I’m not really sure where to start with this book to be completely honest. I read the plot line and was so intrigued and knew it was a book I wanted to find out more about.

It is told from the point of view of two characters, Aubrey and Rae in alternating chapters. Best friends since primary school,they have been planning their trip around Europe forever, and now, it seems the perfect way to spend their last summer together before University. Following them on the trip is Aubrey’s boyfriend Jonah and his best friend Gabe who she may or may not have kissed. Then, there is Clara, the friend Rae has been in love with forever, however know’s it will never work out.

We follow the group of friends on this once in a life time trip through Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Florence and Barcelona as they try to navigate their way through the last weeks of summer before the all leave each other for good.

I didn’t really understand this book. I couldn’t relate to any of the characters and didn’t particularly like any of them, the story was lacklustre and the plot line just felt really rushed.

Aubrey as a main character was awful. She was whiny and bossy and everything was about her. The trip was planned to the last minute and if anyone wanted do anything that went completely off her schedule, she was not happy. I also thought she was quite selfish. Not to give any spoilers,  but there is a scene where her friend Rae was keeping something from her, for good reasons, yet Aubrey flips the minute she finds out. However, Aubrey has been keeping things from Rae yet this appears to be okay. As best friends, I didn’t think they worked, and it seemed they only stayed friends because they had known each other for so long.

Rae was only marginally better. I enjoyed some of her chapters, particularly where she was discovering her feelings for Clara and trying to make sense of them, I thought they were well written.

What I can’t wrap my head around, is how they have all taken this trip together, but don’t really hang out as a group. There is a scene in Italy, where Aubrey and Gabe wake up early, sneak out of the house and spend the day in Rome, whilst everyone else hangs in the hostel. Why!? Also, they seemed to all spend a lot of time in the rooms they were staying in rather than going out and exploring the countries they were stopping in.

I need to talk about a plot line in the book that was completely confusing and made no sense because it was never explained. So, I think that all these characters come from different countries, but met in London at a school for non-English people? Maybe? Who knows because we are never told! I also don’t feel it added anything to the story.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book. I found myself skim reading probably the last half of the book just to try and get to the end. I only rate this book two out five stars, and even then I think i’m being slightly generous! However, as I always say, please read this book for yourself and make up your own mind.

Have you read this book? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Well I was so excited about this book when I read the Synopsis as it seemed a fun ,cute YA Contemporary with lots of travelling and amazing friends. I instantly fell in love with the book once I started reading it. The story explores the trip of 5 Friends , Aubrey, Rae , Clara ,Jonah and Gabe . They have recently finished their high school and now will be leaving for college soon. But before that, they go on a trip to various places in Europe including Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Florence, Barcelona. Well , I would say this the crux of the story . What happens in the trip is the main treat . We have characters who are just stepping out into the adult world where they have to take their own decisions about life and love . It is a coming-of-age story where the characters are in a sort of in-between phase and they are quite confused about a lot of things.The whole sense of growing up is captured beautifully in the book and it was particularly relevant for me, because I am a teen. The author explores it with a love story or two. The Summer of Us is an apt title as it is the last summer the fivesome get to spend together before they go their seperate ways. The characters discover their inner fears and find love in their last summer after high school.

The story is told in alternating POV’s of Aubrey and Rae . They have been best friends since primary school. It’s was good to know  the characters through their eyes. Aubrey has a seemingly perfect boyfriend Jonah but she doesn’t know why she kissed Gabe three weeks ago. The story veers to the familiar paths of love triangle and I can’t help but enjoy the new developments. Whereas Rae has a huge crush on Clara who is into guys, not girls. But is she really? So in short we have 2 love stories ,which spice up the plot.

Not to mention the setting of the book. This book is based on different places all over Europe . I always wanted to visit Paris and Rome and I get to ,through this book. They visit a lot of landmarks ,Eiffel tower ,Trevi fountain, Red Light Area (by mistake) in Amsterdam and so many more .They travel by trains and see so many things. It kind of awakened the travel bug in me .The book perfectly balances new places , romance ,friendship and beautifully crafted characters and that’s what makes the book a perfect Young Adult Read ,ideal for summer.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fun summer read.
If you're looking for a nice fun, summery adventure, this is the book for you. It takes you on a trip around mainland Europe, visiting some of the most iconic landmarks in the most popular European cities and you do feel as though you are there witnessing these sights with the characters. I went on an adventure reading this book.

I enjoyed the characters.
All five of the characters in the friends group were decent characters. They were all well-developed and I enjoyed reading about them. The story is told in alternative points of view from both Aubrey and Rae, both of which I enjoyed equally. Though there was nothing particularly special about any of the characters, and none I felt especially drawn to, they were not bad characters by any means.

The drama was just too much.
I was under to illusion that this would simply be a fun trip around Europe with no drama or arguments. However, for me, there was just a bit too much drama. There was drama between almost every character all at the same time and it wasn't necessary. In fact, it made things kind of confusing, I couldn't keep up with what each of them were fighting about. It was as though the author felt the book needed more drama to keep it interesting, when actually the trip itself was interesting enough for me.

Fun adventure to drama backdrop.
Towards the second half of the book, this fun trip around Europe became more of a backdrop than the plot of the book. The drama and developing relationships completely overshadowed the trip. It got to the point where we, as readers, only really got to see the train journey to other places, rather than the places themselves. Important landmarks in great cities become nothing more than the place where relationships moved forward or characters argued. While this was still showing these great places and it still felt like I was on an adventure around Europe, it didn't seem as important to the story, which was disappointing.

I ended up getting bored.
The unnecessary drama combined with the lack of exploring amazing cities lead to me losing interest in the story completely for much of the second half of the book. I stopped liking some of the characters at times and just wanted it to be over. I was so disappointed as it had started off so well and I had been really enjoying it. However, I suppose it just wasn't for me in the end.

Overall, this book started out promising but went downhill. While I enjoyed the travelling aspect, this became overshadowed by the friendship and relationship drama. I appreciate the need for some drama to keep the book entertaining, it was too much for me and really took away from the fun of the book. I guess this book just wasn't what I was hoping for and was not the book for me; however, I did enjoy parts of it.

My mum makes really bad cups of coffee. Like, really bad. Most of the time, my dad can’t actually tell the difference when she makes him a cup of tea. I’m in the same boat as him. There’s something just really weird and disorientating about taking a sip of something and expecting it to taste like something, only to find it is something else. Like a chocolate-coloured cake tasting of pineapple, or a chicken nugget that is actually fish. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it kinda throws you off a bit, if you see what I mean.

The Summer of Us made me think about those cups of coffee/tea. I requested the book because I thought it would be an amazing story filled to the brim with adventures in foreign cities. Having spent six months in Amsterdam a few years back, and making frequent trips to Paris while I was there, I was excited to see these cities again through the book and relive my adventures through Rae and Aubrey’s discovery of places I already knew and loved. And with the thought of some fluffy romances to top that all off, it’s no surprise that I did a bit of a happy dance around my flat when the book arrived.

Except, when  I was reading it, I didn’t really get much of the wanderlust I’d been anticipating. There are flashes of each city throughout the book. There were mentions of houseboats and Vondelpark in Amsterdam, but the book didn’t really do much in the way of exploring the areas beyond a very brief tourist-type overview of the places. For example, the only reason I really knew they were in Amsterdam were the mentions of Vondelpark, coffee shops and the Red Light District, which left me feeling a bit disappointed. Instead of getting to revisit the museums and the streets again, I only really got to recall the really touristy and not very authentic parts of the city, all the parts you’d visit on a stag or hen do, but without the genuine warmth of Amsterdam. There was so much potential here to describe things exclusive to the country and city; the food, the bikes and trams everywhere, the clock chimes, the palace in Dam Square, the Van Gogh and Rembrant paintings, and it just felt a little like a brief glimpse rather than a satisfactory insight into the city. The same went for other places that they visited. Paris could have been explored more fully. In fact, except for a quick mention of the Champs-Elysses, Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, it was pretty difficult to remember they were even in Paris. They could have been almost anywhere, because the bulk of the description was spent on the restaurant they visited and the hotel they stayed at.

Complaints about the actual adventure of the novel aside, I did really enjoy the book. The plot has very fluffy romance and a nice dose of drama in there, which kept me intrigued throughout. I loved the characters, and felt as though each one of them was brought to life in rich detail. Aubrey was so easy to sympathise with, as I can imagine me being just as anxious about missing trains and organizing time if I went on a trip like that. Her interactions with Jonah and Gabe were delightful, and they definitely kept me turning the page, eager to find out where the plot would take me next. The same with Rae and Clara’s scenes. I found each moment gloriously, dizzyingly cute, and couldn’t keep from smiling all the way through the book. The friendships were just as sweet, and I thought there were some very poignant moments in there with some important messages to take away: the importance of friendship, learning how to grow up, being able to understand other people and not grow apart from them. The only issue I had with that is that some of it didn’t seem entirely realistic. There was no mention of the characters’ class or money status, but each of them seemed to be going to international universities [some in America, one in Australia]. As someone who has gone to university, I can maybe name a single person who has gone to an international uni, rather than stayed in the UK. It’s not a very common thing, and it doesn’t seem realistic to have five friends all go away somewhere, even if they did originally come from America. Furthermore, there’s mentions of plans to travel to visit each other peppered throughout the book, despite the huge geographical differences between each of their new homes. I’m not sure if these kids are really rich or not, but I can’t imagine being able to firmly promise even my best friend that I would come visit her if she moved to the other side of the world. Again, it seems a bit unrealistic and kind of took away from the bittersweet realization that these characters I’d fallen in love with were destined to go and live in different cities away from each other, and very possibly [as happens with lots of school friendships] grow apart.

But honestly, the fluffiness of this book and the glorious friendships are what I will be taking away from this book. I loved every moment spent with the characters, and the drama is delicious. The pacing was pretty consistent and I was able to get through the book quickly because it held my interest all the way through. As I said, I’m a little disappointed that the travel aspect of the book took such a backseat, especially as this was my whole reason for being interested in the story, but even so I stuck around for the friendships and romances. It might not be the cup of coffee I was expecting to take a sip of, but tea will do me just fine too.

Overall, I’m giving The Summer of Us a 6.5/10 stars.

Eighteen year old's, Aubrey and Rae are best friends but both dealing with a lot. Leaving to travel on trains from London to Paris, Berlin, Prague, Amsterdam, Florence, Rome and Barcelona along with their friends, Gabe, Jonah and Clara.



However the travelling makes things hard on them all after

Jonah catches Aubrey and Gabe kissing and it's not the first time they've kissed either...



Meanwhile Rae fancies Clara but believes she is straight so when she shocks her with what she tells her a spark of hope just might get struck alight within her heart...



As all the friends wind up in two's after Aubrey and Gabe's kiss, 

there's parties, arguments, new couple's forming and whilst Rae doesn't want to move to Australia and fears letting to of everything and everyone, she realises they're all going to feel the same no mate how much they don't want to separate, it's just how life goes.



The book was told from a split perspective between Aubrey and Rae as it also features the girls romantic relationships predominantly as Aubrey has a heterosexual relationship whilst Rae has a lesbian relationship.



The descriptive writing of the girls describing things was really great and some nice metaphors were used throughout, the places they travel to felt real and the characters falling for each other was totally believable.



Over all it was a great travel book and is perfect for anyone heading off to university themselves and it could be reassuring for them in how they feel about moving being totally valid.



Get ready for adventure and self discovery!



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Exploration of codependency, travelling around Europe (which I have to remind myself real people actually do - it's not just something you see if Mary-Kate and Ashley movies), and an F/F romance sub-plot. Was this book written for me??

'The Summer of Us' perfectly captures the atmosphere of the summer of being eighteen. Everything's changing, your relationships, friendships, outlook on life. It's a confusing time, and I loved that Vinesse focused on these themes, because it's not often you get to read about protagonists this age in YA stories. 

I loved the balance between romance, personal growth, and BFFs, it's the perfect muddled mix of being an almost adult!