Five Summers by Una LaMarche | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Bittersweet, funny, and achingly honest, Five Summers is a story of friendship, love, and growing up that is perfect for fans of Ann Brashare's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Judy Blume's Summer Sisters. Four best friends, five summers of camp memories Emma, Skylar, Jo, and Maddie have all come back to camp for a weekend of tipsy canoe trips to the island, midnight skinny dipping in the lake, and an epic game of capture the flag—boys versus girls. But the weekend isn't quite as sunwashed as they'd imagined as the memories come flooding back. . . . The summer we were nine: Emma was branded “Skylar’s friend Emma” by the infamous Adam Loring . . . The summer we were ten: Maddie realized she was too far into her lies to think about telling the truth . . . The summer we were eleven: Johanna totally freaked out during her first game of Spin the Bottle . . . The summer we were twelve: Skylar’s love letters from her boyfriend back home were exciting to all of us—except Skylar . . . Our last summer together: Emma and Adam almost kissed. Jo found out Maddie’s secret. Skylar did something unthinkable . . . and whether we knew it then or not, five summers of friendship began to fall apart. A young adult book with a friendship story that will last long after the last s'more is gone.

Five Summers by Una LaMarche takes on one of my most desired and most favorite settings and that is summer camp. It astounds me, the dearth of young adult books about going to camp. I know that not everyone is fortunate to go to camp, but for me, some of my best memories from being a kid come from going to camp. Granted, it was sleepaway camp for only one week and church camp, but I had so much fun and would always be in this funk after coming back from camp because I missed my camp friends and the magical world of camp. Straight out, Five Summers does a pretty okay job at capturing the magic of camp, if not with winning me over with the characters.

The book opens with Emma driving back to camp eagerly anticipating her reunion with fellow campers Skylar, Jo, and Maddie, her best friends from four summers in a row at Camp Nedoba in New Hampshire. This is Emma’s first time seeing the girls in three years. So much has changed, will they be able to get right back into the friendship saddle? Five Summers is told through various third person point of view chapters. The story alternates between a third person focus on Emma, Skylar, Jo and Maddie. The story also alternates in timeline between present day at the camp reunion weekend and the past — the four summers that the girls spent at camp together.

Emma is a studying machine. All she does is work on school stuff and read books. She is driven and her main goal is to get into her reach college of Brown. She’s also a virgin, which we learn over and over again. Oh and Emma has had a crush on Adam Loring, a fellow flirty camper, for several years. Yet, during her last summer ever at camp, she did not kiss him because she was not ready. Will she rekindle the flame at the reunion? You will have to read to find out. Also, Emma was my favorite character, I think.

Maddie has been weaving a tangled web of lies. She’s so far gone that she feels like she can’t tell her friends the truth. I am not going to lie, while reading the book I was confusing the character with the secret on the back jacket cover. I also thought the secret was that she was a lesbian, but alas, no. Nothing so interesting or diverse as all that. Well, actually, no that’s false. I liked Maddie’s secret, in that it’s a type of YA character I do not often see, given the privileged set of characters that typically grace the pages that I read. Maddie was my second favorite character.

Skylar was the absolute worst. Okay, she has really low self esteem because her art gallery owner dad is really terrible about her art. So, she turns to guys for validation. She also turns to one guy that she should be staying away from. She’s a totally bad friend is what I am saying. Granted, it takes two to tango and I think the one guy is a total douche, but still blame lies all around. I don’t like Skylar and yeah, was so not a fan.

Jo is the camp owner Mack’s daughter. She wears cargo shorts and t-shirts. She has trouble understanding social cues. She is often called Mini-Mack. She’s the tomboy of the bunch. I kept associating her with Jo from Little Women, but she’s not half as interesting as Jo March, unfortunately. I mean, okay, she’s likable. She is different and mostly proud of that. BUT OMG SHE IS SO OBLIVIOUS. So, so oblivious.

So, I will come out and say that I did not entirely identify with the characters and thought they were a bit much for me. However, what kind of redeems this book is how well Five Summers by Una LaMarche captures the nostalgia of camp and how you can’t go back again. It captures what growing up and moving on looks like. This book is totally one of those coming of age books. However, the romance was a total let down BUT at the same time, the friendship focus is great. However, I just would have liked more kissing and swoons. In all, not my favorite book of all time, but a good summer read featuring an awesome setting.

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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