How can you not enjoy a book that takes place in an amusement park? I love that as Reilly and her family are grieving, they are able to still find happiness. I also enjoyed that they talked about how their grandpa believed in giving people second chances. There was a lot going on in this story, but it somehow worked for me. As they faced new unknowns, I felt like their reactions were very realistic.

There is one non-binary character and a conversation about pronouns.

Reilly Rhoades knows how much work her family's amusement park and campground are, especially since her recently deceased grandfather insisted that everything be homemade-- he even whittled the sticks for the candied apples himself! She watches as her grandmother spends hours in the park's apple refreshment stand, and as her mother and Aunt Caroline, along with park manager Barnett, struggle to keep the park afloat. Her cousin Nic is enthusiastic about their work, even stepping in to take the grandfather's place on the first opening day without him. When the grandmother collapses on the first day and needs a heart bypass, the aunt announces that they are closing because of rain, angering a lot of people. After a fight with Reilly's mother, Caroline takes Nic and leaves. As the rest of family rallies in order to keep the park running, Reilly runs into a boy her age from the campground, Alex, who is very enthusiastic and wants to help. He's struggling with living with his stepfather, mother, and baby half sister in a travel trailer, and pining for his father, who lives close by. Alex has few filters, and his incisive questions force Reilly to face some of the issues she has dealing with her grandfather's death. He had wanted to install a ski lift to transport campers to the park because the creek that needed to be crossed between the two properties is slippery, but the cost would have been difficult. Alex and Reilly find a way to build a bridge, even involving Alex's father, who works at a nearby lumber yard. The park survives, even though Grandma Jean's recovery will be long, and she doesn't want to come back to work, since she is enjoying her life of ease and socialization at the senior facility. Will Reilly be able to accept this new normal?
Strengths: Family dynamics can be very fraught, and while Reilly and Nic are the best of friends, their mothers are not. The concept of a "camp friend" for kids who live in amusement parks is interesting, as is Nic and Reilly's "job" of testing the rides each morning. The author notes that this is based on some personal experiences, which is evidenced by details like a diaper pitchfork in the pool of balls! Grandma Jean was my favorite, and I think she is justified in retiring, especially since the park was her husband's dream and not hers.
Weaknesses: A family run amusement park that has been in operation for 53 years is certainly going to face a lot of problems, but it would be nice if there were more happy amusement park details, like the ones in DeVillers' Meet Me at Wonderland.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed the sadder amusement park books like Jortner's 2023 101 Days of Lying About Lauren or Kear's 2020 Forever Land.

As a fifth grade teacher, would I recommend my students read this book? Eh, no. I worked at an amusement park for ten years and so any time a setting of a novel is an amusement park my mind says SIGN ME UP! However, this book had a few weird moments that I could read one way, or another way. Without clarification, my guess is the author wants the reader to be able to decide the way they view these moments, rather than making a larger, more specific statement. Reading between the lines, I think the author wants you to “get it” though and for me, that ruined the story itself. Why can’t it just be a great story about a family owned business mixed with grief, change, and growing up? I am not one to reach for something that’s trying to morph into this new culture. My apologies for being “vague” on the moments that bothered me, but the author decided to be vague on how she wanted the reader to interpret these moments too.

What do you do when your grandfather and grandmother own an amusement park? Well, you help out of course. It is a family run park, and if you are Reilly Rhoades, you work there every season, because that is what you do. If your grandmother is making candied apples, you help with that.

And so that is Reilly’s life, until her grandfather dies while trying to figure out how to get people across a river. If you are going to say build a bridge, you are not thinking far enough. But, the show must go on, so to speak, and they open the park, but then her grandmother has a heart attack.

This is the story about a place that is supposed to be happy. Where the slogan is “find your happy” and yet Reilly is not happy. She misses her grandfather, and she is worried about her grandmother…and her aunt…and her cousin…and her mother.

This was a great story. I thought it was going to be about an amusement park, and it was, but it was also about friendships, and learning to let some things go, and to take one day at a time.

What I really liked was the description of how you go from very low when you first are admitted to the hospital, and how you can excel from there in rehab, as I saw my partner do.

Fun book. Quirky too. Very enjoyable.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out the 23rd of September 2025

Reilly’s family has owned an amusement park for over 50 years and with Grandpa gone now, her aunt thinks why own the park anymore. When it reopens for the season, Reilly thinks it doesn’t feel right without Grandpa, but Grandma makes it feel right. When Reilly and Nic find Grandma on the floor, the ambulance is called. Reilly keeps thinking of the signs in town about happiness being around the corner. She wonders if she’ll be able to find it. When they open the park the next day, Reilly makes a new friend, Alex, who is staying for a few weeks. He helps Reilly at the park, and she slowly realizes that even though someone isn’t there with you in your life, thinking about them helps.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.