasn't super repetitive, don't get me wrong, there were just a few things that were done a few times that didn't add much to the book) and there was more of a problem... with Picture Perfect just kinda happened and that was it. I can't say much without a spoiler, but it was a good read. I would definitely recommend Wish U Were Here, but maybe not so much Picture Perfect. Overall about a 3 star book!!

[Lucy McAfee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pitch Perfect and Wish You were here were both good story lines. The author didn't do a good job of keeping you involved and after a while you could predict what could happen and it just got very boring. I really enjoyed the overall story and what ended up happening in the end, but the middle of the story especially in Wish You Were here you get bored of the same old thing happening and the same reasoning behind it. I would recommend this book, but you really have to love teen romance to enjoy them. Personally, you could find a much better book to read.

[Donna Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough book for me to review. It was a book club selection and not one I’d chosen for myself. That said, I like it far better than expected. The author did a great job building the love story between Sam and Percy and not just resting on the steamy parts. And Sue’s character is as lovely as any in literature!

[Shayla Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picture perfect:4
Wish you were here: 2.5

[Shanon Caddick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun summer reads!

[Gwyn Uhl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Its good for people who want a relationship kind of. It does talk about some mature topics like sex.

[Nasha Lubis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for young adults/teenagers books to help me preparing for my daughter's coming of age. The book offers typical teenagers' love interest and it's a light, fun reading, but I thought the stories go too slowly that it almost painful to read, especially in the second story "Wish You Were Here". Is it even possible to run successful bus tour with destinations and tour details kept in secret? I wonder how many lawsuits have the tour company been facing all this time, not to mention how many incidents involving customers who throw things at each other because they don't have a set schedule and just follow what the tour participants want? The language does not exactly portray the anger or the fun of teenagers which were the main characters of this book. The plots are predictable so I had to put it aside half way through the second story.

[Out_of_Bounds Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish You Were Here - 3 stars
Picture Perfect- 3 stars

Both books are great summer reads and have tons of drama and fun in it. The best part is they both set during the summertime and have unexpected romances in it. Also, I really enjoyed the family parts of both books.

[Amber ~ The Reading Addict]

Catherine Clark has a new book? And I can go buy it? Right now?

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the book. It was amazing and romantic.