Book Review: Summer Days and Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins

What is life, it comes to me, without the occasional risk of pizza

You know how I always say I do not like love stories? Yeah, this is another romance novel. Or at least an anthology of romance stories. And I actually liked it, I am sick?

Book Review: Summer Days and Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins

Rating:


Title & Author: Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories edited by Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Release date: May 17 2016
Series: Standalone
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Synopsis

Maybe it’s the long, lazy days, or maybe it’s the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom. Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, written by twelve bestselling young adult writers and edited by the international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins, will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons this summer to soak up the sun and fall in love.

Head, Scales, Tongue, and Tail by Leigh Bardugo
End of Love by Nina Lacour
Last Night at the Cinegore by Libba Bray
Sick Pleasures: For A and U by Francesca Lia Block
In Ninety Minutes, Turn North by Stephanie Perkins
Souvenirs by Tim Federle
Inertia by Veronica Roth
Love Is the Last Resort by Jon Skovron
Good Luck and Farewell by Brandy Colbert
Brand New Attraction by Cassandra Clare
A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong by Jennifer E. Smith
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things by Lev Grossman

I give the anthology Summer Days and Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins four out of five hearts. It was a great read and almost all the stories were really interesting. Stephanie has put a great mix of stories together and they truly deserve to be called summer reads.

Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail by Leigh Bardugo throws the reader straight into this book full of summery stories. Truly a Leigh Bardugo story and I loved it. It was something as beautiful as her stories in The Language of Thorns.

The End of Love by Nina Lacour was interesting, at first I didn’t understand how this story could be called a love story. But the further I got into it I started to see. Here the romance was more subtle, it made me enjoy the story more than I think I would have if the romance was thick.

One of the less interesting ones was Last Stand at the Cinegore by Libba Bray because it was more zombies than romance. It has a little romance in it but not very subtle and was overshadowed by the zombies.

Sick Pleasures by Francesca Lia Block was interesting and confusing. The characters don’t have names but are just called U and A. The story was oddly written with mostly just brief discriptions.

Stephanie Perkin’s own story In Ninty Minutes, Turn North is a continuation of a story she had in My True Love Gave to Me, which I haven’t read. I didn’t enjoy it all too much because of this. But it was still very interesting.

Souvenirs by Tim Federle was very clinical. It’s about the day Matt and Keith break up because their ways are parting at the end of summer. Matt has a great character arc and tries everything to pull on the emotions of the reader, it’s good.

Inertia by Veronica Roth is one of the few science-fiction stories in the anthology and is very reminiscence of Tris and Four. I wish it had been more different from her original love story.

Love in the Last Resort by Jon Skovron was a strange story, it was interesting but a lot of characters for such a short story. The ending was great however.

Good Luck and Farewell by Brandy Colbert is a dark story, beautifully descriptive. A lot of diverse subjects like race and depression. It’s a great story for this anthology.

Brand New Attraction by Cassandra Clare has great descriptions, it set the stage clearly. It was a little bit rushed but just how I like my Cassie Clare stories.

A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong by Jennifer E. Smith was adorable and cute. The summer camp really brought me to that place and Jennifer made me care for the characters.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things by Lev Grossman is such a great story. I didn’t know what to expect when it became clear it was sort of a Groundhog Day story. But it was great. It was cute and thought-provoking. It was very different from the others and I liked where it ended.

Overall Summer Days and Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins was a great read even if you are not the romance person.

Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.

For now, let books enrich your life!

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