Summer Unscripted by Jen Klein (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Also by this author: Shuffle, Repeat
Published by Random House Children's Books on June 13th 2017
Genres: Dating & Sex, Emotions & Feelings, General, Romance, Social Themes, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 336
A summer romance about missed connections and how not to miss out on the love of your life. For fans of Deb Caletti, Sarah Dessen, and Jenny Han.
Girl looks for a sign. Enter: boy.
Rainie doesn’t have a “passion” like her friends do. She’s more of a dabbler—quick to give up and move on. But as graduation approaches, she wishes she had more direction. So when gorgeous Tuck gives a monologue that literally puts into words exactly how she’s been feeling lately, it’s a sign! Tuck is her passion. How could she not have seen it before?
Girl follows boy. Enter: second boy.
Rainie convinces her ex-BFF to let her work at the same summer job as Tuck. She’s got a foolproof plan to date him. But when she arrives, Rainie discovers things aren't that simple. And she meets Milo, a super-cute boy who also works with her. A boy with a complicated past.
Girl needs to figure stuff out. Enter: drama. .
Shuffle, Repeat was one of my favorite reads last year, so when I saw that Jen Klein had a new title coming I immediately had to get my hands on it.
Rainie doesn’t really know what she wants out of life … she doesn’t feel passionate about much of anything… oh she tries a lot of things, but nothing really just sticks. As her junior year comes to a close, she’s determined to find something to love and then the gorgeous Tuck gives a monologue that she identifies with more than she wished and it hits her… Tuck is who she needs to focus on this summer.
But instead of having the chance to spend the summer getting to know each other, Rainie finds out that Tuck is headed to play the lead in a summer production of Zeus! So she does the only reasonable thing… she begs her former best friend to pull some strings so that she can follow Tuck there and spend the summer with him.
When Rainie arrives though, things aren’t at all as she had hoped for, and she can’t turn tail and run home like she normally would.
Thankfully she finds that doing the actual work she’s there to do and getting to know the people around her is kind of fun… including the super-cute Milo. Despite finding that she and Milo click, she quickly realizes that there are a lot of complications in getting to know him… namely her roommate.
I’ll admit I didn’t love this title as much as Shuffle, Repeat, I went in expecting a lot more swoons than I got, but this was still an enjoyable, lighthearted read. It was nice to see the major character growth that Rainie has from the beginning to the end of the story. Plus the setting, a summer theater camp, was super fun and allowed for some fun quirky drama!
I know the tagline for this one screams love triangle, but that really isn’t the case here. Once Rainie meets Milo, you know for sure where things are going, even though Tuck is in the background, he’s not really a big part of the story other than as a catalyst to Rainie learning a few things about herself.
And let’s talk about Milo! I love that Klein proves that you don’t have to be a bad boy to be interesting and wonderful … and get the girl. Milo is so wonderful from the get go and I loved getting to know him, and I love that Rainie finally comes to some realizations with the help of him.
I think ultimately I would have liked a bit more swoon and I would have like to dislike Tuck less than I eventually did and I struggled a lot with her relationship with Ella. I feel like that could have been fleshed out a bit better.
When all is said and done, Summer Unscripted is a story about friendship and love and not always knowing exactly what you want to do and be… and that’s okay! If you’re looking for a cute, fun, summertime read then I’d suggest grabbing this!
I’m definitely excited for whatever Klein writes next!
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