Rachel Brooks a toujours été une jeune fille exemplaire. Après une dernière année de lycée où elle a encore fourni un travail acharné, la voilà prête pour intégrer à la rentrée prochaine l'université de ses rêves ! Mais avant cela, elle va enfin pouvoir célébrer... Quoi exactement ?
Rachel réalise qu'elle a passé son adolescence à dire non. Aux soirées, aux aventures, aux coups de folies, et tout particulièrement aux garçons. Alors que, pour la première fois de sa vie, elle n'a plus rien à préserver jusqu'à la fin de l'été, lui vient une drôle d'idée. Et si elle disait oui à tout ce qu'on lui proposait ?
Très vite, elle va se retrouver dans un tourbillon d'émotions jamais expérimentées, et enfin lâcher prise. Dire oui aux erreurs, aux amitiés un peu déglinguées, aux romances imprévues et surtout, à une nouvelle vision du monde et de la vie.
Lindsey Roth Culli earned her MFA in creative writing in 2010. She writes books for teens and people who used to be teens. Though she currently calls Baltimore, Maryland home, a part of her heart will forever be hidden among the cornfields of Illinois where she grew up.
I read this completely in one sitting! Overall, it was a super cute, fast-paced, summer romance story. It was a bit simple, like a story I’ve read or watched multiple times before, but still enjoyable! Just like the description says, if you’re into Morgan Matson, you’ll find this enjoyable I think!
If you’re ever looking for a quick, summery read that’s an instant dose of happiness, this book is the one for you. With major Morgan Matson vibes, Say Yes Summer was a book that I almost read in one sitting. It gave me the nostalgia of being a teen during the summer along with a cute romance to bat.
I absolutely loved Rachel, the protagonist, whose personality is/was just like mine in high school where I played it safe, never said yes to new opportunities, never tried to hang out with new people, etc. Seeing Rachel say yes to opportunities I wish I had said yes to was so heartwarming, and I really related to her character and where she was coming from.
This book was just an absolute treat! I had so much fun with it and the shenanigans Rachel got into with her friends. It’s the perfect read while stuck at home, unable to do the fun things that are mentioned in this book.
I do have to say I wish the ending was fleshed out more by a few chapters because it felt a tad rushed, but other than that, I adored the story it had to tell.
I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
4 stars of cuteness!
Say Yes Summer introduces you to Rachel and her two love interests Miles and Clayton. Both are pretty easy to fall in like with but only one is completely and utterly lovable. I'll let you decide who for yourself.
Now this book was a really cute romcom. Heck I read it one little sitting.. which I thinks was maybe an hour or two? Not quite sure but I definitely flew through this one. After meeting Rachel, I knew she was going to have face a ton of tough decisions. This is her last summer before heading off to college, the real world, and she's trying to break out of her little turtle shell.
It was kind of cute how she thought no one really noticed her at school. It doesn't help that she said no to anything that remotely sounded fun due to being an introvert. She also worked at her family owned restaurant all the time too. So yeah.. she didn't do a whole lot of stuff throughout her high school years. Or any school years really.
This is her one summer to say yes.. to basically everything. Which is why she found herself in a little love triangle and getting in trouble, a lot. Of course, the romance thing didn't last long. It also didn't take long for everyone to find out about it and to be hurt either. Yet, she somehow made amends to everyone because really.. this wasn't her at all and she didn't mean to hurt anyone either.
In the end, things worked out. My ship sailed and it made me all gooey inside. I am very happy with this book and can't wait to jump into my next little romcom!
Say Yes Summer is a YA Contemporary Romance where you meet Rachel and her two love interests, Miles and Clayton. From the beginning, I knew I loved one a lot more than the other. The chemistry & banter was there and I was so excited during the whole book to see how and if they would end up together and I'm glad to say Rachel ended up with the best choice ;)
Now I know I'm not the only one who got annoyed by Rachel when she messed up pretty badly by being with both of the guys without them knowing about the other and I was frustrated to see it all go down like I knew it would. However, the way she reacted after it, I felt like she learned from her mistake and wouldn't do anything like that ever again. I also loved her grandmother and how she taught her that saying yes to someone means saying no to someone else (that's not the only thing but it's one of the things that marked me.)
Overall, this was such a cute and addicting read. I'm so glad I read it but I'm also mad at myself that I didn't get to this book before today but better late than never!
(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)
3.75/5 ⭐️. O avem pe Rachel, personajul principal, care ajunge la sfârșitul liceului și își dă seama că a ratat o mulțime de lucruri, iar în vara dinainte de facultate vrea să iasă din zona de confort. In aceasta vara vrea sa spuna da tuturor experientelor. Pe parcursul cărții o urmărim cum cunoaște oameni noi, merge la petreceri, se îndrăgostește, dar și cum face alegeri bune și mai puțin bune. Totodata, Rachel învață despre percepțiile greșite pe care le-a avut asupra diferitelor lucruri, evenimente și oameni, și își dă seama de faptul ca oamenii sunt mai mult decât ceea ce aleg aceștia să arate. La capitolul poveste de dragoste mi-a placut ca n-a fost chiar clasicul trope de “tocilara se indragosteste de atlet si de cel mai bun prieten”. De asemenea, și restul personajelor au fost mai mult decat clasicele trope-uri cliseice.
A fost o carte ușurica, drăguță, numai potrivită de vară, dar totuși si cu o mică lecție de ținut minte. Mi-a placut mai mult decat ma asteptam.
She worked hard for the past four years, earning the title of valedictorian and a spot in the freshman class at Northwestern University, but in order to accomplish her goals, she had to miss out on many things. That was why Rachel decided to stop saying NO, and to make this her SAY YES SUMMER.
• Pro: This book was the super-fun rom-com I was hoping for. It was great watching Rachel expand her social circle, as well as, reconnecting with a childhood friend. We went to parties, crossed the boarder, and even climbed over 300 steps together. I had a terrific time sharing all these experiences with her, and I, more or less, had a smile on my face the whole time.
• Pro: There was also some substance to this book. As Rachel said YES, she was experiencing many notable firsts and teen rites of passage. All this YES led to some mistakes, and she sort of lost herself in all of it for a bit. But, have no fear, she quickly found her way back. This idea of risk taking, but staying true to yourself was prevalent, and I quite liked the way Culli wove it into Rachel's tale.
• Pro: I adored Rachel. Her determination, focus, and dedication were admirable, but I also liked seeing her explore new options. I loved being in her head, because Rachel with no filter was fantastic, and I just found her so honest and real.
• Con: Alert! Love triangle! I am not a huge fan of these, though, it was, thankfully, short lived, and I was ok with the way it worked out.
• Pro: Rachel's family was so fabulous! They had some ups and downs with Rachel during her summer of yes, but they were patient, and always loving. I especially adored her Nonna, who was wise, and often, hilarious. She was a straight shooter, and had no problem setting Rachel straight, but she did it with lots of love and affection.
• Pro: I already mentioned the love triangle, and I have to admit, both the suitors were pretty wonderful. On the one hand, there was her crush, who she had pined for throughout high school. On the other hand, there was the boy she grew up with, shared a million memories with, and who she suddenly started seeing in a different light. I will admit, I enjoyed the bit of romance she shared with both of them, and that sort of made me this particular triangle a bit difficult for me.
Overall: You know what I don't regret? Saying YES to this book, because I had the BEST time reading it! It was fun, sweet, touching, and it left me with a gigantic case of the warm-fuzzies and a HUGE grin on my face.
What a perfectly entertaining (and enjoyable) summer romcom. It sorta reminded me of Booksmart in the beginning - overachiever regretting missing out on the high school experience and decides to broaden horizons the summer before college, so if you're looking for something to remind you of a great movie, look no further. Rachel has a very eventful summer after taking a self-help book to heart and starts to get outside of her comfort zone (and juggle 2 guys affections). There was a lot of really cute moments and I was happy to see her reconnect with an old friend who had drifted apart. Say Yes Summer is a sweet summer read that is just a lot of fun.
I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
O carte pentru adolescenți care trebuia să fie o lectură lejeră, dar care mi s-a părut mai mult de atât. Este o carte despre etichetele pe care ni le punem reciproc, fără să cunoaștem cu adevărat oamenii, bazându-ne doar pe ce aleg ei să ne arate, pe rolul pe care îl joacă în societate. În carte avem, evident, Fotbalistul, Populara, Tocilara, Rebelul, Prietena Haioasă etc. Când Rachel, șefa de promoție, „tocilara”, își dă voie să exploreze relațiile sociale, își dă seama că oamenii sunt mai mult de atât. Descoperă și că pecepția oamenilor asupra unor evenimente este greșită. Cât timp Rachel stă „în banca ei”, cât timp nu explorează, nici nu greșește. Rachel alege calea cea sigură. Când începe să-și dea voie să cunoască lumea din jur, are parte și de bucurii, dar face și gafe și e nevoită să se confrunte cu niște consecințe. Astfel, Rachel descoperă că viața e o sumă din toate astea și nu există doar momente bune sau doar momente proaste.
„Dacă e să fiu sinceră cu mine, a fost aproape o ușurare să cred că a dat-o în bară așa de repede. (...) Desigur, parțial, era un scepticism sănătos, un mod de a mă proteja, dar adevărul este că o parte din mine voia să creadă ce e mai rău despr el, pentru că asta dovedea că nu am greșit când m-am izolat atât de mult timp. Și cât de aiurea este asta? Să îți dorești ca cineva - să îți dorești ca lumea - să fie un dezastru, doar ca tu să simți că n-ai greșit când ai ratat diverse.”
Din cauza fricii de abandon, Rachel se ține departe de oameni. Așa evită să fie dezamăgită de ei. Dar la 17 ani e bine să lași loc și pentru neprevăzut, un neprevăzut care o sperie pe Rachel cea perfect organizată. Ea știe deja ce va face în viață și nu lasă loc pentru un potențial eșec, fiind convinsă că nu va păți așa ceva. La polul opus, majoritatea prietenilor ei nu știu ce vor face în viață, și-au ales niște facultăți, dar nu știu unde îi vor duce aceste alegeri, ei își lasă loc pentru a descoperi ulterior ce anume îi atrage sau ce le place.
”of, fata mea, vreau să faci greșeli, să faci o grămadă de greșeli. Pentru că ieșind singură din încurcătură o să înveți și o să te dezvolți. Dacă totul merge întotdeauna perfect, conform planului tău, vei pierde atât de multe surprize și aventuri. (...) Dar, în mod clar, dr Paula Prescott nu a auzit niciodată de costurile de oportunitate. (...) Când spui da la ceva, în mod inerent, spui NU la aproape orice altceva. (...) Fiecare alegere are încorporată în ea un cost de oportunitate. Să spui da nu este gratuit. Când spuneai NU petrecerilor și băieților, spuneai da familiei tale, prietenilor tăi și responsabilităților tale. Și uneori asta - să înveți când să spui NU și mai ales la ce să spui NU - reprezintă un lucru la fel de important.”
I really liked this synopsis and the blurb from Kasie West, so I jumped in.
I really liked Rachel. She’s smart and once she realizes that she’s kept her head down all through high school, she’s determined to try something new. There’s a pretty small group of characters here and I will say that Nonna stole every scene she was in.
Plot wise, it was good. There’s a lot of fluff and fun experiences coupled with boys and rekindled friendships. I loved the growth Rachel had and this slice of time was perfect for what she wanted to do.
Overall, it was a quick and super cute read with a character I could easily root for.
**Huge thanks to Delacorte Press for providing the arc free of charge**
2.75 tho I really enjoyed the synopsis. These were my expectations as I kept reading:
I feel bad giving this rate because I actually enjoyed the last 50 pages and the route it took towards the end and I'd like to say it justify the annoying cliche characters at the beginning and a too predictable start plot but unfortunately it was too slow for me and at the end it didn't paid off
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I thoroughly enjoyed how quick and light this book was. With that being said, I felt like the main character’s family extremely overreacted when they told her she hadn’t been herself. To me, Rachel’s decision to say yes was admirable. She didn’t say yes to absolutely everything that came her way and (at least I felt like) she had stayed true to who she was...she was just branching out more. She never did anything dangerous or awful. She just stepped a little out of her comfort zone which is extremely brave and admirable. With that being said, essentially dating two guys at once is a huge no but she never did anything outrageous and I felt like her family made it seem like she basically began to act completely differently and like....I don’t know....turned to drug dealing or something. Her actions didn’t seem to warrant the reactions she received from her parents.
Also, this might just be me because I have read way too many romance novels (YA or not) but I am just so sick of love triangles and the one in this book didn’t seem to make any kind of sense. The entire thing with Miles felt disingenuous and out of left field.
Otherwise, a solid 3.5/5 for a quick escape from reality.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was such a sweet YA Summery story about a girl learning to say yes to new adventures after graduation which did include 2 very cute boys. 😜🙌 It was a cute love triangle that had me torn at first. It was a super quick, precious read that gave me the summer vibes I was looking for! If you want something sweet, quick and fluffy I'd give this one a shot!!!
What a cute read to kick off summer! I loved this book, Rachel is a great character and the plot is fun and moves quickly. Rachel is the Valedictorian, super smart girl that never experienced high school life. Parties, boyfriends, and making mistakes were never part of her agenda, but now that summer is here, she decides to take some risks and just say yes to everything.
I really liked that both Miles and Clayton were good guys and neither were stuck up or treated her poorly. I had a favorite, Team Miles!, but I would have been happy for Rachel no matter which guy she chose. Seeing her gain confidence and have her first love(s) was sweet. I also really enjoyed the friendship part of Rachel reconnecting with Carrie and deciding to let past issues go.
I'm so glad I read this book, it made me smile and sometimes you need a feel good read.
I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Možno ma táto kniha párkrát nahnevala a možno som hlavnej hrdinke chcela streliť facku za niektoré veci... Ale v konečnom dôsledku to bol ten najmilší a najvtipnejší príbeh, aký som kedy čítala, takže nemôžem dať menej než 5 hviezdičiek.
*** Note: I received e-copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to PRHGlobal for free copy. ***
Say Yes Summer was cute and fluffy YA Contemporary, a coming of age story of Rachel and her summer of saying yes to everything. It was about pros and cons of saying Yes or No that comes with opportunity cost, experiencing the world for the first time, friendship, family, and love.
Writing was simple, easy, and entertaining. It was super-fast paced, I finished this book within a day, which rarely happens with me. It was first person narrative from Rachel’s perspective that made me understand her feelings and how she was seeing the world and experienced her summer adventure. Setting of Michigan and all beautiful touristy beach, Kalamazoo lake, Lake Michigan, Mt Baldhead and Rachel’s parents’ new venture cream cart and ice-cream gondolas (yum yum) gave the story whole summery vibe.
It was interesting to read how Rachel came out of her shell, overcame her fears, rekindled friendship, found lovers, learned many things specially what it’s like to be free and live out in real world. It was pretty simple plot, I knew how this was going to end but at the same time it was cute and lovely to read Rachel’s summer adventure.
Why 4 stars - Not fan of love triangle and I have read/seen something like this before. It sounded a bit clichéd and predictable.
Overall, Say Yes Summer was fluffy, feel good, enjoyable, cute and coming of age YA contemporary with lovable characters. I recommend this to fan of this genre.
This book is about a girl named Rachel in the summer before her freshman year of college. And this summer isn’t like the other ones simply because Rachel decides she is going to be adventurous and say yes... to everything (even if the said “everything” is dumb and could possibly hurt people’s feelings, *sigh*).
I rated this book 4 stars simply because it was very fun, and very entertaining. The main character definitely annoyed me at certain points, but it was so fun and HILARIOUS. Rachel is such an awkward mess and I loved it. I was getting second hand embarrassment from some of the stuff she did.
I would say that this book is definitely for readers more in their early teens because sometimes Rachel could come across as really immature and it sometimes rubbed me the wrong way. I probably wouldn’t feel that way if I was say, 13-16, but I’m not and it was still an enjoyable read.
This was super cute. As a studious, cautious person growing up, I really related to Rachel. Loved her family and that she has a job at their restaurant. Liked the way the book dealt with female friendship and had her reconnect with someone she’d drifted apart from. It was fun to see her try new things!
Just a heads-up that part of Rachel's saying "yes" is exploring her feelings for two different guys and this does create a triangle-y romantic situation, if that is an issue for you. I definitely support teens who are exploring ALL their options, but there was a back-and-forth between the guys that made me a little sad. Both were great guys and I knew she'd have to reject one (and of course I had my preference lol.)
But happy that I have found a new author to put on my YA contemporary list!
I was intrigued by the premise of the book & looking forward to seeing all the new experiences the main character would opened herself up to by saying yes more. However, there weren’t too many experiences & the main character didn’t really grow.
”The freedom to say “Yes!” to your own life is also the freedom to embrace your true self.”
“One by-product of never really doing much of anything is that you never really do that much wrong, either.”
3.5 !! Bien sympathique, lecture rapide et sans prise de tête pour l’été, mais rien de nouveau. Je ne suis pas arrivée à m’attacher aux personnages, mais ça reste une lecture de vacances assez cool!!
O carte despre educatia tinerilor din liceu, trairile lor, despre dragoste si tot ce inseamna tinerete. Ca si morala: inainte de a te azvarli cu capul inainte, gandeste te de doua ori...
Cute summer read. I liked the characters and style of writing but felt like the romance elements were not developed enough to be fully believable. If this had like 50 more pages I think the author could’ve done a lot to enhance the romance. As it is it’s probably 3.5/3.75 stars but rounding up. Also the cover! So cute!
Okay, I feel a little bad giving 1 star reviews on books because everytime I do I end up thinking about the author and how they put a lot of time and energy into this book and how they're probably a really nice person but this book made me mad. I knew going into it that the guy she had a crush on was probably not going to be end game because he was the obvious choice and in romance books most of the time the obvious choice is not the actual choice. But when that is the case you make the person they dont end up with kind of an asshole or just unlikable enough you dont feel awful that they don't end up with the main character. That was not the case in this book. And I just felt bad for Clayton when he ended up getting hurt. Honestly it ended up just being the case of an unintentional unlikable main character, and it made me not want to keep reading. I struggled through this book big time because so much of it made me uncomfortable and want to stop. I reccomend that people try this book because you never know but honestly I am very glad to be done with this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Hear me out: We will no longer normalize nor write-off cheating as a plot point in YA books, because teens do not need any more toxicity.
Also, said "cheating" does not get written off as "acceptable" because you decided to have a summer of yes out of nowhere. That's not how it works.
Idk. I guess this was kinda fluffy for a summer read, but I can't get over the cheating just to cheat. Nah. This should've stayed on my Amazon wish list.
Thank you to NetGalley for giving an eArc in exchange for an honest review! 2.5 🌟 The story itself was cute, but it was shallow and underdeveloped. I didnt care for the main character and felt like she was just annoying most of the time. There was no buildup or chemistry, you’re just plopped into a teenie bopper love story and one or two things happen quick that are unrealistic then it’s over.
Super quick and fun summer read! I honestly wish there was more to this one. The main conflict was resolved only like 5 pages after the climax, so it felt a bit unrealistic, but it was fine bc it was all cute and sweet and whatnot. I really liked the “say yes summer” concept and could relate to the main character a lot.
Say Yes Summer has all the perfect elements of the genre: a love triangle, re-discovering friendships, a crappy, yet endearing summer job, a likable young heroine, and young love. It’s perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Jenny Han, and Morgan Matson!