The Rainbow Race

Wanting more adorable WLW books for teens? This is a great one to add to your collection.

Eleanor is 17 and off to camp for the summer. At this camp, anyone who is LGBTQ+ wears their camp bracelet on their left wrist as a way for them to more easily find each other. When Eleanor first gets to camp, she meets Yvette Fleur, who is gorgeous. (What wrist does she have her bracelet on again?) What follows is a fun summer adventure for Eleanor and the rest of her cabin. Lots of budding friendships.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s just a fun WLW book for teens that takes place at a camp. The kind of thing that often exists for straight people...less so for those in the LGBTQ+ world.

I see this is listed as book one, so I’m hoping there will be more. I’d love to meet some trans and gender queer campers. (Also, I’m curious if anyone shows up to camp with their bracelet on the wrong wrist. It’s supposed to be a secret for those who are LGBTQ+...but how does it work?) Overall, recommended for anyone looking for a fun, happy WLW read.

“The Rainbow Race” is a young adult book centered around a 17-year-old girl named Eleanor, who attends a two-week long summer camp for LGBTQ+ girls called Camp Sunshine. Upon meeting a mysterious girl at the camp named Yvette, Eleanor is intrigued and wants to get to know her and spend time with her more.

This was a pretty quick read for me, and I really enjoyed it. I liked watching the two main characters develop their friendship and get closer to each other throughout the story, and I thought that it was a pretty cute book.

Rating: 4/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Cate Summers for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review

4.5/5 Stars!

This book is so cute I basically couldn't stand it! I read this all in one sitting because it was a cute, quick read, definitely geared toward a YA/New Adult audience. Seventeen-year-old Elenor is spending two weeks at Camp Sunshine, a camp that has a secret (in a good way!). Seemingly unknown to parents, staff, and even some campers, Camp Sunshine is a place for LGBTQIA+ teens to meet and socialize during their summer breaks. The secret to determining who identifies as LGBTQIA+ is simply looking at on which wrist the camp bracelet is worn. This book is filled with cute and funny moments, as a true coming of age and friendship story develops. Elenor immediately meets, and is interested in Yvette - but the question remains, what wrist does she have her bracelet on?

(This review was also posted to Goodreads on October 7, 2020)

“The Rainbow Race” is a cute, funny coming of age story about 17-year-old Eleanor.
Eleanor is off to summer camp, Camp Sunshine, for girls, it’s also known as a secret meetup for LGBTQ+ girls. On her first day she encounters the beautiful and mysterious Yvette and forms an instant crush. Yvette is a mini ice queen in the making and at first won’t give Eleanor the time of day.
There’s a great cast of characters that provides humor and light drama throughout the story. Between her cabin and group activities Eleanor meets several other girls and forms fast friendships, though no one holds a candle to Yvette.
One of the things I really liked about “The Rainbow Race” is that this wasn’t a coming out story. The girls all pretty much seemed to know and feel comfortable in their sexuality.
I really enjoyed this story for a quick fun read and it’s a perfect book for pre-teens/teens. There’s no angst, just typical teenage girl drama.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Cate Summers in exchange for an honest review.

The Rainbow Race by Cate Summers is like a cupcake- fun sized, sweet and won't make you work too hard. The plot is classic and overall it's a good romp into your typical camp drama with an LGBTQ twist. There isn't a whole lot of depth given to any storyline or character in particular which makes it less introspective but a great way to spend a day reading at your leisure. Author Summers writing style is easy and smooth without too much hyperbole and sets the perfect tone of a summer camp love.

Overall I enjoyed this book and thank Net Galley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fun and well written story of friendship as you would expect from any book about a summer camp but it's also full of romance and acceptance. I highly recommend it for young LGBT+ adults. It tackles some pretty serious issues in a fun way.

I feel mixed from my reading. It was neither bad nor really good. I found the story very, perhaps too, simplistic as the characters are teenage girls approaching adulthood.
I really liked the basic idea but I found that we stayed too much on the surface. Probably because of the relatively short format of the text.
I didn't manage to get attached to the characters. as much because I found the majority very superficial and Eleanore was ... not really interesting.
I would have liked to have more pages to spend more time to discover and better understand these characters and their different facets. notably Regan and Bridget terribly hollow.
In the end, the idea is really something that interested me but the realization did not live up to my expectations.

This was a cute story the took place over a two week period at a girls summer camp. But unbeknownst to the camp leaders and some of the other campers, it was also a secret meeting place for LGBTQ+ girls. It was a simple reveal: put a rainbow inside their camp bracelet and wear it on their left wrist.

The story was told from seventeen year old Eleanor’s perspective. Upon her arrival at camp, she was immediately drawn to Yvette, even though Yvette was moody and often responded with a scowl. But Eleanor was the type who always wanted to help people so she ignored the scowls and responded with kindness.

There were many different characters with personalities that clashed at times, especially those working with Eleanor on the camp’s lake crossing race competition. I liked how Eleanor was the voice of reason reiterating the need for trust, respect for differences, and the importance of teamwork. She was basically the glue that held her team together.

The author nicely showed how people with different personalities and backgrounds can come together to work as a team to reach their goals, and most importantly, along the way build a friendship based on those same principles of trust, respect, and teamwork. I think teenagers will find this story entertaining and its message inspiring.

An ARC was given for an honest review.

I cannot cope with how cute this story is!
A beautiful summer camp romance story. I like that it was short, sweet and straight to the point.
So many books are just bulked out with pointless words. This was simply perfect.
The characters were easy to get attached to.
I wish that I was younger so that I could go to a camp like this.
I reckon I am most definitely Yvette in this story... Now to find my Eleanor!