I recieved this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! I thought it would be cheesy, and just your basic "taking a trip and Finding yourself" book, which it was, but it was also so much more. It had twists that I wasn't expecting, and the author really captured the teenage angst with Avery. I remembered myself talking to my parents like she does, thinking they were so stupid, when really it was me being stupid. It was me being a spoiled child. I think the author really gave the characters some good flaws, and also some good ways to help change those flaws. Great book.

35297600Haddix, Margaret Peterson. The Summer of Broken Things.

April 10th 2018 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline



Avery is a well-to-do 14-year-old who loves to play soccer. Her father must spend the summer in Spain for work, and her mother is staying to run her decorating business. Something is wrong with this situation, but Avery isn't quite sure what it is. Kayla is two years older and lives in a small town not too far from Avery's posh town. Her father was injured in an accident before he was deployed, leaving Kayla and her mother to live with her mother's folks while her mother tries to make ends meet with her nursing home job. Kayla isn't well liked at school because she is awkward and unattractive. The two girls were friends under odd circumstances when they were young, and Kayla is approached to come to Spain to be a companion for Avery. Neither girl is all that excited about it, but Kayla is glad to see the wider world. Things go wrong from the beginning-- Avery loses her passport, the apartment in Spain isn't great, Avery won't go to the Spanish language class the girls are both enrolled in, and a dark family secret that affects both families emerges. Avery throws herself headlong into passionate self pity, and Kayla cuts off contact with her very supportive family for a while. Even Avery's father is affected. When the three attempt a road trip to do some sight seeing, there is a medical emergency, and the girls have to work together to get through it. Eventually, they both come to the realization that life goes on no matter what has happened in one's life.

Strengths: Haddix is a local author, so there is always great demand for her books. This is definitely more young adult than many of her titles, in that it is more introspective and sad, but doesn't have inappropriate situations or content. It was interesting to see lives in Ohio portrayed from both ends of the economic spectrum.
Weaknesses: Avery was a horrible child, spoiled and self centered, and the situation with the family secret was not handled well by anyone. The descriptions of Kayla seemed half a bubble off (as someone who identifies more strongly with the working poor), especially when she loses weight over the summer. It was good to see her become more confident, though.
What I really think: This is rather lengthy (about 400 pages), and my readers tend to like there travel books to be a little happier. I may wait to purchase this, since I don't think it will have as many readers as Haddix's other work. High school libraries will definitely want to investigate.

Fourteen-year-olds Avery and Kayla were childhood best friends. The key verb is “were.” Now they can’t stand each other, and they’re as different as a crescent moon night and a summer solstice day. Avery is rich, pretty, popular and worldly. Kayla is quiet, awkward and the butt of ugly jokes. Literally. Her last name is Butts, and she’s called “butt-girl” at school. Things take a strange turn when these two former friends are forced to travel to Spain together. Their parents are hiding something, but what? Will this bring them closer together, or will it tear them apart once and for all?

This book will resonate with those who loved Mean Girls and Gossip Girl. It also resonate with those who enjoyed books like We Were Liars and One of Us Is Lying. But don’t expect this to be as good as those stories. Avery is mean-spirited, selfish and entitled, like Gossip Girl’s Blair Waldorf, minus the pathos. Kayla is far more sympathetic, but she too loses her way somewhere toward the end. The thing that kept me going was the mystery plot. The adult characters are more interesting than the teen leads. This is YA fiction — shouldn’t it be the other way around? I wanted to like this book, but I found Avery irritating and the plot repetitive and laggy. Character-wise, only Kayla and her family carry this story. I give The Summer of Broken Things three out of five iced coffees.

THE SUMMER OF BROKEN THINGS tells the story of a summer that really changes both of the main characters.

Avery Armisted is fourteen, rich, pretty, athletic and just a little bit spoiled. When her parents tell her that she is going with her father to Spain for the summer instead of to soccer camp with her friends, she is angry and disappointed. She is even more angry when her father tells her that they are bringing along Kayla Butts who is two years older and who was a friend when both girls were younger.

Kayla lives with her grandparents and her mother in a small town. She's not rich, not attractive, and is bullied at school by kids who call her Butt-girl. Her mother works in a nursing home and Kayla often tags along. Her best friends are the residents of the home. She is excited to be going to Spain and hopes that she and Avery can be friends again.

Once in Spain, the girls struggle to get along. Avery is so angry and Kayla finally stops trying to appease her. Avery gets even more angry and hurt when she learns that her parents are planning a divorce. Also, she learns a secret about her family that also involves Kayla which rocks the world for both girls.

They need to find a way to pull together and decide if they can be anything to each other. I liked the way Kayla developed self-confidence and self-assurance through the course of this story. I was a little less enthused about Avery who was more volatile in her emotional journey. Of course, Kayla has a much stronger family situation than Avery and more maturity.

This was an engaging story with intriguing characters.