This book was just what I needed right now!

KJ and Becka are forced to experience five tasks in order to receive the inheritance left for them by their grandfather Eli. Their mother's have hated each other for as long as they can remember and because of that KJ and Becka have always seen each other as the enemy. The intention of completing these tasks is Eli's way of bringing them together. His hope is that even if their mother's never get along again that at least the two girls can build a relationship with each other.

The tasks Eli has coordinated consist of a Mule ride and overnight campout in the Grand Canyon, hiking in Yellowstone National Park, river rafting in South Carolina, Snuba Diving (snorkling and scuba) in Key West, and the final task lands them in an event in their local rodeo. All of the places Eli would have loved to have visited and activities he'd have loved to participate in if he hadn't struggled with Agoraphobia for so many years. All of these adventures will make you want to jump on the travel bus anywhere!

I really enjoyed this story. I love a good YA Contemporary that deals with strained relationships and the ways people can come together to understand one another. KJ is much harder on Becka but that is because she sees her as the one who has everything she doesn't. Becka lives in a nice house while KJ lives in a trailer. Becka has scholarships to college and KJ has never even believed she'd be smart enough to go. They are complete opposites but after spending many hours in the car and being put into situations where they're forced to communicate with each other they find out they have a lot more in common than they thought.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of stories like The Geography of Lost Things, Picture Us in the Light, or The Infinite Pieces of Us.

This was so cute! Becka and KJ have a great relationship and it develops so interestingly in the book. I liked the characters a lot.

Not our Summer is a book about cousins who have to spend the summer together to complete a bucket list their grandfather left them in exchange for their inheritance. It’s such a fun concept and I couldn’t help thinking what a great movie this would be if it was turned into one! However, I struggled with the idea of this deep family feud and the causes behind it.

We follow the story of two sisters (and their daughters) and how family relationships can be amended.
I love that this was a really quick reading, that had beautiful passages and aventures but I couldn’t connect that much with the characters.
I loveeeed the letters from grandpa.

There’s nothing more dramatic than a death and a family feud. NOT OUR SUMMER, an engaging young adult story about a pair of high school cousins who do NOT get along, begins with both. Read during lockdown at my home in the UK, I didn’t realise how much I craved a road trip until the novel took me on one. Casie Bazay writes with clear, ungarnished prose that makes it easy to turn the pages. NOT OUR SUMMER is like hot chocolate in front of the campfire, a comforting treat you wish could go on forever. Here comes the details, so if you want to be entirely surprised by this absorbing book, stop reading this review now!

Cousins KJ and Becky try to have nothing to do with one another. A longtime rivalry between their respective mothers has seeped down to their generation and the cousins truly revile one another.

However, when their grandfather dies they are forced to see each other both at the funeral and at the mysterious meeting when their grandfather’s lawyer explains the terms of the inheritance laid down in the Will. It seems that if they expect to receive an inheritance, they must go on four separate adventures together across America. Their grandfather’s letter, written to them before this death, makes it clear he wants them to get to know one another on these trips and eventually accept and love one another as family.

Well, there is NO way they will do that.

But the money is too tempting….as much as they don’t like one another, they can’t resist the cash.

While the reader can guess the trajectory of enemies to friends, the characterisation between the two girls as they travel America makes the book easy to love. I was particularly drawn to KJ’s situation. As the only child of a mother who earns little and gambles a lot, she’s never hope for much of a future for herself. But if she were to inherit from her grandfather, she has a chance at going to college. For the first time, she begins taking her grades seriously and I was rooting hard for her to succeed!

As for the road trips, each comes with its own set of challenges that the reader enjoys. And Bazay has more in store, too. A family secret, hidden from both KJ and Becky, breaks open wider the feud between families, threatening to make matters even worse.

Woven together by the alternating first person narratives of KJ and Becky, this affectionate little novel may prove difficult for readers to to put down. All I know is that I gulped it down in two sittings and now I want to go scuba-diving in the Florida keys with these girls…

NOT OUR SUMMER is a cutesy enemies-to-family novel about two cousins being forced to complete various daredevil tasks in order to access the inheritance that their mutual grandfather left them., I thoroughly enjoy reading through Becka and K.J.'s POVs.

Not Our Summer is outside of my preffered genre, but it didn´t seize to amaze me. It´s writing was easy and funny and this book was such a quick read in general. I laughed, cried and learned so much with these imperfect and lovable characters. I loved every single moment with it and will definetely buy it once it´s out.

First of all, I wanted to love this book. Summer road trips? Familial bonds and begrudging relationships? Sign me up.
However, as the book went on, I was a bit disappointed.
Characters
KJ and Becka fell flat for me. I knew what Bazay was going for, but the two characters seemed rather two-dimensional. KJ was the bad girl who was angry at the world and her parents and had given up on her passions. Becka was the athlete who trusts whatever her mom says and hates her cousin because she's rude.
I think these are decent bases for characters, but they didn't develop much beyond this, and neither did their relationship. I predicted just about everything in chapter one when it came to their relationship. I also felt their changing feelings towards one another were very forced. It came across as very tell rather than show. We're just told "oh, KJ decided to be nicer in the way she talked to Becka, just cause." They just decide to not be so thorny in the way they talk and then BAM they're friends.
Plot
As said before, the plot was very predictable, but enjoyable. The trips they went on were fun. That was about it. For a character-driven book, the characters were not well developed, and that made the plot sink as well.
Content Warnings
Sporadic swearing, including s***, f***, b***h, and the use of Jesus Christ's name as a swear.

Overall, I think this had a lot of potential. If the relationship between KJ and Becka had grown more naturally, and we had seen more conversations and instances of them actually enjoying one another's company, I would have enjoyed this more. It was a cute enough book, but left me frustrated that their relationship wasn't written better.

This was a great contemporary summer read for teens and adults alike. I would absolutely recommend it to people.

2.5 stars.
The cover is so beautiful. I had so much hopes that i`d really like the characters and the story, but i was just not interested or invested, sadly.

trigger warning
<spoiler> mention of agoraphobia, lethal illness, grief </spoiler>

In order to get their inheritence, two cousins have to spend their summer on five trips. The hitch: Since their mothers are locked in a feud, both of them never really met but still have <i>opinions</i> about the other.

These five things they have to do both are things their grandpa, who suffered from agoraphobia, never got to do and serve the purpose of forging a bond between the cousins that might be able to gap the cliff.

The chapters alternate between the pov of both young women, which means we get to see the other from their perspective, which really tells us much about the person whose head we're currently in. Interspersed throughout the narrative are letters the grandpa wrote in his last days, to be given to them at special days.

Again, this was a kind of fun trip to take while locked indoors. Can't wait for better weather when I can go outside, occupy a park bench and read there. I was in the mood for summer stories, for travel, and contemporary YA stuff. The romance takes a backseat and only gets mentioned in passing, because this is all about friendship and family bonds.
I had fun. It distracted me from a bad health day. And I'm sure other people will have a fun roomp as well.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

It was alright, not my most favorite but a quick read and easy to pass the time with.

The characters are likable but I feel the plot is just missing that extra sparkle to make it grand.

Thank you to Perseus Books and Running Press for letting me read an eARC on Net Galley! This story was sweet and wholesome and gave me a little sense of adventure. Especially being stuck in the house with what's going on in the world today it was nice to be able to go along with Becka and KJ as they try and complete their grandfather's bucket list. I loved the dynamic of having both girls perspectives at times but also their grandfathers as well. It really brought the story full circle. I highly recommend picking this up one this up, I know I will be!

Becka and KJ are cousins who can't stand each other. Years ago, their mothers, RaeLynn and Jackie, had a falling out and now family events can be more than just a little complicated. After the death of their grandfather, Elijah Walker, the girls are forced to attend five trips throughout the course of the summer - if they don't, they won't receive any of their inheritance. Elijah had hoped to build a bridge after being unable to do so between his two daughters, but as their excursions continue, KJ and Becka start to wonder if there can ever be peace between their two families.

I really enjoyed how this book focused on familial issues. One event in their past caused a schism between Jackie and RaeLynn, which in turn caused Becka and KJ to grow up on differing sides of a rivalry. Pretty much all they know of the other is bits and pieces of what their mothers say, so of course there is going to be tension and animosity. It can be tough to unlearn a lot of those misconceptions, especially if you're being told it's the truth from your parents or someone you're supposed to trust. I really liked that being highlighted. The depictions of their trips were also really vivid and I could almost imagine myself riding alongside KJ on a mule at the Grand Canyon, hiking with Becka and Johan at Yellowstone National Park, or even watching the sea-life go by while snuba diving in the Florida Keys. I also found the dichotomy between the two girls fascinating - KJ and her mom don't have a lot of money, live on their own in a trailer park, and she doesn't care all that much about her future because no one has ever expected her to be anything great, while Becka and her mom have more than enough to get by, RaeLynn has been remariied twice and had another child, Ricky (who had since passed away at the age of nine prior to the start of this novel), and Becka has the grades and agility to have a sports scholarship lined up after college. Both are envious of each other for vastly different reasons, and not all of it has to do with money.

I enjoyed the alternating perspectives, along with some of Elijah's letters spinkled in between, as we get to see into the minds of both KJ and Becka. Occasionally I did have some issues with the pacing, and was unsure if the girls were still on their trip after a chapter break or if they had since returned home. In personal taste, I felt that the girls went from pure animosity to friendly a bit too quickly, and some of the comments used to attack each others' families were a bit in poor taste, but others may feel differently with their own experiences. And while I am usually all for a sprinkle of romance anywhere I can get, I really didn't find the romantic moments in this novel all that necessary (other than to be a source of conflict between the girls on their trip, at least in Johan's case), but again, only personal opinion and some may think it added another complexity layer to the story - all valid opinions.

Overall I enjoyed following KJ and Becka's story of family and friendship on a sort of road trip. I hope reader's will find their own things to love about the book when it's released in May, **Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Running Press Kids, for the e-copy, all thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Hello, bookworms, and welcome to my review of Not Our Summer by Casie Bazay! I'd like to thank Running Press Kids and NetGalley for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review. This book releases on May 11, 2021, so make sure to pick up a copy then and give it a read! I'm really excited to tell you about this book, so let's get started!

When their grandfather passes away, estranged cousins Becka and K.J. find out that, to their surprise, Grandpa left a good bit of money to them in his will. Unfortunately, the only way for them to receive that money is for them to complete a vacation bucket list together. Becka and K.J. expect these trips to be torturous--after all, they hate each other due to an unresolved family feud. But as they ride mules down into the Grand Canyon and go snuba diving in the Florida Keys, they begin to grow closer and trust each other. But when the truth about Grandpa's bucket list and their family feud is revealed, will Becka and K.J.'s new friendship be shattered into irreparable pieces?

​I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book! I especially liked the travel aspect of it; I've always loved books involving traveling, and it was fun to explore new places with K.J. and Becka. I now really want to visit Yellowstone and the Florida Keys someday! I do wish that there had been more descriptions of the locations they traveled to; I would have liked to feel more immersed their experiences. It was interesting to watch Becka and K.J.'s interactions with each other grow more friendly and less bitter. I liked how they had such different personalities, so it was easy to tell whose perspective I was reading from in case I missed the name at the chapter heading. Their bickering was a little annoying at times, but I suppose it was unavoidable since they hated each other so much at the beginning. I was also completely shocked and delighted by the twist at the end--I never saw it coming! That being said, it fit really well into the plot line and didn't seem out of place at all. I liked this book had plenty of action but also lots of personal growth in the characters. The ending was satisfying and sweet, and I had a wonderful time following Becka and K.J.'s story.

That's a wrap on my review of Not Our Summer! I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick read about travel and family feuds. I gave this book 3.5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨.

Not Our Summer is a solid debut novel! I thought that the story flowed nicely, the writing was descriptive, and the two main characters, cousins Becka and K.J. had some really nice character growth and I loved watching their friendship grow and change as the story went on. I loved reading about their bucket list adventure that their grandfather planned for them, as well as the letters he left behind that explained why he had planned all of this for them. I'll be honest, I didn't actually see the twist coming but once it was revealed it made complete sense as to why they were estranged from each other for so long. I thought that the ending was satisfactory and ended on a hopeful and realistic note, which I enjoyed.

Though I had wished that there was more diversity within the cast. While we had diversity in social class between Becka and K.J., there was not any racial or sexuality diversity. Not to say that I want characters of color or LGBTQ+ characters just thrown into stories and either used as token characters or stereotypes, but some diversity would've been nice.

It was easy to stay focused and engaged in the story, I read it in mostly one sitting. I'll definitely be checking out Casie Bazay's work in the future.

This is the best book I’ve read in months! I loved the story, I loved the characters and I loved the progression of the story.
Without giving to much away, the characters were flawed but believable. I liked their relationships with their friends and I liked how they were allowed to be emotional throughout the story.
One last thought, I liked how the story isn’t wrapped up in a perfect ribbon. Maybe we will get a sequel!
Enjoy!
* be careful. I couldn’t put this book down and read it in a day. It’s that good.

This was a fun family driven Contemporary with some twist I really enjoyed the back and forth between these two cousins They both had their own voices They were realistic and Heart warming
i usually don't like road trip books but I would Definitely recommend this!

This is a fun, quick summer read about two cousins carrying out tasks from a bucket list set by their late grandfather. The two girls absolutely despise each other because their mothers have a long-standing feud.

This book did a lot of things right. The trips are fun to read about, and it is great American travel-porn. The book is extremely readable. However, it falls short in its depth. There are several moments where it feels like it wants to touch on some deeper subjects--there is some very questionable parenting going on here (especially for poor KJ), one of the girls has lost a younger sibling, there are drastic class differences between the two girls--but the book always takes the "safe" choice and skims over them quickly. This book had the opportunity to be more, but it is still an enjoyable beach read with some good emotion and fun settings.

*e𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸

I feel like this book suffered from too much happening but not enough happening at the same time. The characters and plot felt pretty predictable. It was an enjoyable enough read, but didn't keep me hooked and eagerly flipping pages. This was a quick and easy to get through story, so I would recommend picking this up if you're looking for a quicker read or something a bit more light.