Book Review: Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

 

Justin and Emma are cursed. Every person they date goes on to find their perfect match immediately after dating them. So surely, if they date each other, just for the summer, their curses will cancel out, right? But when they both have to deal with life-changing issues, and face the possibility of actually falling for each other, their summer fling becomes a lot more complicated.

Like quite a few of the books I read, this one came directly from a Book-Tube recommendation. Romance tends to be a bit hit-or-miss for me, so I definitely had some scepticism when I picked it up.

But thankfully, I loved the book.

The first thing that pulled me in was the characters. While reading this I realised that I don't often read dual pov, but I really loved being in both of the characters' heads, and seeing the story from both of their perspectives.

Plus, they're both as interesting as each other, so when I was in one person's head I wasn't itching to get back to the other. They're both three-dimensional, well-created characters that feel authentic, as well as just being such wholesome, good people.

They're a couple that you can really root for. From the first moment, the story makes no secret of how much they like each other, which is really nice. It makes it really interesting seeing the external factors keeping them apart in the long-term, and you're really excited to see them finally be together.

The story goes a lot deeper than you expect, and I loved that. Surface-level romances can be a lot of fun, but stories like this, where there is deep drama and trauma surrounding the romance, are so fascinating to read, and I've never read one quite like this before.

And speaking of the trauma, this felt like a really realistic depiction of it, as someone who hasn't gone through what the characters have. I never felt like things were manufactured to create unnecessary conflict, or that the characters were acting in an unrealistic way.

Though that being said, I feel like the inevitable ending was dragged out a little bit more than it needed to be, but that's probably just preference rather than the story actually being unrealistic.

But the best thing about the story is these characters. They're so lovely to read about, they feel like real people, and the yearning just works so well!

So overall, I'd definitely recommend this book. It combined so many ideas so well, created such loveable characters and a love story that you can really root for.

4.5/5