The Summer My Life Began by Shannon Greenland Review/Tour Spot

Hi everyone!! Today I am a member of The Summer My Life Began tour spot!! Thank you Penguin and Netgalley for sending me a copy!!

Name: The Summer My Life Began
Author: Shannon Greenland
Publisher: Speak, Imprint of Penguin
Release Date: May 10, 2012
Format: E-book ARC
Pre-Order the book on Amazon

Elizabeth Margaret—better known as Em—has always known what life would contain: an internship at her father’s firm, a degree from Harvard and a career as a lawyer. The only problem is that it’s not what she wants. When she gets the opportunity to get away from it all and spend a month with the aunt she never knew, she jumps at the chance. While there, Em pursues her secret dream of being a chef, and she also learns that her family has kept some significant secrets from her, too. And then there’s Cade, the laid-back local surfer boy who seems to be everything Em isn't. Naturally, she can’t resist him, and as their romance blossoms, Em feels she is living on her own terms for the first time.-Goodreads

My Review:
I was so excited for this book when I received it on netgalley a little while ago..it seemed like a really cute contemporary romance! Unfortunately I was disappointed by The Summer My Life Began..maybe I had too high expectations for this one but it wasn't what I expected at all.

The overall plot of this book was pretty typical for contemporary romances..boy meets girl sort of thing/girl finds herself etc. What I did really like about The Summer My Life Began was the mysterious aspect to this book! There definitely were some shockers that I did not see coming at all which I thought added some excitement to the plot!! I also liked the culinary aspect to the book..it was really cool to see Em cook and chase her dreams..I thought that added a little something special to this book.

I really wished that the author made the plot go a little bit slower and developed the characters more..I really felt that things were moving very fast and the characters didn't have a slow development..just a fast paced one. I really wanted to like the characters..and they were likable enough but I felt so detached from them..in some of my favorite books I find myself either rooting for or against the main characters but in this book I just felt really indifferent to them.

Overall, this wasn't the best book for me. Did I like it? Yes, but I definitely didn't love it and I felt that some aspects of the story needed to be improved.


My Rating: Three out of Five Stars