March 28, 2023 by Wednesday Books
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Juniper and her mother live on the North Shore of White Coral Beach, where they run a small cafe right next to their home. Juniper has a good friend Milo nearby, as well as friend-turned-secret-boyfriend, Graham. Her mother is dating Paul, who has a daughter, Tallulah, who is a year younger, and announces that the two have decided to move in together before thinking about getting married. Juniper isn't thrilled, but is even less thrilled when she realizes that she and her mother will be moving to the posh South Shore to live in Paul's house. The only upside is that her father, whom she hasn't seen in two years, is going to be working nearby for a while, and Juniper has talked her mother into letting her father stay in their house. Things are complicated with Milo and Graham: Milo's girlfriends don't always like Juniper, and Graham's father has recently separated from his mother because he got a younger women, who was a friend of Juniper's, pregnant. Graham's mother quit working for Graham's father, and moved away to be with family who offered her a new job with benefits. Graham isn't handling any of it well, and he and Juniper have a fraught relationship. Juniper is involved in a community theater production of a 1920s reworking on Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Nights Dream, and it is running into difficulties as well. As Tallulah and Juniper spend more time together, they do learn to get along better, but Tallulah's emerging relationship with Juniper's longtime friend Lucy, also changes the dynamics. While the summer drama never reaches the level of Juniper's favorite television show, Proper Southern Ladies, there's still plenty of it to be had.
Many of the chapters start with scenes from the play, A Midsummer's Madness, that was a bit quirky and flippant. The theater aspect of the storyline definitely paled in comparison to the multiple dramas unfolding in Juniper's real life. There are also frequent mentions of the goings on within the Proper Southern Ladies show.
The characters are all well developed and have their own issues to process. I was most interested in Juniper, who seems to have trouble not angering the people around her! Graham's home situation is very complicated, and Tallulah starts to come out of her shell after hanging out with Juniper and her friends.
I thought it was interesting that Markum mentioned that she was a big fan of Sarah Dessen's books; I picked this one up because the cover reminded me of Along for the Ride, which is one of my favorite Young Adult romances. This certainly had a lot of the drama that Dessen's titles have, and it was a bit like Colasanti's So Much Closer or Waiting for You. Fans of Young Adult summer reads, like Boyce's Hot Dutch Daydream, Platt's Postcards from Summer or Jouhanneau's Kisses and Croissants will enjoy this vacation in Florida.
I'll probably send this one on to the high school. In addition to the occasional f-bomb, it's a bit more philosophical and complicated than middle grade romances tend to be, and there's issue of Graham's father and some drinking. All fairly calm, but just not as interesting to younger readers. This wasn't my favorite, since the problems seemed to outweigh the romance, and there are some scenes were Juniper's lips were swollen from kissing Graham that just seemed... like too much information.
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