Five Summers by Una LaMarche

Published May 16th 2013 by Razorbill Four best friends, five summers of camp memories.  The summer we were nine: Emma was branded “Skylar’s friend Emma” by the infamous Adam Loring... The summer we were ten: Maddie realized she was too far into her lies to think about telling the truth... The summer we were eleven: Johanna totally freaked out during her first game of Spin the Bottle... The summer we were twelve: Skylar’s love letters from her boyfriend back home were exciting to all of us—except Skylar... Our last summer together: Emma and Adam almost kissed. Jo found out Maddie’s secret. Skylar did something unthinkable... and whether we knew it then or not, five summers of friendship began to fall apart.  Three years after the fateful last night of camp, the four of us are coming back to camp for reunion weekend—and for a second chance. Bittersweet, funny, and achingly honest, Five Summers is a story of friendship, love, and growing up that is perfect for fans of Anne Brashares and Judy Blume's Summer Sisters.

Rating: 2/5

Review:

I was under the impression that Five Summers was going to be a novel about a friendship between four girls.  Instead, it was mostly about boys.  Emma and Skylar were both interested in the same guy, Maddie was heartbroken over her ex-boyfriend from back home, and Jo was too oblivious to see that a really nice guy liked her.  Almost the whole book revolved around relationship drama, and everything else, including the friendship, seemed like an afterthought.

I've never been interested in the kind of shallow relationship and friendship drama that this book is about.  The characters acted immature for their age and the friends constantly treated each other poorly.  If I'd had any indication that that's what this book would be like, I never would have picked it up.