A heartbreaking and warming story about a girl who loses her best friend.. her sister. Anna lost her older sister right after graduation and her life just stood still. When Anna finds her sister's journal and sees a list with adventures she'd wanted to do that Summer, Anna decides to do the list for her. This she does with long time childhood friend Cameron.

The list contains stuff that most bucket list's of a teenage girl would. Its was amazing how you felt the grief of both Anna and Cameron after Storm passed. Everything they did was with a purpose, and they just wanted to keep her close. The relationship between Cameron and Anna, her Aunt Morgan and her best friend Piper, were great to see.

There wasn't a character I didn't like to be honest. It was just so well written, you could see every different point of view were every character was coming from. The telling of the story was fantastic as we had the overcoming of grief and also the main character becoming her own person.
Also the ending blew me away, i never saw it coming and it broke my heart all over again.

A very enjoyable book that deals with some bigger issues, such as the loss of a sister.

I'm not sure that "epic" is the word I would use to describe this road trip, maybe played out? I really liked the idea of Anna taking over her deceased sister's bucket list. The road trip was light and entertaining but unoriginal. I felt like this book didn't have an aspect that makes it stand out from other YA coming of age/road trip books. Anna and Cameron fall in love (obviously) but I never felt connected to their characters and quite frankly I didn't really like Cameron. The characters weren't really fleshed out. For example, we keep hearing how Piper is Anna's best friends but all of their conversations and interactions are superficial. I wish there was more character development to help me become vested in the story. I honestly think my favorite character was Storm, who you never actually meet in the book but only hear about. Storm seemed to be the most dynamic character of the bunch. While I enjoyed the beginning half of the book I quickly grew uninterested. Overall, this book is a standard coming of age story that many teenage girls will enjoy.

There are spoilers below. The book is set to come out May 9, 2017
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I honestly really enjoyed this book! It's a contemporary which is something I haven't been reading a lot lately so it was a nice welcome change. Going into this book, I wasn't completely sure on what to expect. It's a little funny because I logged into my netgalley account shortly after entering a contest on goodreads for this particular book. Little did I know, I'd get to read it right away!

It starts out with Anna's older sister, Storm, passing away in a car accident and the events that follow during the funeral. Honestly, at the beginning, Anna sounded a lot like me and I think that's why I was able to get so involved with this story-line. There's a chapter where she finds her sister's summer bucket list, and one of the things on there was to "be brave," now, when she's first taken to complete that particular item, she's hesitant because she won't do anything "dangerous and stupid." I'm the exact same way where my mind jumps to the worse case scenario and I refuse to do something.

The list continues and Carmen and Anna end up taking a road trip to cross off other items on the list, traveling from Iowa to North Carolina. I loved the details towards the southern food that was mentioned, it definitely made me quite hungry for certain things - the pulled pork with the slaw and sauce is quite tempting after trying it while I was in North Carolina last year - and it was a nice detail in the story, though it's not important in the least. I especially loved the Polaroid pictures, it'd had a Taylor Swift-esque feel to it.

Towards the end, I was caught by surprise. I hadn't expected the real reason behind Storm's death, nor had I fully expected Anna to react the way that she had. But the overall ending was absolutely amazing and I really hope that Rachel decides to maybe make a follow-up to this with either Anna's future after she graduates or way into the future so that we can see if she really did decide to take her life into her own hands after following her sister for so long.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The cover interested me right from first glimpse, and the synopsis made me desperate to know more. Anna is the little sister who has always idolized Irish twin, big sister Storm. It isn't until Storm is gone - dead after a tragic, graduation night car crash - that Anna sets off to figure out who she is without Storm.

I knew this one would pull at my heartstrings, but there were still unexpected twists and turns as Anna comes to terms with her grief. Bateman packs a lot into one summer including grief stricken families torn apart by the death of a child, friends leaving for college, and teenage friendship and love. You won't find a lighthearted summer read in this book, but you will find a compelling adventure of self-discovery!

I really loved that this book balanced the light and happy moments with the deeper and sadder ones. It actually reminded me a lot of Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson but not so much so that I felt I was rereading the same book. I think you can see Anna regretting how she has grown apart from her sister in a very realistic way, it’s like you can literally see her struggling with the guilt she feels being happy when she knows her sister isn’t with her.

I loved Anna’s relationship with Cameron and I loved that Cameron helped get her out of her comfort zone a bit and helped her complete the list. Although the characters didn’t seem to be the biggest fan of her “blow-up” at the rude lady at the B&B, I seriously loved it because it wasn’t any of that ladies business and Anna’s response was just the slap in the face that the lady deserved.

I usually see plot twists coming but the one that was added into this book I didn’t see coming at all. Like, getting closer to it I felt like something was up but what happened wasn’t what I thought was going to happen, but I think it helped make it all a little more real.

I do feel like some of the characters could have been a little more flushed out. I do understand that the main premise of this story is Anna and how this trip helps her get over the loss of her sister and find herself but I feel like we only get to see how the other characters are in relation to her. We know about Cameron and how he was friends with the sisters but then when he mentions something like having a brother or going to Yale I feel like it was a little fact dumpy. Also her friend Piper is supposed to be this amazing friend and I understand that she is having her trouble with going away to college and the fears that this brings but she doesn’t seem to understand that Anna just went through a horrible tragedy and she just wants her happy go lucky friend back to party with her. What I don’t get about this is Piper saw her break down at the funeral and how does someone think you can go from that and then back to partying like nothing ever happened is beyond me.

Also everything happened pretty smoothly for the most part, I mean sure the car broke down but it leads them to the B&B which led them to the wedding to crash, check one of the list. Plus, let’s talk about this wedding. Did no one find it odd that there was some girl randomly talking in a British accent there? Plus the owner of the clothing store just letting them borrow the clothing for free?

All in all, I really did enjoy this book and devoured it all in one sitting, I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

“We all start as strangers”

The story is mostly about Anna and Cameron – the boy next door. After Anna her older sister Storm dies in a tragic car accident Anna’s family is going through a tough time. When Anna finds Storm her Summer bucket list she decides to cross off every single thing on the list to honor her sister. She takes Cameron, who is not only the boy next door but also her sisters best friend, with her.

The characters are okay. They aren’t very annoying and I can somewhat understand what they are feeling when Storm dies. I would like to say that Anna isn’t my favorite person (neither is Cameron). They are cute together, sure. But can she just not get mad about every single thing that he says. They are both in a bad place because of Storms death but that doesn’t mean you can get mad about everything. (But there is always a possibility that I misread something)

There are also a couple of side characters but their names aren’t overwhelming.

The story was kind of a cliché, but that is something that you can expect when it’s about any kind of bucket list that includes teenagers and skinny dipping. I don’t want to give too much away but obviously there are going to be a lot of bumps in their ‘epic road trip’.

The cover is fine. Not a lot that I can say about it really. It doesn’t really catch my eye right away but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to read it when I see it. With this book it is more the Summary that catches my attention and not the cover. Mostly because it isn’t really unique.

In the book there seemed to be some photos that they took with a polaroid camera along the way but I was reading on a kindle (I don’t know if that matters) but I wasn’t able to see the photos except the outlines of a polaroid and black photo (If you can call a black screen a photo). Or maybe that is what the writer wanted.

I didn’t really expect the plot twist. It was truly something that I didn’t see until almost the last moment, mostly because there weren’t a lot of hints along the way. However, this doesn’t make it a bad plot twist. You just don’t get to think about it for very long and you basically don’t even have to put the book down because the moment when you start to suspect something, Anna is suspecting something too. And it feels like you could still be on the same page when you find out the truth/plot twist.

A good book to read but not necessarily worth repeating.

Ps. I want to go ‘Boat mocking’…

A fast-paced summer story that's full of fun adventures and romance.

"#15 Be brave with my life"

This was everything and more. A heartbreaking and warming story about a girl who loses her best friend, her other half.. her sister. Anna lost her sister right after gratuation and her life just stood still. She doesnt know were to begin, everything was going well.. her sister was healthy again and now this a simple car accident took her from everything. In the summer Anna finds a bucketlist in Storm's room with 15 things she wanted to do that summer before she went to collage. Togheter with Storm's best friend and Anna's childhoodfriend Camaron she sets out to compleed that list for her.

The list contains stuff like "Get a tattoo", "kiss in the rain" or "climb a lighthouse" or "go on a roadtrip",... Its was amazing how you felt the grieve both Anna and Camaron felt after Storm passed. Everything they did was with a purpose, they wanted to keep her close. I loved how beautifully Rachel stold the story of Anna and her way to get over the lose of her sister, but also becoming her own person. I couldn't get enough of the relationship between Camaron and Anna, also her Aunt Morgan and her best friend Piper.
There wasn't a character I didn't like to be honest. It was just so well written, you could see every different point of view were every character was coming from.

The book was just easy to read, you just flew through the pages. It brought me sadness, happiness and romantique. Its was just everything you wanted from a story. It didn't repeat itself, it stayed new and refreshing everytime you turned the page. Everytime you went from a chapter you got something you didn't knew was going to happen. Also the ending blew me away, i never saw it coming and it broke my heart al over again.

Basically this is the summer book you want to read, this is the summer you want to enjoy with your friend (minus losing someone important to you). This book is everything and more, it would be a wast to not read it!

"I can live my life, I think. Even without her, I can live my life. She'll be with me forever, the one I want to tell my life to first, the one who will shape my future without a word."

**I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

This was the type of book that catches my eye by the cover. Although the cover is quite like any other teen book it still caught my eye. I love bucket lists and having set out to complete goals for a summer or for a year.
I really liked Anna and Cameron as characters, they're your typical teenagers. They're were relatable for teenagers or adults like me. Anyone who has suffered the loss of someone near them would relate to Anna. I think the author did a great job making her reactions to the situations logical and practical. She had her own opinions and plans.
All in all I really liked this book it was adventurous and exciting. I would definitely recommend!

This is a wonderful road trip of a story, of greif and loss, love, coming of age and finding out who you really want to be. Beautifully written and with characters you become fond of and can relate to. A story that deals with hard issues like loss and grief in a vivid way. I enjoyed this road trip with Anna and Cameron.

When Anna's older sister Storm dies in a car crash, her life is suddenly flipped upside down. Who is she without Storm? She thought she knew: a cheerleader. Partygoer. On again off again girlfriend. But even that was born of the need to distance herself from the fact that her sister was her whole world. So what can she do now?

When she finds a list titled "My Perfect Summer", she thinks she knows. She can give her sister the that perfect summer. The one she can no longer give herself. She'll take her car, her sister's (and her former) best friend Cameron, and cross off the items. She'll take pictures of everything, and somehow, it'll be okay.

Only, it's not. Because Storm is still gone.

This book is about finding yourself in the loss of someone who defined you, finding meaning, and finding love.

It's really quite enjoyable, and I did like the characters. I knocked a star off because I felt like a few things were cliched. <spoiler>Mainly, falling in love with her sister's best friend. And the insta-love aspect of it. And the desire to push him away because of her sister, and his involvement with Storm. I wish that had been done differently, but it really didn't detract much from the story.</spoiler>