Name: Night Owls and Summer Skies
ISBN: 9781989365250

Rebecca Sullivan

A quirky summer camp LGBTQ+ romance with the frothy, fun tone of Marian Keyes in this cute YA story about friendship and facing your fears. Emma Lane’s forced to face her fears when her mother unceremoniously dumps her on the doorstep of Camp Mapplewood, abandoning her for the summer while she heads off on a cruise with her latest husband. It’s the last place Emma wants to be with no shortage of creepy creatures, keen campers, and mandatory activities that she fears will hinder managing her anxiety and depression. When Emma breaks into the tool shed on her first day there, the fall out from her escapades leads her right into the path of her counsellor Vivian Black, and nothing is ever the same.

Night Owls and Summer Skies

I recently finished reading "Night Owls and Summer Skies," and while I found some enjoyable aspects, I noticed several areas that could use improvement. 

First, I'd like to mention the lack of character development, which I felt was a significant drawback. The main character, Emma, doesn’t seem to evolve throughout the story. It would be great to see her grow and confront her challenges, particularly regarding her PTSD, anxiety, and depression. These elements are crucial to her experience, and exploring them in more depth could add significant emotional weight to the narrative.

Additionally, the supporting characters are not well-developed either. We barely learn about their backgrounds, motivations, or how they impact Emma’s journey. For example, we only get a brief glimpse of Vivian after 300 pages, which feels like a missed opportunity. Providing more context about her character and relationships could enrich the story.

Moreover, it's puzzling how Emma’s panic attacks are handled in the narrative. They seem to be dismissed rather quickly, which undermines the seriousness of what she’s going through. Addressing this more thoughtfully could create a deeper connection for readers who may relate to her struggles.

Lastly, while the webtoon version had its own challenges, it was more engaging in its optimism, even if it leaned towards being overly idyllic. Finding a balance between realism and hope in the book could enhance the reader’s experience. 

Overall, I believe that by focusing on character development, exploring emotional themes with more depth, and providing richer backstories for supporting characters, "Night Owls and Summer Skies" could become a more compelling and impactful read. Thank you for considering these thoughts!

ashtyn

I recently finished reading "Night Owls and Summer Skies," and while I found some enjoyable aspects, I noticed several areas that could use improvement. 

First, I'd like to mention the lack of character development, which I felt was a significant drawback. The main character, Emma, doesn’t seem to evolve throughout the story. It would be great to see her grow and confront her challenges, particularly regarding her PTSD, anxiety, and depression. These elements are crucial to her experience, and exploring them in more depth could add significant emotional weight to the narrative.

Additionally, the supporting characters are not well-developed either. We barely learn about their backgrounds, motivations, or how they impact Emma’s journey. For example, we only get a brief glimpse of Vivian after 300 pages, which feels like a missed opportunity. Providing more context about her character and relationships could enrich the story.

Moreover, it's puzzling how Emma’s panic attacks are handled in the narrative. They seem to be dismissed rather quickly, which undermines the seriousness of what she’s going through. Addressing this more thoughtfully could create a deeper connection for readers who may relate to her struggles.

Lastly, while the webtoon version had its own challenges, it was more engaging in its optimism, even if it leaned towards being overly idyllic. Finding a balance between realism and hope in the book could enhance the reader’s experience. 

Overall, I believe that by focusing on character development, exploring emotional themes with more depth, and providing richer backstories for supporting characters, "Night Owls and Summer Skies" could become a more compelling and impactful read. Thank you for considering these thoughts!

Unfortunately, this was just not a very good book. The plot was illogical and jumped all over the place. The characters just weren't interesting or compelling and I couldn't find it in myself to root for Emma at all. All in all, it really just needed a lot of editing and maybe a couple of run throughs to flesh out characters and relationships.

Jasmin 

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a free review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is, quite frankly, the only reason I didn't dnf it. I didn't want to ruin my score on there. 

I really, really wanted to love thos book - a gay summer romance set at camp.
Sadly, almost all of the characters were eighter unlikable, flat, or both. Especially the storys antagonist lacked character depht and was just an easy way to create drama. 

The main character suffers from depression and anxiety and has several phobias. Whilst not being in her mental health state, nothing really felt believable and more often than not her behaviour was simply annoying and, once again, felt like it was used as an easy way to create drama/"plot". 

The only part I actually did enjoy wad the authors/narrators voice throughout the story and how mostly there was a show not tell way of setting the scene and giving images of the characters.

However, that alone isn't enough to make this book something I'd recommend.


Trigger warnings
-homophobic parent
-bullying
-friend betrayal

Jelke Lenaerts

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.  
This book has content warnings for PTSD, depression, panic attacks and homophobia.

This one was rough. The story is a bit all over the place. This book switches from scene to scene in the same paragraph with 0 explenation and it was so dang confusing. The characters were so underexplained that it was hard to understand their motivations, which again made everything so dang confusing. Also the reason for the mc's bad mental health was a bit quesionable to me. Like I know trauma is caused by different things and everyone reacts to trauma differently but this girl really had really bad PTSD that ruined her social interactions for years on end because she was left up in a three for a night? And then she gets over it because she was in camp for like three days? I don't know, it just felt very unrealistic and messy to me. Add to that that the story is pretty generic and this whole book just left me a bit bored. This book also talked about some important topics but it always felt second to the romance and whenever it was discussed it felt so fucking preachy and cringey rather than anything else.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Night Owls and Summer Skies

Author: Rebecca Sullivan

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 1/5 (because I can’t rate it 0/5)

Diversity: Lesbian main character and side characters, but not well done

Recommended For...: I can’t recommend this, it’s extremely problematic

Publication Date: June 30, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: can’t recommend, dnf-ed

Publisher: Wattpad Books

Pages: 288

Synopsis: You have to step off the trail to find your path....

When her mother unceremoniously dumps her at Camp Mapplewood for the summer, Emma Lane’s hopes of repairing their fractured relationship are gone with the wind. Now she’s stuck in the wilderness facing her worst fears. Trees? Terrifying. Spiders? Even worse. And don’t even get Emma started on how she feels about camp activities. But Emma’s got a plan, and she will do anything in her power to get kicked out of camp, from sleeping in to playing practical jokes on her fellow campers. Yet when Emma draws the attention of her illusive and attractive camp counselor Vivian Black, she has to come to terms with the fact that how her summer starts isn’t necessarily how it might end. Will Vivian be the key to unlocking Emma’s fears once and for all?

Review: I had to DNF this read at 40% in. The book wasn’t for me at all. The book’s main character is really unlikeable. She calls herself gay instead of lesbian (which is ok, but it kind of gives off the vibe that being a lesbian isn’t good), she had anxiety and depression but doesn’t show the reader these issues and it isn’t wrote in the story well, and the whole relationship between Emma (our main character) and Vivian really upsets me. Vivian is older than Emma and there’s a power difference with Vivian being a counselor, and then Vivian does some things like kissing Emma and allowing Emma to sleep in her sleeping bag. Honestly, this is akin to professor/student relationships and shouldn’t be tolerated either. I don’t like the “bully is actually interested in the main character” trope because it sets a precedent that violence in a relationship in any form is ok and that’s not ok. Lauren didn’t have anything wrong with her per se but she is a bully and she sexually harasses Emma and Vivian and it’s not a good thing and doesn’t deserve good ending. I think it would have been better if Lauren was given some therapy or was shown to have remorse in the book but it doesn’t come off that way and doesn’t happen. Aside from these problematic issues, the book is also not well written and has some extremely harmful elements to it for people who identify as LGBT+.

Verdict: Not recommending.

zilver 

I kind of hate that I didn’t like this book. It looks so promising! A fun, cute, light, summer-y read. We need those! But honestly, this book read like a Disney Channel movie. And not in the funny way - in the cringey way. 

I’ll start by mentioning some things I enjoyed: the feeling of summer it brought about; the fact that the main character, Emma is very secure in her sexuality and (besides a horribly homophobic and toxic mother) this isn’t made into a big deal any time it comes up; that Emma gets to stand up to said mother; I suppose the idea of this book??? 

Oof. I think the main problem is that I’ve read this entire book, and I still feel like I know nothing about any of the characters. They are all two-dimensional, not fleshed out, bland characters. Everyone’s personality relies on being a) sarcastic, b) nice, or c) a bully. Generally, I do consider it quite a problem if no one, including your main character, seems to go through any kind of development. Any details regarding characters’ lives and feelings were always handed to us, and we were expected to take them at face-value. Even major things like Emma’s depression and anxiety, which are mentioned a couple of times as being something that influences her life greatly at times (and understandably so!), are kept completely at a distance. At some point she mentions to her father on the phone that she’s having a bad day, and I just had the thought that I would not have gotten that at all from any of the other descriptions of what had been going on that day. The panic attacks she experiences happen, and are brushed off afterwards, not to be talked about again. Their effects or causes are left untouched upon. 

Besides that, the decision-making, the way basically everyone acted, was quite ridiculous constantly. Again, Disney Channel movie vibes. No one’s actions really sense. Multiple times when characters pointed out other characters’ motivations or thought-processes I was genuinely thrown because I would just not understand how they got to those conclusions at all. I'd blame it on the fact that the characters are young but honestly? All of them are around 18. Not to say all your decisions should be logical and sensible all of a sudden, but they also shouldn't be... this. And the relationships... I don’t know, but Emma keeps saying she’s bad at making friends, and I’m inclined to agree with her, because despite saying that Gwen is her, and I quote, “soulmate”, she knows literally nothing about Gwen except that’s she’s peppy and kind. Same with Vivian, our love interest. After 300 pages I know nothing about her except that she goes to college, where she acts “differently” than she does at camp, and that she likes order. But then again, after 300 pages I know not much more about Emma, so. 

I think this book had a lot of potential, and unfortunately it just didn’t live up to any of it for me.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.