Author: Robin Constantine
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance
Source: Balzer + Bray via Edeleweiss
Goodreads
Cassidy Emmerich is determined to make this summer—the last before her boyfriend heads off to college—unforgettable. What she doesn’t count on is her boyfriend breaking up with her. Now, instead of being poolside with him, Cass is over a hundred miles away, spending the summer with her estranged father and his family at their bed-and-breakfast at the Jersey Shore and working as the newest counselor at Camp Manatee.Review by Nara
Bryan Lakewood is sick of nevers. You’ll never walk. You’ll never surf. You’ll never slow dance with your date at prom. One miscalculated step and Bryan’s life changed forever—now he’s paralyzed and needs to use a wheelchair. This is the first summer he’s back at his former position at Camp Manatee and ready to reclaim some of his independence, in spite of those who question if he’s up for the job.
Cass is expecting two months dealing with heartbreak.
Bryan is expecting a summer of tough adjustments.
Neither of them is expecting to fall in love.
After being somewhat disappointed with Constantine's debut novel, The Promise of Amazing (which wasn't quite as "amazing" as expected), I do believe that I have been proven wrong. I'd thought that Constantine was a sort of medium tier contemporary author. Well, I can definitely say now that The Season of You & Me has definitively shown me that Robin Constantine is an author that can pull out all the tricks and end up with a well rounded, satisfying novel.
The author does a phenomenal job at just how distinct her points of view are. Honestly, you could have erased the subheadings showing which character was narrating which chapters, the voices were so distinct. And the romance was so great! It was one of those were the two start off as friends and then become closer and get into a relationship. There was also quite heavy family involvement of the best kind, with the families of both of the characters showing up at various points in the novel and supporting them as one's family should.
The ending was unfortunately somewhat open, but I find that a lot of authors of contemporary young adult romances seem to be doing this thing where they leave it to you as the reader to imagine what might happen next. At least gimme a novella dammit!
Well, all in all, this book definitely proves that Robin Constantine can write fabulous characters and a fantastic friendship that develops into a romance. I will certainly be trying out any books she writes in the future.
Incredible
RatingsOverall: 9/10
Plot: 4/5
Romance: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 2/5
