Postcards from Summer was not what I was expecting. I thought this was going to be a light, fluffy read. That's certainly what the cover suggests. Instead I got something much more complicated and curiously moving. This is an unconventional whodunit, a romance that ends both in happiness and tragedy. It's the type of book that leaves you feeling inexplicably emotional, although you can't quite reason why.

I wrote a longer, more detailed review over on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5817690026

Excellent book!! I really enjoyed it and it was very engaging. I liked the plot! It was unique and really good and it was a wonderful summer read.

I had heard amazing things about this book and it wasn't until I started it that I really understood the hype.it was super cute and I couldn't get enough of it.

A super and solid read. I was fully engaged in both storylines and thought Platt did a great job of weaving past and present.

I’ve always wanted to visit Mackinac Island so this was a perfect fiction getaway for me with a bit of mystery, young love, and heartbreak.

While the characters were well developed, I felt the ending missed something. Maybe because I’m a sucker for a book that seems to wrap things up in a bow? Maybe it was missing and epilogue ?

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for this book in exchange for an honest review.

oh geez, i wanted to like this book. I've heard great thing about it, but it did not do it for me. it fell so flat and i'm kinda sad about it but also, like, every book doesn't work for every person, so. thanks netgalley for the e-arc!

Seventeen-year-old Lexi’s dad has never really talked to her about her mother, who died when she was young. When she receives a chest full of her mother’s things in the mail after her grandma dies, many of the mementos mention Mackinac Island. Lexi knows she has to go there and see what she can learn about her mom. She plans a week there to follow in her mother’s footsteps, telling her dad she is going to visit possible colleges. As Lexi uncovers her mother’s story, she befriends an aging Broadway actress and young hotel employee. Will she finally get the answers she has been looking for?

This novel is a dual timeline story, switching between Lexi’s POV and her mom’s POV at the same age on Mackinac Island. The characters in this book are well-developed. At times, I wanted to tell the characters to make better decisions, but they were definitely teenagers being teenagers. The book is long enough that neither timeline was shortchanged; if anything, it could have been shortened a little. With the idyllic Mackinac Island setting, this YA book would make a great vacation read.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Postcards from Summer by Cynthia Platt is an engaging story about a teenage girl on the brink of adulthood who desperately wants to know the mom who died when she was five. When she is given a chest of her mom's belongings, she sets off to Mackinac Island in Michigan to discover what she can about her mom's past. What she finds is a lot of secrets and a lot of heartache, but also a lot of love and friendship. Travel with Lexi as she finds herself and her mom in the places she used to live.
Told from two different points of view, the book bounces between Lexi, current day, and Emma, her mother, during her teenage years. Very well told and also very good narration, I found the book to be quite interesting. Some parts (especially Emma's) were a bit dramatic for my taste, but all in all, I liked it. I would definitely recommend the audiobook, as the narrators were both very good.
thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this book! It really captured the spirit of Mackinac Island, which is one of my favorite places in Michigan, and it was obvious that Platt really did her research when she was working on this book. The emotions in the book were handled so beautifully, and it was a refreshing take on first - and long lasting - love. The dual storylines made for a fun time too.

I thoroghly enjoyed this book.
The mystery with the fire...i kind of figured it out before the reveal .
Following Lexi's journey to find out more about her mother and following Emma's story while she lived on the island in her youth.
The plot left me invested in the story wanting to know what happens.

This story is told in two timelines: that of Lexi and of her mother at a similar age. Sometimes in those sort of stories, I find one narrative much more interesting, but both of these story lines were pretty equally interesting to me. This reminded me a lot of Love & Gelato which I had just read. The storyline of discovering her mother's past romance is definitely similar. I also got We Were Liars recollections, but I am not quite sure why. Maybe the 4 teens relationships and building up to some big occurrence. If you like those sort of books, then I am sure you will enjoy Postcards from Summer. It has mystery, romance, friendships, complicated families, and secrets. I will say this book was long. The audiobook is about 20 hours. I feel like I might have enjoyed it more if it was shorter and moved at a faster pace. While I do read a good amount of realistic/romantic YA, my favorite genre is thriller, so maybe that is why I was wishing for a faster pace. But the characters are well-fleshed out and intriguing. I think that this book will be popular with readers of the genre.

Love & Gelato and Hotel Nantucket vibes! I loved this book. The cover is so so cute. I though it was going to be a fluffy ya rom com. It was really so much more. It’s a long book and I was concerned that there was going to be a lot of extra fluff. The only extra pages were while the main character tried to catch up to what we all saw coming!! It was told with dual timelines. Lexie in present time trying to learn about her mother and Emma, her mother as a girl. Long as it was I loved every minute.

I was pulled in and became invested in Emma’s story. Loved the book and found it very engaging. Would definitely recommend

🔊Song Pairing: Summer Love - One Direction

💭What I thought would happen:

I liked the cover and heard great things, plus the title is just plain pleasing!

📖What actually happens:

Lexi is gifted a mystery package from a maternal grandmother she never knew, it’s contents are that of her late mother, Emma’s, from her youth. Lexi must know more of her mother’s past in a small lake town where she spent her time as a youth.

Flip back the clock to when Emma was a teenager, suffering from societal and family pressures. She had her best friend JR and a flirtation with the sexy trust fun guy everyone wanted to date. Emma wants to pursue art but her parents want her to run the hotel.

🗯Thoughts:

A very Notebook-y read and I’ll start by saying I did not shed a tear in that dumpster fire…

This book had no business being 20 hours long it dragged on painfully for long time. You know you’re over it when you ramp the speed up to 2x. Once I got to about 60% I was in it to win it and very much wanted to know if what I predicted would happen (it did)

This is a great read for fans of Love & Other Words (I’m sorry but so overrated). This book has the cute summer romance vibe and the long standing friendship with all the drama fixings to curb anyones appetite.

Loved buddy reading this with my bestie! We very much agreed along the way and it was nice to vent to someone about the pace and irksome parts. Wouldn’t have made it through without her!

This book had such an interesting back and forth plot, and I love books with main characters trying to discover and uncover secrets from the past. I loved the premise of the book and parallels between stories. I also felt connected with both timelines, which doesn’t always happen.

I agree with everyone one else about the cover of this book. It’s beautiful. I appreciate NetGalley giving me the change to receive ARC audiobook. I enjoyed this book. However, 17 hrs for an audiobook is long. I think I saw on another review this book was close to 700 pages. I enjoyed the back and forth from the present to the past. Going to Lexi’s POV and Emma’s POV. Mackinac Island is described in such an eloquent way, that I would love to spend a few months there. I enjoyed Emma’s storyline a tiny bit more than Lexi’s. Only thing I would suggest is that a book like this been made into a 2 part story or shortened so the reader isn’t skimming towards the end.

I really liked this storyline. It was a long book but a good book. I loved the love triangle (or the perceived love triangle), and I loved how the journey brought the main character back to the truth about her legacy.

Lexi’s mother passed away when she was young, and her father got rid of most of her belongings and doesn’t like to talk about her. Now 17 and trying to figure out what to do with her life, Lexi wants to learn more about her mother. One day a mysterious chest is delivered—a grandmother Lexi never knew passed away and her caregiver forwarded a box full of her mother’s memories.

For the first time in her life, Lexi breaks the rules. She lies to her father and heads off on adventure to Mackinac Island, knowing only that her mother spent summers there. Using the contents of the chest as her guide, she searches for the truth about her mother’s history.

The story is told in two voices—that of 17-year-old Lexi, and that of 17-year old Emma, who put together the chest before leaving the island and her family behind. (There are also two narrators, both very good, but who sometimes sound similar, which occasionally got a little confusing.) The alternating story lines offer both differing viewpoints of the same story and parallel experiences. There are mysteries to be solved—whether or not Lexi or Emma want to learn the solutions. There are twists, some more surprising than others. And there is the beautiful backdrop of Mackinac Island.

A delightful coming of age story about friendship, family, loyalty, and young love, as well as about when your dreams do not match others’ expectations, and the impact that secrets can have on relationships.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with this ALC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a VERY long YA book, and there is a lot to it! Though I don't think it was perfect, and it took me a while to get into it in the beginning, once it really picked up I was really invested in the story, and there was a lot that I really liked about this book! I felt like this was similar to Mama Mia 1 and had the overall vibes of Mama Mia 2, if that makes sense? I am a HUGE Mama Mia fan, so I loved this. I also found the depiction of an emotionally abusive relationship to be really well done, especially when it was coming from someone who has really deep insecurities. We see at least one dude-bro on Love Island every season who suffers from this, but it was different to read it from the perspective of the recipient.

I will say that I was not a huge fan of Emma as a character (and Lexi a little bit for the same reasons). I wished Emma could have been more decisive at times, and would get annoyed at her repeatedly being presented with opportunities to back out of what was happening, and then would turn them down and just be really sad. But hey, if that's not beginning a rebellious teen phase, I don't know what is! I also found both of the reveals to be pretty predictable, but made a good story anyway.

Overall, I am really happy to have read this one, and highly recommend to people who love books that explore grief with lighter vibes (and lots of romance)!

4.5 stars

This was such a beautiful story. What really caught my attention was the location of Mackinac Island. It’s such a gorgeous place and I loved hearing Lexi’s descriptions and views as she spends a week trying to discover the secrets of her mothers past. As Lexi digs deeper and finds more clues about her mothers past, she begins to question her own parentage.

There are many great things about this book. I listened to the audio, the narrator was wonderful. I also liked the past and present POV, you got to see Lexi and her moms story and how they intertwined with the present. Overall I liked how the story ended and was happy to see that Lexi got the answers she came to the island to find. I would definitely recommend.

Lexi receives a box of her long passed mother's things. After receiving the box her step sister and her came up with a plan to have Lexi travel to Mackinac Island to see if she can learn more about her mother. The rest of the book goes back in forth between present time, and when Lexi's mother, Emma lived on Mackinac Island.

If I would have read this book when I was a teenager, I more than likely would have rated it higher. Sadly for me, I find myself finding most YA books predictable; this book being one.

Some of the things I really enjoyed were - the writing, the setting, the fact that it bounced between past (Emma - Lexi's mom), and present (Lexi), the stories of friendships

Some of the things that I did not really enjoy were - the length of the book (it was a 20 hour audiobook), and the love triangle (that feels like it lasted a lifetime)

I want to thank the publisher & netgalley for giving me a free audiobook and letting me leave an honest review.