Follow Your Heart Summer Love - YA Book Review

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When I was a kid, I loved reading Choose Your Own Adventure books. I even tried writing some of my own, but you have no idea how complicated it can be to organize the story. "If you choose this, turn to page 7. Oh wait, I had you turn to page 7 for something else. How about page 30? Already taken. How about page 72?) I don't remember what the Choose Your Own Adventure books that I read were about, but I'm pretty sure they weren't about finding a boyfriend!!

Alas, that's what the Follow Your Heart book Summer Love is all about. I was a little skeptical of this book. The cover says, "With 11 guys to choose from, who will be your perfect match?" Ugh.

So I basically chose all the options that lead me away from the guys. Go talk to a guy or continue reading The Metamorphosis? I'll keep Kafka as the only guy in my life, thank you very much. Talk to the cute lifeguard or go eat a lobster roll? Uh, LOBSTER ROLL TRUMPS ALL.

I really expected to end up with a guy despite all of my choices, but the book surprised me! There is a "happy ending" where you decide you don't need a guy in your life, that figuring out who you are is more important. Hooray!

Also, the book is obsessed with practicing good sunscreen protocol. The characters are constantly reapplying sunscreen, so kudos to author Jill Santopolo for getting that PSA in.

I get that lots of teenage girls out there are boy crazy and will probably have fun imagining themselves as the "you" in this book, even if that character is the sort of person who looks good in a red polka dot bikini and wears waterproof mascara to the beach, but whatever. I do hope that at least a few girls end up with my happy ending and realize that there are more productive ways to spend a summer than prancing around in bikinis looking for boys.

Follow Your Heart Summer Love is published by Speak and hits bookstore shelves on May 1, 2014. I received a free review copy for my honest review.