Setting: Belize
Time Period: Modern Day

“Summer By Summer” is a YA (young adult) novel by Heather Burch set in Central America. In the story, Summer is hired as a babysitter for a rich family’s annual vacation to Belize, where she meets and falls for their oldest son, Bray. Through some crazy circumstances, Summer and Bray are yacht wrecked on a tropical island for months, waiting for rescue. During those months alone, they learn some valuable lessons about themselves and their belief in God.

First of all, I really, really enjoyed this book! Even though I felt the story was a bit unrealistic, it taught great lessons for young people on the topics of teamwork, investing in other people’s interests, your true worth and romance. The part that was a little odd, was that it was a Christian book where two young, unmarried teens were completely alone for months. I don’t mean to be prudish, but it did cross my mind that putting that kind of story in your target demographic’s head might be a little inappropriate. Please don’t be mistaken, this was the cleanest read there is and has a great emphasis on purity. But, the circumstances the story was written around were very extreme, in my opinion.

On a positive note, there was great depth to the characters and the storyline did a great job of portraying what young people struggle with in today’s world. Issues like parents getting divorced, having a good self-image and peer pressure were brought up. If you were a teen facing one of these problems, the characters would be relatable.

Conclusion: For me, this story was 50/50. There was so much about it I loved and thought were great themes for young adults. However, the main idea of a boy and girl being together alone non-stop for a few months…well…that was different. Yes, they had a “pure love” for each other that came from survival and mutual respect, but, my only drawback was that it turned out a little too perfect too fast. It would take a mature teen to read this story and know that not every girl gets the hot guy at the end, and, the idea of being alone with your current crush on a tropical island for a long time isn’t going to happen in real life. LOL!