10 Jun 2017

Blog Tour: Be True to Me by Adele Griffin – Review and Giveaway!

Posted in Blog Tour, Giveaways |

Be True to Me

Author: Adele Griffin

Publication Date: June 13th, 2017

Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers

Synopsis: It’s the summer of 1976 on Fire Island, where feathered hair and the Bicentennial celebration reign. Jean, a sometimes cruel, often insecure, and always envious rich girl, is accustomed to living in her glamorous older sister’s shadow. So when Gil Burke, a handsome newcomer with uncertain ties to one of the most powerful families in the exclusive enclave of Sunken Haven, notices Jean—not her sister—Jean is smitten. Then Fritz, a girl from outside the gilded gates who humiliated Jean in the Island’s tennis championship last year, falls for Gil herself. Soon the girls are competing for much more than a tennis trophy, with higher stakes than either of them can imagine.

Told through the alternating perspectives of Jean and Fritz, as they experience feeling like an outsider and first love.

Historical fiction always has a place in my heart, so I was super excited for the chance to pick up Be True to Me by Adele Griffin. The cover of the book is simply gorgeous and really made me excited for summer, where the synopsis of the book sounded intriguing and like a really sweet story that I really had the feeling that I would enjoy. It has the “mean rich girl” thing going on in this book that I find myself drawn to from time to time – you know, the generally unlikable character that you find yourself liking anyway? All of the glamour, all of the excitement of a rich teenager – for whatever reason, I always love books that feature these kinds of characters.

Some people talk about not really liking characters like that, or that they are disappointed when the character in a book will end up being shallow despite the fact that they are already mentioned as being a spoiled rich kid, but if you go into the book knowing that about the characters, all that awaits you are fun stories that you can really lose yourself in.

This book was seriously so much fun – and since it takes place in the summer (the summer of 1976 to be exact), it really makes this book a great read for the beginning of summer. It has all the awesome elements that a begining of summer book have – great characters, a story that you can’t put down, and a bit of a sweet romance that really brightens up your day.

I absolutely love the characters in this book – they all have so much depth that it was hard to put the book down – I felt like I was honestly wrapped up in the story with the characters myself. It was a great and interesting novel that really worked well with the setting – you can tell it was well researched and written with care so that in the end, it all worked out nicely.

If you like historical novels with a nice, summery touch of romance, this is definitely a book that you’ll want to check out. It has plenty to offer, including a fun main character who you can’t help but really end up loving, as well as a lot going on in the actual story!

Note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Adele Griffin is the highly acclaimed author of almost thirty books for Young Adult and middle grade readers. Her works include the National Book Award Finalists Sons of Liberty and Where I Want to Be, as well as the popular Oodlethunks series for younger readers. Her latest novel The Un-finished Life of Addison Stone was a YALSA Best Book of 2015, an Amazon Best YA Book of the Year, a Booklist Top Ten Arts Books for Youth, a Junior Library Guild selection, a Romantic Times Finalist for Book of the Year, and a School Library Journal Top Fiction pick. Her latest novel Be True to Meis publishing in June 2017 with Algonquin Books.