I just finished “Meet Me at Midnight” by Jessica Pennington and my thoughts are all over the place. I really loved this and then sometimes I wanted to throw my kindle at the wall. I have a love/hate relationship with this book and I’ll explain why.

Blurb: Asher and Sidney have vacationed and pranked each other for years, but it isn’t until they decide to call a truce and turn their pranks onto a mutual enemy that the two start to show their true feelings.

“Meet Me at Midnight” is an enemies to lovers slowest, slow burn YA romance with a touch of angst and whole lot of self-sabotage. There were a lot of positives and negatives about this book and I’ll just break it down for you.

POSITIVES:
•Asher makes this book. He’s sweet, thoughtful, kind, endearing. I almost gave the book four stars just because of Asher.
•The prank war premise was interesting.
•Sidney and Asher’s chemistry is undeniable. I loved reading about their innocent young love.

NEGATIVES:
•This book felt really long, only because I think it took a good portion of the book to get to the actual romance.
•Sidney drove me crazy. She constantly doubted everything and her teenage insecurity, was understandable, but annoying at times. I kept thinking, get it together girl. This guy really likes you.
•The ending was good, but not great. I needed more comfort after so much angst.

So with all that being said, this was an interesting read for me. One character alone made me want to give this a four star, but I think in the end I needed just a little less self-doubt from Sidney and a lot more romance from an earlier point.

I LOVED this enemies-to-lovers trope! And set during summer on a lake in Michigan?! Yes please! Sydney and Asher are the YA version of Lucy and Josh from “The Hating Game”. Their hate-to-love relationship was everything I could have asked for. I loved every second of their pranks and banter! And Asher… where was someone like him during my summer vacations?! This book left me aching for summer and I will definitely be re-reading this by the lake. If you love YA, then you don’t want to miss this one!⁣

I LOVED this book. It was honestly one of the funniest lighthearted books that I have read in a long time. Because of that, I sped through it wanting to know what was going to happen between Sidney and Asher. The two of them were quite the pair together. They always seemed to be getting into trouble, no matter what situation they were in together.

As Sidney and Asher's relationship progressed you couldn't help but root for them all the while. Let me just say that the pranks that they complete are quite something and I would not want to be on the receiving end of them. But I think that's what made reading about them all the more fun. As the reader, you weren't being pranked, but you could still be a part of the fun.

I think that my favorite part of this book is the fact that it gives strong summer vibes. It reminds you of summer vacations and warm weather. It reminds you of all the fun times that you had in the summer and what could happen in the future. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting a light and summery read filled with a cute couple.

This was so much enemies to lovers that it was almost impossible to imagine because these two characters had harmed each other so much . . . I think the sequencing was a bit off in how the story was told. Certain parts of the past were told interspersed with the present but it didn't always work for me. I liked the characters but I would have preferred more about their past and their motivations. This is a sweet read and definitely a good summer read, however!

Meet Me at Midnight comes out next month on April 7, 2020, and you can purchase HERE. If you want a quick summer YA read, you should check this one out!

Here's the problem with knowing someone since you were ten and vacationing with them since you were thirteen: they know way too much. They've seen things. The neurotic things you only did once. The embarrassing things you wish you could forget. Usually it's people we love who know these seemingly harmless things. But when it's someone you hate . . . those tiny bits of your past become the ultimate ammunition. And with the right arsenal, it's war. The war I call summer last exactly fifty-six days. It doesn't end, and it has only two sides: min and his.

4 STARS

This was such a fun YA Contemporary Romance! This is the story of Sidney and Asher--two teens who are forced to spend every summer together with their parents on a lake. Sid and Asher spend their summer days finding new ways to prank and ultimately out-do the other. This summer, however, their plans are thrown in jeopardy when one of their pranks causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake house rentals. Once they get into their new rental, Asher proposes a truce, and to join forces to prank the woman who kicked them out. They think that the truce will make the summer easier, but have to face the music--six years of pranks, and the reason behind why it all started, are really hard to ignore.

I really thought this was such a well done book. There were parts that had me laughing out loud, and other parts that were more serious. I really loved the "enemies" to lovers vibe of this book, and the banter between Sidney and Asher was very well written. Sometimes YA can seem TOO YA, in that the dialogue is cheesy, or everything is insta-love, but <b><i>'Meet Me at Midnight'</i></b> was neither of those things. I enjoyed the level of maturity that eventually showed through in these characters, and how Pennington truly made you love and relate to them. They were so well written and came off the page like they were real. I also really enjoyed the flashbacks that were trickled throughout the story, and how they lead up to why they "hate" each other in the first place.

Overall I think if you like Contemporary Romance, you would enjoy this story. I was very impressed, and will definitely be checking out Pennington's other works.

Much thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the advanced e-copy of the book in exchange only for my honest thoughts and review.

Meet Me at Midnight is a wonderful upper-YA book that is the perfect lighthearted, but grounded, spring/summer read. The book alternates between two points of view and it was great seeing both main characters' perspectives of events. I love the enemies-to-lovers trope and that was put to good use in this book. I have a few nitpicks about it (the biggest being the reason of their breakup before summer was over - it was a little weak) but overall I really enjoyed this book and think a lot of others will too. It really is the perfect summer read and will happily read what this author writes next.

I loved this book. It made me laugh and I lost count of all the times I went "aww". It was nice to see a summer YA novel that was set in Michigan. I highly recommend this book. You won't be disappointed.

I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw this book available to request in Netgalley I was so excited because hate-to-love? Yes please! Also, the fact that most of the books in NG are just "wish for it", so generally seeing books that I could request is exciting. Unfortunately, when I read it, I didn't get those feels I usually get whenever I read books featuring my favorite tropes. I'll admit first that maybe, my expectations were too high for Meet Me at Midnight, so despite having all the things I usually enjoy in a book, it ends up being just an okay read for me.

I think the main reason why this book fell flat is the writing-style. I'll be honest here, I was really bored throughout the book. I'm sure you hear this a lot, but I think it has to do with the telling-not-showing thing. Also, this book has a lot of monologue, that sometimes it stretch for pages (note that I read it in my phone, so I'm not really sure how it is in the physical book. It just felt so long when I read it). It's not until the last few chapters that I enjoy this book and couldn't put it down.

As for the characters, I actually could relate a lot to Sidney, but I was also kinda irritated with her. She's the type a person that loves to plan (way) ahead and always think of the worst-case scenario, which is basically me in a nutshell. Planning ahead is a good thing, except that throughout the book she keep messing things up because of said planning, and reading this annoy me quite a bit. However, reading this book made me wonder if people see me that way too and I realize that I probably should just live a little sometimes. Beside Sidney, we also get Asher's POV (though it's little compared to Sidney's), and he's quite likeable that you can't help but liking him.

I mentioned above that my expectations were too high, and I'm talking about the romance. Sure, there are some parts that made me swoon and giddy here and there, but mostly I just feel indifferent. There were barely any tension and chemistry between them, and I also feel the transition from 'enemies' to more happens out of nowhere.

All in all, Meet Me at Midnight might not reach my expectations, but if you're okay with the writing-style, I think you could enjoy this book more than I did.

Epic pranks. Midnight meetings. Enemies to lovers. A summer backdrop. Sounds great right? Seriously, it should have been. It even had a Kasie West vibe, and I love her books. Unfortunately, something just fell flat.

Meet Me at Midnight picks up as Sidney and Asher dash to claim the “unicorn” chair—the chair to end all the chairs apparently—during their last summer at the lake before heading off to college. It showed the two’s odd, competitive dynamic. Since their parents are college buddies, Sidney and Asher’s families have been spending their summers at the same lake every year since they were 14 in side-by-side lake houses. After an odd change of events that first summer, the two started a prank war against each other that they’ve continued every year. Now 18 and getting ready to head off to (the same) college at the end of the summer. So basically, it’s time to see who’s going to win the war!

Unfortunately, a prank gone wrong gets them kicked out of their lake houses and sent to live in the same house on the other side of the lake. Asher leaves Sidney a note, Meet me at midnight. And the two decide to end the prank war and turn their dark gifts on the landlord who kicked them out of their houses. From there, the two find out the other isn’t that bad, and soon fall for each other.

This should have been a great book. The premise sounded adorable but it just ended up being awkward and drawn out. It was still sort of good, but I felt like there was so much I wanted to change and rewrite myself. So here’s the problems:

1. About 25% enemies, 75% lovers
The thing is, if I wrote this, I would’ve made it a slow burn. I’d invest you in the prank war, draw in their friends, really bring in that enemies-secretly-in-love trope. Maybe let them join forces at about halfway in, but keep them arguing for a bit before they get together after a prank gone sideways.
Clearly, I’ve thought this over.
But this was one of those books where they get together way too early, and we deal with their awkward couple problems for most of the book. It feels like they get together way too early, and the book automatically loses sight of the plot. The friends suddenly don’t exist. They go on subpar dates. They even quit pranking the landlord.

2. Sidney.
I kind of hated her. She was supposed to be a planner and constantly had to know what was happening next. And that’s fine. It’s okay. But then! But then it got to the point where she expected everything to go wrong, and the way. They. Broke. Up. Oh my gosh. Just no. No. Asher is a sweetheart, and she thought he would do that? I didn’t want them to get back together after that.

3. Toxic relationship?
So after these two get together, they basically ignore all their friends. That just really bothered me. Sidney just blows off her friend Kara, and we basically never hear from her after that. Plus, Sidney starts to be overwhelmingly invasive. She goes through his stuff when he’s not there—she sniffs his deodorant! She finds a necklace—and obviously that means he’s seeing another girl. *eye roll*

4. Time
The time in this book is just weird. First, it takes place over about two months in the summer, but it goes by day by day at times, then goes weeks in advance. In the end, we skip forward months at a time in each chapter. There’s also only two chapters that seem to be randomly placed flashbacks to the two’s first summer at the lake.

5. That ending.
As I mentioned, I hate Sidney. And she didn’t deserve Asher. Normally, I’m not petty about this kind of thing, but really, the way she flipped on him just really bothered me. Then when they fight about it, she’s just pushy and expects things to go back to how they were. But kudos to Asher for putting her in her place in that argument—I loved that part, it was really well written and just on point. This was a book where I just felt that the main leads didn’t belong together.

There were good parts though. The pranks were cute, and Asher filled the part of the cute, charming male lead well. He was likeable and interesting, but sometimes he lacked a solid character. And I feel like the whole “my dad wants me to be him, but I don’t want to!” trope is overdone, but here it just felt halfhearted and random.
Despite everything, this wasn’t horrible. There were some good points. It just dragged and got overly frustrating.

This book surprised me! It’s a pretty fun summer time romance book–perfect for a beach day. I thought the main characters Sidney and Asher had great chemistry even if their interactions felt a little cringe at times (though maybe I just felt that way because I’m not a teenager anymore). There were a few times that the author refused to go along with widely accepted tropes for this type of book, and I really appreciated that. I don’t want to give any spoilers or anything, so I won’t go into specifics. But sometimes authors almost…fabricate drama? I never really felt like that happened in this book. I was super into the first two thirds, but then the last third was a bit less enjoyable (which kept it from being a four star read for me). Throughout, I really liked our two main characters, but towards the end they both made decisions and acted in ways that made me like them a little less. Overall, I would definitely recommend this as a summer read! 3.5/5

Note: I received a copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book to be so exciting. The POV changes throughout the book, which is such a great way of telling this story. It was easy to tell who was speaking and so fun to read the different perspectives to the same experiences.

This book follows two 18 year olds who spend every summer together with their families in cabins on a lake. They prank each other every summer, with 3 simple rules that they must follow. The pranks are funny and creative. When everything changes this summer, the two youth join sides together against a common enemy. They create new and creative pranks against their former landlord.

This book has great visualizations and was a fast read. I found myself staying up late at night just to read one more chapter and one more and one more.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books about unlikely alliances, summer silliness, and a book that will suck you in quickly!

✨Meet Me At Midnight by Jessica Pennington✨

Oh I love, love, loved this book! It’s the best YA that I’ve read this year! It really gave me Huntley Fitzpatrick vibes, which is always a great thing for me!

From the blurb...
“Sidney and Asher should have clicked. Two star swimmers forced to spend their summers on a lake together sounds like the perfect match. But it's the same every year--in between cookouts and boat rides and family-imposed bonfires, Sidney and Asher spend the dog days of summer finding the ultimate ways to prank each other. And now, after their senior year, they're determined to make it the most epic summer yet.
But their plans are thrown in sudden jeopardy when their feud causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake houses. Once in their new accommodations, Sidney expects the prank war to continue as usual. But then she gets a note-- Meet me at midnight. And Asher has a proposition for her: join forces for one last summer of epic pranks, against a shared enemy--the woman who kicked them out.” This is the most perfect YA version of enemies to friends to well...something else but no spoilers here 😂. It’s written so well and you just won’t be able to put it down. The two main characters are just so sweet and seeing their hatred towards each other slowly soften and their confusion about that is so funny and cute!

This is such a perfect read for coming into the warmer months, it paints the picture of long, warm, summer days so perfectly.
This is the sweetest YA romance that I’ve read in a while, definitely check this out if you liked the above mentioned Huntley Fitzpatrick and Morgan Matson too!

Meet Me At Midnight is out April 7th ✨
Advanced copy from Net Galley ✨

Meet me at Midnight is the perfect pick for a lazy day spent in bed in those difficult times.
The story illustrates two enemies that have been spending the summer vacation together at a lake location for the last 6 years. They weren’t always sworn enemies, but circumstances led to misunderstanding and, therefore, they started to get back to each other by making pranks, which is the absolute competition between them (this is what Sidney thinks, anyway).
When a joke comes out not the intended way, both families are given notice to leave their vacation houses as soon as possible.
A note saying Meet me at Midnight transformers this moment into a crucial one, and the main characters decide that “hate” can be forgotten between them and start working as a team against their common enemy.
This book was a very pleasant one to read as Sidney and Asher learn the path into friendship, and then to so much more.
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Though summer feels like a long-time coming, I felt perfectly ready to read my first book of the year about summer vacation. I knew from the get-go that Meet Me at Midnight by Jessica Pennington (in stores April 7) was going to include my favourite trope: enemies to lovers, so I was ready to dive right in… pun not intended.

I really, really enjoyed this book. My family used to rent a cottage in the summer when we were younger, and though I didn’t have quite the same experience as Sidney and Asher, I could relate to basically having a whole second life in those precious weeks while school was out.

Sidney and Asher were both likable characters. Sidney was a “good girl” without being nauseatingly self-righteous, and Asher didn’t have a jerky bone in his body and was a secret romantic, which was adorably refreshing for a teenaged boy in print. I enjoyed that you got each of their perspectives and that there wasn’t a ton of information that one person kept from the other, if you know what I mean…it wasn’t like there were two completely different stories happening at the same time.

My only criticism, really, is that the end of the book did drag on a little. I understand, narratively, why it happened, but it felt like almost a different book because we were removed from the summer house setting. There could have been another way for the plot to come to a conclusion. That being said, it didn’t bother me too much—I still powered through this book faster than I have been.

Fans of YA, of summer reads and of my favourite enemies-to-lovers trope will definitely love this book. I highly recommend it!

4.5 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillian and Tor Teen for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

<b>"It’s not like kissing someone gives you any sort of claim to them. There’s not some binding contract of exclusivity that goes along with a kiss."</b>

The World is dealing with a lot of sadness and heartbreak lately and I seriously needed something cute and sweet to boost my spirits. Meet Me At Midnight did that job and so much more. This was the right thing to add to my life live right now.

Sidney and Asher live to torment each other even though they fit perfectly together on paper. They are both competitors and love to swim but are always forced to spend their summers together. When they should be enjoying the nice warm weather and beach, they find the ultimate ways to prank each other. But one prank too many gets them kicked out of their rental houses. Which results in both families staying inside the same house for the rest of the summer.

With two of the best pranksters, they come up with a devious plan to get back at their old landlady. Together they'll come up with something explosive to settle the score. But can they agree on a truce while working together? Will they admit the fireworks that go off while they're together? Or will this ruin their summer of fun before college?

This was absolutely adorable. The pranks that Sidney and Asher pulled on each other had me laughing out loud. I just couldn't believe how much trouble they went through to get the other to crack. Asher was my favorite character because he seemed the most genuine and super easy to love while Sidney felt like an intruder. But I still liked them as a combo. I also really enjoyed that it wasn't an instant happy ending and we saw how this split affected both of them while attending the same college. It was genius.

Meet Me At Midnight is the perfect book to read to boost your mood. The enemies to lovers trope is definitely a guilty pleasure and this one was just fun. This will put your faith back into swoony romances. This adorable and quirky read is the right pick-me-up!

I ENJOYED…
☂️

- I love these kind of books that give me all the summery feels and Meet Me At Midnight really did. With its setting, set in twin lake houses, the lake, the swims and the late summer nights, it’s a perfect read if you’re looking to put a little sunshine in your days.
- Told in two different POV, we get to meet both Asher and Sydney as they meet each other again for the summer, are in for a last summer of epic pranks before college and… well, trying to survive each other for the very last time.
- I liked Sydney a lot: she was such a driven, organized and determined main character. She sometimes made me a little frustrated with her decisions, but I could understand where she came from.
- Asher was my favorite. He was so endearing and kind and sweet and I loved how he grew thorough the story, getting away from his father’s expectations for his life and future and carving his own path.
- The romance was one of my favorite parts of this book… obviously, it was the biggest part of it all. It’s a great enemies-to-lovers romance, with foundations in the past and a great built-up all over the course of the novel, just as well. I loved the characters’ chemistry and the development of their relationship, too. It had its miscommunications and its mistakes, but I rooted for them so, so much. And the banter, oh the banter was fantastic, making this such a thrilling, entertaining read.

I HAD A HARD TIME WITH…
☂️
- The book felt a little unevenly paced: I felt like the second half dragged a little more than the first one. The summery, lake setting really made me happy and, if seeing them setting off to college was a lovely addition to a young adult book, I felt like this second part was a little slower.
- I missed the secondary characters! I feel like some of them had potential, yet we didn’t get to know them so much and it made me a little sad.

OVERALL
☂️
- If you enjoy summery, enemies-to-lovers kind of romances, you should fall in love with Meet Me At Midnight for sure! If I felt like the pacing was a little uneven in the second half of the story, I rooted for the main characters and their romance, their banter, chemistry and epic pranks making this an entertaining read overall. Fans of ya contemporary romances, I recommend it. I’ll certainly check out more books by Jessica Pennington sometime!

Final rating: 3,5 drops!

I am so in love with this book.

I had to take a few hours to mourn after finishing it before I wrote a review. This story was so enchanting that I felt absolutely crushed when it was over. It was my first Jessica Pennington novel, and I found that I really like her style of writing. I immediately purchased her first two novels so that I could maybe push off the sadness of Meet Me At Midnight ending for just a little while longer.

Stories of hate-to-love relationships are my favorite, and this one was one of the best. I think it's something about the tension in the air when the two flirt/tease each other. You just KNOW they're dying to kiss, and page after page I was rooting for it like mad.

One thing that stood out to me the most were the character backgrounds. It was the perfect balance for me; I don't like when authors give long elaborate stories on backgrounds of minor characters, but I also don't like when they give nothing. Jessica Pennington knows how to write a good balance between unnecessary details just to fill out pages and one-liner cardboard cutouts of human beings. I appreciated that.

Also, shout out to the author for representing Michigan! I don't think I've read a book that entirely takes place in my state, and I positively swooned over reading the incredibly accurate descriptions of summer lake life.

I did really enjoy the setting and the concept of this read. I thought this explored a realtionship that I have not often seen in YA literature. I really enjoyed the love to hate elements of the story. I really liked the setting that we saw in previous books in this series. I struggled a bit with the pacing of this book and the tension was not as "intense" or captivating as I wanted it to be. But it was super fun read and I would def read more by the author in the future.

Meet Me at Midnight is the perfect summer read and makes me wish I was sitting at the lake on a nice sunny day right now. The world is a crazy place at the moment and a book like this is the perfect escape. Jessica Pennington wrote such a fun enemies to lovers story and left me wanting more.

Our main characters Sidney and Asher have been spending the summer together for quite a few years, because their families vacation together at the same lake houses for quite some time. These summers have been filled with pranks and not leaving each other alone. I have to say these pranks made me laugh: Kool-aid in the shower, lemonade on bed sheets and so many other things. Let's say these two put thought in teasing each other. That is until the pranking goes too far.

Once the families are forced to live together, things change and a truce is called. Sidney and Asher slowly start working together, even if it takes time. I think this was my favorite part of the book. Both of their characters start to change and feelings start to develop. Maybe they don't have to be enemies? It was refreshing that there was already a lot of history and that glimpses in the past showed us more of these characters.

Asher and Sidney were an interesting duo. This summer was full of change, because they were headed off to college. What would happen after this year? It was fun to see both characters slowly deveop and open up. Even if Sidney really got on my nerves quite often. She really runs from her emotions and while part of me understands her, at times it rubbed me the wrong way, haha. Sidney's character is consistent throughout the book, so that's why it didn't have any affect on my rating.

Asher was my favorite character from the start. Even if he seemed a bit full of himself, there was so much more. To me he was a perfect book boyfriend. Asher was sweet, sensitive and pretty romantic. I loved how much he tried fighting for love no matter how hard he got pushed away. For Asher this summer was more than just pranking. It was also time for him to stand up to his father and say what he wants.

All in all, Meet Me at Midnight was such a fast and fun read! I definitely see myself re-reading this in the future! Maybe on the beach with the sun shining!

Every summer since they were fourteen, Sidney and Asher have been pulling pranks at each other and considered themselves as “enemies”. However, for their last summer before going to college, Sidney and Asher will have to team-up against a common enemy who nearly ruined their summer and forced them and their families to live together for the rest of summer.

This book was such a cute and fun read. I have to say it took me a few chapters to get into the story, but once Sidney and Asher started pranking and bantering with each other I was hooked! I loved the writing a lot and the way the chapters were structured, per day, helped to set the perfect pace, in my opinion, it was not too slow nor too fast. Some flashbacks about Sidney and Asher’s first meeting and other moments between them were also included and it helped understand their relationship and special bond.

The book’s main focus was the romance between the two characters and I loved witnessing the evolution of their relationship. From the outset, it was clear how much Sidney and Asher knew about each other, but you also understood that their mutual “hatred” was hiding something else. Once they teamed up, they didn’t really know how to act around each other, so their interactions rapidly became awkward. I think this was my favorite part of the book. The way they acted all weird around each other and started discovering their feelings for each other was the cutest and sweetest thing!

Overall this was a really adorable contemporary romance, I liked both main characters and their relationship was really sweet. I removed one star because as I explained it took me some time to get into the story. Maybe it’s because I mainly read NA and not YA romance these days. Anyways, you should all check out Meet Me at Midnight because Sidney and Asher were the cutest and I enjoyed their story very much.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.