trigger warning
<spoiler> ptsd, depression, being at home for a year because of mental illness, child neglect by mother, gaslighting, homophobia </spoiler>

dnf at page 17. yeah I came far.

This ya book starts with a car drive, our protagonist's father brings her to her mother where she is to spend the summer. The last year before she becomes and adult, hopefully the last time anyone dictates where she has to go.

Her mother tells her to not unpack as, surprise! They're going on a cruise.
The driver arrives. They argue in the car. Surprise! The driver is the new husband, the cruise is the honeymoon and the mentally ill daughter gets dumped into the summer camp that made her mentally ill.
Including a bit of gaslighting, homophobia and get your act together, you're not ill, you're overreacting.

On one hand, I am sorry I have to quit at measly 17 pages, on the other hand I am angry at the publisher for not putting out trigger warnings, because thank you, it hit too close to home and now I'm having a ptsd episode.

Night owls and summer skies is a story about Emma, as her mom goes of on a cruise with her new husband she is forced to spend her summer at summer camp.

What I liked most about this story was probably the setting. I’ve never been to summer camp, but through the activities and the fun group names I really felt the fun summer vibes. I thought the main character and Vivian were both pretty strong characters. You get to know them pretty well which helps you root for them. Another thing I really liked was Gwen, her friendship with Emma and her character in General. Oh and consent, which should be the norm.

I also really liked the interactions with Emma’s mom, her homophobia was horrible but it felt like this (crazy) person could actually exist and it really worked in making me feel angry at her.

But in other areas this story fell short for me. I liked the idea of thoughts on bullying and loneliness, but since Lauren didn’t really seem flashed out it felt a bit unrealistic.
I didn’t think Emma and Vivian had a ‘problematic’ relationship, because they only differ one year in age. I do however think it was a bit strange that someone who is barely older than the kids was given the responsibility to supervise them alone. Especially given the things that go on there concerning bullying. And it didn’t really seem as if Vivian had to confide in other adults a lot, only when Emma and Laura were sent to her dad. After which Vivian was still the one to take care of things. What makes this tricky is that someone who is basically the same age, is very involved in the social “drama’s” that are going on and therefore she has a bit of a... different way of handeling things.


I also felt like there were many other characters (Mike, Abby) who I started to like but could’ve had more of a rol in the story. I just wanted to get to know everyone a bit better.

This book surprised me. I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. Emma was a great main character. I loved that she stood up to her mom, even though I would've made a much bigger scene if mine decided to just drop me at a camp, and Lauren who was horrible. I'm glad we got to see a bit more of her relationship with her dad at the end but I would've loved an epilogue set further into the future.

Night Owls and Summer Skies centers around a young lesbian summer camp romance, between depressed, rebellious and traumatized Emma Lane and mysterious, icy Vivian Black; camper and camp counselor. Seemed like a cute, fun, almost zesty premise for a summer romance, but I was disappointed when the story didn't fully deliver on its premise.

Some of the things I had issue with:

1. The Central Characters
Emma Lane isn't a particularly likable protagonist. Other than her gayness and what seems to be her brazen wit, there wasn't anything that is riveting about her. I found her character to be two-dimensional, though I do think that the later chapters (anywhere between the 75%-85% mark) were more forgiving. I didn't know what she was fighting for and I didn't know why I should be rooting for her.

This extends to the Black family, too. Vivian's character was immediately locked down as mysterious and incredibly hot (like, really hot, apparently) and, there wasn't anything else to like about her. Again, her central purpose in the story seems to be giving Emma a pass for everything she does wrong. There is a redeeming moment for her towards the end of the book, but by that point, I'd already forgotten that she was important.

Lauren, the antagonist of the novel, was a missed opportunity. While I felt that there was thought but into her motivations and actions, I felt that the way she was integrated in the story rendered her basically two dimensional.

2. The Central Romance
The central romance between Emma and Vivian pivots from the love-to-hate trope which I am wont to love but unfortunately did not punch its full weight. My biggest issue was with the dialogue writing. It's clear that banter is supposed to underline Emma and Vivian's interactions, but Sullivan's dialogues are snappy, underdeveloped and difficult to follow. They seemed to be bullet-pointed and planned, which made it incredibly inorganic and rigid. Add on to that, every single character seems to speak in the same way, which distressed me greatly.

3. The Serious Themes
I felt that the themes of mental illnesses, like depression, anxiety and PTSD, as well as homophobia were great themes to this story. They felt organic, like they belonged in the story largely because of the way the story is set up. What I was disappointed with was that they were left largely secondary to the romance. Granted, this is a romance novel, but I felt that there was a missed opportunity to fully explore Mrs Hank's homophobia, or even Emma's PTSD and depression. It would have been interesting to see all these elements play into Emma and Vivian's romance.

Overall, I thought that the premise was promising but the weak plotting and dialogue writing stripped it off its potential. I would recommend this for much younger readers looking for a quick read.

A lesbian summer camp romance that could have been better. I didn't connect much with the characters and it just didn't grasp my attention, unfortunately.

An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I usually love lesfic- but this book felt very lacking to me. I didn't connect to the characters, and they were not developed well so I wasn't really able to root for the characters to be in a relationship together.

I really enjoyed Night Owls and Summer Skies! The banter was great, and I really loved Emma's character. I also really liked Vivian and the other characters as well, although they could have used a little more development. I though the development of Emma and Vivian's relationship was absolutely precious and they felt very much like real teenagers to me. I also appreciated the mental health aspects of the story and felt like they were well addressed. I do feel like a bit more editing is needed to smooth out some awkward sentence structuring but overall I felt like it was really well-written and I found myself so engrossed it was difficult to pull myself away!

The camp counselor/camper relationship didn't bother me like it seemed to bother other reviewers. There was less than a two year age difference, there were clear conversations about consent, and they were never more involved than kissing and cuddling. I see where folks are coming from, there is a power dynamic between counselor/camper, but I guess it never felt like their relationship violated that kind of boundary.

Thank you NetGalley, Rebecca Sullivan, and publisher for the ARC. I give it a solid 4 stars.

As soon as I read the description and discovered that this book was a queer summer camp romance, I was sold. I was excited to read it and had hope that it would be one of my new favourite books. Unfortunately, I was really disappointed by it. I struggled getting into the story and with also liking the characters.

First of all, I didn't really like the whole romance between the camp counsellor (Vivian) and the camper (Emma). These stories normally don't end well due to the superiority of one over the other. Even though Emma and Vivian don't have a huge age-gap it still didn't sit well with me, but I think that all I could think about was the type of relationship that camp counsellors and campers normally have (which is like a caregiver type).
Both Emma and Vivian's characters aren't normally the type of characters I like. They were both outspoken in some aspect and could be seen as bullies in some sense. They aren't warm, friendly characters, they are quite cold and sarcastic which can be hard to read sometimes. This made it difficult for me to create any type of connection to the book.

The plot made sense but I don't think the way it was written complimented that. There was a lack of depth and at some parts I was quite confused at what I was reading and how I was meant to interpret it. I also really did not like how Emma and Vivian seemed to 'hate' each other and then all of a sudden were in a relationship, it was confusing and I felt wasn't the best interpretation.

Although, I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It was a quick read and I feel like some people would enjoy it. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me, but that might have been because I had high hopes for it.

I was so excited when I saw part of the summary, and requested it at once. A summer camp? I love summer camps! I've been a counselor for something like six years.
Unfortunately, I misread the summary, and didn't notice that the main romance was between a camper and counselor. While there is only a year gap between the love interest, it stretches credibility that a nineteen-year-old would be in charge of seventeen-year-olds at a sleep-away summer camp. There is structurally a power imbalance between the two, especially as Vivian is Emma's counselor to begin with. While the book is aware of the negative effects of such (it is usually always Emma taking the first move, for example), all of those who find out about the relationship ignore the power imbalance, and are pleased for the characters.

Emma is quickly established as outspoken, and Not Like Other Girls, though unfortunately, much of her outspokenness is brushed aside once she's been established as having said trait. There are some minor spacing issues on some pages that line up the dialogues of separate people on the same page, which makes it difficult to realize who is saying what in a conversation.

I don't feel as if we as readers had an established handle on Vivian's character, other than a short speech near the end. I feel as if Lauren could have used much further depth as well, as she served as the antagonizing force for most of the book. Much of her motivations seem rather one-dimensional, and Gwen seemed to serve as little more than a plot device.

I would have found this book more enjoyable if parts of it had not seemed so contrived (being dropped off at camp, one-new-counselor-a-year among others). While I'm sure I have friends who would enjoy this, and I will recommend it to them, it was not to my taste.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.

I really wanted to love this becasue a lesbian camp romance sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, I never connected to the characters, and I just didn’t believe the romance. It felt very insta-lovey, and I never got a grasp of who Vivian was as a character, which made it difficult to root for the relationship. I also really didn’t like how Lauren's plot line was handled.