Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider

This book is amazing.  I’m going to take a few minutes to talk about this book without spoilers, then if you want to, you can check out the section below where I go a little more in-depth with it.

When I first came across Summer of Sloane, I thought it was going to be another YA contemporary that didn’t really deal with anything tougher than a love triangle or something, but boy was I wrong.  This is a deep, emotional book that tackles some really big issues – from a different point of view than I’m used to reading in YA contemporaries.

That wasn’t the case here.  The book starts off with Sloane and her best friend, who pretty much tells Sloane that she did something awful, involving Sloane’s boyfriend, Ty.  Sloane, completely heartbroken over this secret, is only too happy to be going to visit her mother in Hawaii like she does every summer.

This summer, Sloane decides to make the entire summer all about her.  She gets to leave what happened in Seattle behind.  She gets to leave the big issues behind until school starts again.  She doesn’t have to deal with the nightmare that is the relationship with her best friend.  She gets to go to Hawaii, and spend her days doing anything she wants – swimming, hanging out with her friends and her twin brother, Penn…and avoiding calls and texts from her ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend.

Summer of Sloane is a really great story about self-discovery and learning how to move on after a bad breakup and how to take care of yourself and heal in the process.  This book is a really emotional (and yet fun at the same time!) kind of novel with a really awesome main character (and the supporting characters are pretty awesome, too!

Okay, I really want to go on about some other things that happen in this book, and in order to do that, I might end up giving some really important plot lines away (even though they’re revealed in chapter one anyway), but I’m definitely giving you a little warning first, in case you want to skip this part!

Spoiler Alert!

Okay!  Now to get to the in-depth review for this book.

At the beginning of the book, we find out about Sloane and her best friend McKinley. who have been best friends for years.  They’ve been though everything together…except now, McKinley is telling Sloane something that she doesn’t want to hear: She’s pregnant…with Sloane’s boyfriend’s baby.  Sloane is taken aback by this piece of information, and she wants to be there for McKinley, but she doesn’t believe there’s any way she could do that.

When she sees her boyfriend, Tyler, she has a few choice words for him…as well as a punch in the face that not only breaks Tyler’s nose, but fractures Sloane’s hand, as well.  So for Sloane, summer really isn’t off to that great of a start.

That’s when she decides that she really can’t wait to get to Hawaii.

When she’s in Hawaii, she comes clean to her mother about what happened, and her mother tells her that she should put all of that out of her mind and spend the summer focusing on her…making it the Summer of Sloane.  Sloane jumps on this idea – after all, doesn’t she deserve happiness?  So she ignores texts, phone calls, and tons of e-mails (even letters) from McKinley and Tyler.  She doesn’t know what to say to them, so she just doesn’t say anything at all.

At a bonfire with her brother and friends, Sloane meets a new guy, Finn.  The two of them start spending time together, and Sloane starts to develop feelings for Finn.  Between hanging out with her friends and working at the pool, Sloane hardly has time to even think about the disaster that awaits her back at home.

Until one night Tyler calls Sloane because something terrible happened…and maybe Sloane will have to find it in her heart to at least try to forgive those who have hurt her most.

What I really liked about this book is that it told the story from the point of view of the girl who was betrayed by her best friend and her boyfriend, as opposed to the story being told from the point of view of the girl who had gotten pregnant.  It was different, and I think it made it more emotional, and enjoyable of a read.

And finally…

This book has a really amazing plot.  Sloane definitely wasn’t the kind of girl who was going to sit around and put up with people talking down to her, hurting her, or treating her horribly, which makes her quite admirable.  I loved the other characters in the book, including Sloane and Penn’s father…he genuinely seemed to care about his kids, and he does his best to make sure they’re happy.

I’m really glad that I read this – I originally thought I was going to have a hard time getting into this because I’ve read so many contemporaries lately, but this one really stood out and was just such a great read!