Song of Summer by Laura Lee Anderson
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Format: ARC Ebook
Where You Can Find It: Goodreads Ι Amazon
Quote: “The chemistry of music is like the chemistry of love, but they are not the same thing: two people can go hand in hand but that doesn’t make them the same person.”

**I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Synopsis: The thirteen qualities of Robin’s Perfect Man range from the mildly important “Handsome” to the all-important “Great taste in music.” After all, Westfield’s best high school folk musician can’t go out with some shmuck who only listens to top 40 crap. When hot Carter Paulson walks in the door of Robin’s diner, it looks like the list may have come to life. It’s not until the end of the meal that she realizes he’s profoundly deaf.

Carter isn’t looking for a girlfriend. Especially not a hearing one. Not that he has anything against hearing girls, they just don’t speak the same language. But when the cute waitress at Grape Country Dairy makes an effort to talk with him, he takes her out on his yellow Ducati motorcycle.

Told in first person alternating perspectives, language, music, and culture go along for the ride as Carter and Robin find their song.

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I really enjoyed this book! It was a great summer read that provided me with an adorable romance but also shed light on a topic that I normally do not read about which is when a character is deaf. Through Carter’s perspective though, I was able to see how someone who is deaf lives in a world where being able to hear is a normalcy. It was even more amazing to see how open-minded and compassionate Robin was once she realized Carter was deaf. She respected Carter from the very beginning and went out of her way throughout the book to learn how to communicate with him using ASL while also defending him when the moment presented itself. It really surprised me how each character reacted to one another, given the obvious differences between them.

I mean, you have a girl who loves music surrounding herself with it any chance she gets and a boy who is deaf and not the biggest fan of hearing people. First thing that comes to mind is how are they going to be able to communicate or even connect with one another given the barrier that is in front of them. But what makes this book ooze with cuteness and delight is that from the very first encounter, both Carter and Robin do not let that be an issue using notepads to communicate with each other in addition to Robin becoming more and more familiar with learning how to sign  throughout the book. Seeing Carter’s reaction to Robin learning how to sign was wonderful because he was so appreciative and even shocked that she would go out of her way to do that. As the story unfolded and they became closer and closer to one another, it was like Carter and Robin went into this bubble and you couldn’t help but smile and be happy for them. Their romance is what any girl would want if they were to meet someone over the summer.

Robin and Carter’s romance is not the only thing I enjoyed about this book. I also loved how in depth a look the readers get at the deaf community through the eyes of Carter and his family. Carter’s family is one that I would love to actually meet because they are not your typical family yet they were so funny and so welcoming especially to Robin. Almost every member of Carter’s family is deaf except for his mother who is a CODA, or child of a deaf adult, and what is even more amazing is that Carter and his two sisters, Denise and Trina, were all adopted by their parents. In addition to that each child is of a different race and/or culture: Denise, Carter’s older sister, is Indian, Carter is either South American, Italian, or Greek but even he is not 100% sure, and Trina, Carter’s younger sister, has blond hair and blue eyes. Picturing them all together especially around the dinner table communicating with one another would be an experience I would love to see. The diversity in this family was such an amazing aspect to this story especially since one would probably visualize a family who is from New York City and vacations in the summer in a place like Chantauqua to be all white.

Despite the bliss Robin and Carter had when they were together, reality was still there on the sidelines as the format of the book counts down the weeks until summer is over. There were times when I couldn’t help but revel in that reality, noticing some things in the story that were my not my favorite. I realize that this was a summer romance and therefore the love story would be a whirlwind of emotions seeing as there was a possible end date in the near future, but I just think that Carter and Robin’s love for each other happened a little too quickly in the story. Also, because you know that it is a summer romance, the plot was a bit predictable towards the end. Regardless of that though, the ending of this book left me oddly satisfied and filled with a lot of hope.

Song of Summer is a great book to pick up, especially in the summer, because it tells an adorable, lighthearted story of two people who meet and despite their differences, fall for one another. Not only that but readers get a eye-opening perspective into the deaf community and how they are perceived by those who can hear. I would definitely go check out Laura Lee Anderson’s debut novel, Song of Summer!

READ-O-RAMA is officially over, which is sad, but now it is time for me to do my wrap-up on the books that I read, the challenges I was able to complete, and more.

This the second read-a-thon that I have participated in and I had a lot of fun participating on Twitter as well as reading the books I had chosen. I was not able to complete all the challenges that they created but the amount of reading I did do was great!

Looking back at my TBR for this read-a-thon, I said that it would be amazing if I could complete all 7 challenges. But, I also realized that I might not be able to do that due to other things going on in my life.
In any case, here is how things went down:

1. Read 7 books (maybe) *7th book – The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
2. Read a middle grade book: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
3. Read a fantasy: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks 
4. Read a book with blue on the cover: All Fall Down by Ally Carter 
5. Re-read a book: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
6. Read a book that makes R-A-M-A using the title/author: Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young
7. Read an e-book or an audiobook: Confessions of a Virgin Sex Columnist! by Kay Marie Song of Summer by Laura Lee Anderson 

Total # of books read/challenges completed: 3
Total # of pages read: 884

I am really happy with the amount of reading I got done for this read-a-thon even if I didn’t read all the books I had planned on reading. The books I did read, though, I enjoyed a lot. Reviews for all three books will be up on this blog ASAP but here are my rating for each of them:

All Fall Down by Ally Carter – 4/5 stars
Of Poseidon by Anna Banks – 3.5/5 stars
Song of Summer by Laura Lee Anderson – 4/5 stars

**Check out my daily blogs for each day of the read-a-thon to see my thoughts of these books as I was reading them**

I had so much fun doing this read-a-thon and I can not wait for the next one! I hope you enjoyed seeing me document my progress over this past week because I will probably be doing it for the next read-a-thon I participate in. Till next time… Happy Reading 🙂

As seen by the title above, I combined my progress for Day 6 and 7 into one blogpost because my reading for that day was less than I had hoped. The only progress I can account for on that day is that I continued reading Song of Summer by Laura Lee Anderson.

What I can say, from what I read, is that this book continues to be adorably cute as you read about how Robin and Carter’s summer romance unfolds. It is everything you want a summer romance to be and all I could do was smile and giggle while I was reading. I also enjoyed delving into the mind of someone who is deaf because I was able to learn a lot more about what they experience and how they acclimate in certain situations.

As Day 7, the last and final day of READ-O-RAMA, rolled around, I was determined to finish Song of Summer so that I could successfully finish one more book for this read-a-thon but also because my window to review this for NetGalley was closing. 30 minutes before midnight, that goal was achieved and I finished Song of Summer 🙂

The cuteness continued between Robin and Carter even if they did have some nuisances to deal with in the form of her ex-boyfriend Trent who I ended up thoroughly despising till the very end. The romance blossomed and there were even some passionate moments between the two of them. But Robin and Carter’s very obvious differences, she loves music and he is deaf and therefore can never hear music, started to surface after being pushed aside for a while by the whirlwind romance causing reality to come knocking.

I don’t want to go into too many more details because A) I will be doing a review on this book ASAP so look forward to that and B) I don’t want to accidentally spoil anything. Overall though, I really enjoyed this book. I gave it 4/5 stars and was so glad that I picked it up especially since it is Laura Lee Anderson’s debut novel.

Day 5 started out with me finishing Of Poseidon by Anna Banks at around 2:10 am. Yes, my sleep schedule is still off but I see it as a blessing because then I have more time to read. Of course sleeping is good too and sleeping like a regular person is even better. Oh well, #bookwormproblems I guess.

My overall rating for Of Poseidon was 3.5/5 stars which is what I had it at  in my last two blogposts and I might even bump it down to 3/5 stars. I did debate my rating a little because I honestly thought I would have liked it more but as the ending came around I felt kind of indifferent. I didn’t have the same reaction I did at the end as I did with All Fall Down which is not the best book to use as a comparison because the are different genres but still I found myself more excited for the second book of All Fall Down than for the second book in this series. Honestly, I think it was the last 50 pages of the book that lead me to how I am feeling because don’t get me wrong I liked this book. I thought it was really cute and I definitely want to continue with the series but still there wasn’t any distinct reaction at the end. The ending sets you up for the next book because it leaves you with a sort of cliffhanger but I think I would have reacted more strongly to that ending if I was really invested in the story. I still enjoyed the book and will be continuing with the series regardless.

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As for the next book I am going to read, I teetered between the challenge of re-reading a book or to read an e-book. Also, I have decided to change the book that I am going to read as my e-book because the book I have in mind I got approved to read by NetGalley before it is released and since I recently just started using NetGalley I want to use this opportunity to read and review this book for them.

I finally decided to do the challenge of reading an e-book next since the new book I have chosen goes off of NetGalley very soon, as in like 4 days. The new e-book I will be reading is Song of Summer by Laura Lee Anderson. This book will be released on July 7th, so not too far from now, and it is a young adult contemporary romance. Seeing as I will be reviewingit for NetGalley, expect a review on here as well within the next week.

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My reading for the rest of the day was about an hour and a half at around 10pm. Yes, that’s right, 10PM! I was hoping to read more but was a little more pre-occupied with the many job applications I have been completing in hopes of finding a summer job. The joys of being an adult lol.

I started Song of Summer by Laura Lee Anderson and have read about 15% according to my Kindle app. So far, it is a cute read and I am excited to keep reading it. Music plays a huge part in this book as Robin, who is main female character of the book, is an aspiring musician who works at a diner saving up money to buy a new guitar. The book is told from two different character’s perspectives which I absolutely love and the second one is from Carter, who is Robin’s love interest.

The interesting thing about this novel is that Carter, as I found out at the end of the first chapter, is deaf. I have only read one other book with these kind of elements and that was Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. I have a feeling though that this book will not be the same as Maybe Someday because I get the feeling it is a more lighthearted YA read. I am intrigued to see how this book will unfold.

My reading for the last two days has been less than stellar hence the fact that I am combining my progress for these two days into one blogpost.

For Day 3 of READ-O-RAMA, I read a total of 25 pages of Of Poseidon. ONLY 25 PAGES!!!! I mean given the fact that this is a read-a-thon, that is like awful. I couldn’t even believe it when I calculated the number of pages, I honestly thought there was a mistake or something. In the end, I blame Netflix and Youtube as I pretty much alternated between the two for the past two days.

Day 4 got a little bit better. I managed to read about 100 pages of Of Poseidon. I was planning on finishing it before midnight but again Netflix and Youtube happened. Plus I finally organized my book stacks in my room. (Check out my Instagram to see how they turned out!)

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From what I have read so far, Of Poseidon is so cute and even funny at times. Emma and Galen’s bickering is adorable because Emma is so independent and feisty and won’t listen to Galen when he kind of orders her to do things. Their relationship continues to grow as Emma gets used to her new powers and learns a little bit more about who she is. I also love Rayna and Toraf and would love to see them have their own story. Overall, it is super cute and has make me giddy at times which is definitely a plus in my book.

Despite this though, I would still rate this book 3.5/5 stars at this point  because it is not wowing me. I am a fan of romance so I have read quite a few books that have left a lasting impression and this one is not up there with them but it is still a really sweet story. Emma and Galen’s relationship really carries the story for me despite the fact that I chose this more to complete the challenge of reading a fantasy book. The mermaid storyline is definitely interesting but it takes a backseat to the romance for me.

I hope to finish this ASAP and that means that I will complete my 2nd challenge for READ-O-RAMA. Stay tuned and look out for a review for Of Poseidon soon!

Midnight strikes and it is officially Day 2 of READ-O-RAMA and because I have become a night owl these days, I am wide awake and therefore ready to do some reading. I continued on with All Fall Down and after a little over 3 hours of reading, I managed to finish the book and complete my first challenge of this read-a-thon!

All Fall Down only got better as I began the last part of the book and, of course it was jam packed with a worldwide of things ranging from action to suspense to a lot of emotions as Grace and the readers finally find out what happened the night her mother was murdered. And let me tell you this, I thought I had a pretty good idea  based on what had happened so far and my previous knowledge of watching a ton of tv shows revolving around murder but I was SERIOUSLY SURPRISED when it was revealed what had really happened. I am not going to give too much away because that would be spoiling things and that is just cruel but I will say that it sets readers up for the next book as this is the first book in a series by Ally Carter. If you do read this, be prepared for the ending because it is not like a huge cliffhanger but it definitely peaks your interest causing you to be like “What is going to happen next?’ I have a lot questions but of course all I can do is wait until the next book comes out. Ugh, I hate waiting.

Overall, my rating for this book was 4/5 stars. Though it was slow in the beginning it started getting better piece by piece as the story progressed and even managed to surprise me in the end. Look for a review on this book, which will be coming soon!

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So, it is almost 4 am and I am still not tired which just goes to show how truly messed up my sleep schedule is, leaving me with only one choice which is to choose my next book to read. I decide to move upwards on the list of challenges to #3 which is to read a fantasy book so I grab Of Poseidon by Anna Banks and start reading.

Of Poseidon by Anna Banks is a young adult fantasy romance book and it is the first book in The Syrena Legacy series. This series is a fantasy read because it is about mermaids which is not something I have not read about before but I have heard tons of people talk about this series on Booktube so I decided to pick it up and give it a try.

The book revolves around Emma who in the beginning is on vacation with her best friend in Florida when she literally runs into a guy on the boardwalk. That guy turns out to be Galen and as soon as they meet they both feel a connection to one another. But Galen’s connection to Emma is not initially purely romantic as he is mermaid, or merman, I guess that is the correct term lol. But he not just any ordinary merman, Galen is the prince of Syrena and is on land in search of something for his kingdom. He believes that Emma is a Syrena like he is even though she appears to be 100% human We find out that that is not exactly the case when readers catch a glimpse of Emma’s “gifts” involving an incident with a not-so-nice shark. After tragedy strikes though, Emma starts school again but can’t seem to get rid of Galen and the two start hanging out with each other as Galen tries to convince Emma she is someone important to him and his kingdom.

I only read the first two chapter of Of Poseidon before I finally got tired but I immediately liked the author’s writing and the fact that the book switches between Emma’s and Galen’s point of view. I love when authors write from dual perspectives because then you get a feel for how both characters are feelings especially when there are hints of romance involved.

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After waking up around noon, I did a little bit of reading participating in one of the reading sprints via Twitter. After that I stopped reading for a bit and then decided to again to read around 3:15pm for about 45 minutes. After all my sporadic reading sessions today, I am only on p. 72 of Of Poseidon which I am not too happy about, but I was busy applying to a job at Barnes and Nobles today during my non-reading time.

The book is definitely good even though there was a tragic event that happens in the beginning. I really connected with Emma and what she is going through during the aftermath of it. Despite that, I love her interactions with Galen after he just shows up and starts going to her school. They banter back and forth but there is still that obvious attraction to one another which can be a little hot at times. I also love the secondary characters. Rayna and Rachel are funny and definitely keep you entertained especially Rayna who has her own problems to deal with when Toraf, who is Galen’s best friend, shows up. You also learn a lot about the mermaid world within this book and how Galen plays a part in it. I am definitely interested to see if Galen’s hunches about Emma are true because they are that is going to throw wrench in things for them romantically which is NOT going to make me happy lol (What can I say, I’m a girl who loves her romance),

At the moment, I would rate this book as  3.5/5 stars but I have a feeling it is going to get better. Seeing as I know I am going to be staying up again tonight, hopefully I can finish this book before I go to sleep. Check back in tomorrow on my progress for Day 3 of READ-O-RAMA!!

Due to the fact that I completely messed up my sleep schedule and have gone back to being a night owl, I was able to start this read-a-thon about 15 minutes after midnight. Literally there was not a tired bone in my body so I chose my first book, All Fall Down by Ally Carter and immediately started reading.

All Fall Down is a young adult mystery about a girl who is trying to find out who murdered her mother. Grace witnessed her mother being murdered when she was 13 but no one believes her and writes her mother’s death off as an accident. There is a political aspect to this book as Grace is the granddaughter of the U.S. ambassador and lives in the U.S. embassy situated in the foreign country of Adria. Struggling with the murder of her mother, Grace tries to acclimate to living at the embassy and within this highly political world of Embassy Row.

This book fulfills the challenge of reading a book with blue on the cover and even though it is the 4th challenge listed out of 7, I chose it purely based on the fact that it was first book if I were to list the books alphabetically by their title. Obviously, that was the librarian part of me despite the fact that I alphabetized by title and not by the author’s Last name. That, and the fact that my lucky number is also 4.

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I read off and on for about 3 hours and got to page 95 before my eyes finally started to get tired. The first few pages drew me in but after that I had a hard time connecting to the story a little. Grace is very complex switching between being snarky and independent to being meek and depressed. Obviously what she has gone through has something to do with it but I just had a hard time understanding her.

The story did pick up though with the introduction of Alexei and Noah which I am guessing are the possible two love interests for Grace even though Noah is giving me vibes of being more of a friend to Grace like Simon is to Clary in the Mortal Instrument books. Alexei is definitely someone I could see being Grace’s love interest. He is Grace’s older brother’s best friend so he knows her and cares for her plus he is Russian which makes him a little bit more appealing in my book lol.

For the rest of the day, I didn’t get much reading done and only got to participate in one of the reading sprints being hosted via Twitter but I managed to read 45 more pages. I am definitely into the story more than in the beginning especially after seeing how much witnessing her mother’s murder affects Grace. Even though her grandfather and Ms. Chancellor, who works for her grandfather are telling her that she needs to let go and move on, Grace is determined to figure out who murdered her mother. She gets help from Noah which again just confirms the “Simon” vibes I had early and I’m excited to see how the story continues.

With the first day coming to an end, I spend the last hour reading and manage to read another 40 pages bring me to page 180 in the book. The story has definitely gotten better, the plot reaching a mini-climax that I was not really expecting. Grace is still grappling with the aftermath of her mother’s murder but as she hunts down the killer the story has its light hearted moments and I am really enjoying it. The mystery aspect of the book is in full swing and I am excited to see what will happen next.If I had to rate this book at this point in time I would give it 3.5/5 stars.

So, considering that this read-a-thon official begins in like less than an hour, I would say that this is the perfect time for me to post about my TBR pile for it lol.

I have decided in order to help me get out of my reading slump and towards my summer goal of reading 30 books that I am going to be participating in READ-O-RAMA Round 2 which starts on June 28th and ends on July 4th. This read-a-thon was created and is being hosted by a lovely group of booktubers (Elizabeth Book Babble, BrunetteBibliophile, Kitkatscanread, and BooKss101). They started it last summer and decided to do it again this summer hence the “Round 2” in the title. Elizabeth Book Babble is one of the many book tubers that I watch on Youtube so when her video for this read-a-thon popped up in my subscription feed, it was like fate.

**Before I get into the challenges that they have created for this read-a-thon and the corresponding books I hope to read for each, go check out these amazing booktubers when you get a chance!! (I have attached links to their channels with each of their names above)**

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So there are a number of challenges that have been created for this read-a-thon and whoever participates can do all of them, some of them, or none of them if they choose. The whole point of this read-a-thon is to try and read as many books as you can but enjoy the books you have decided to read. If you are a person like me who likes some direction in what to read because I honestly have WAY TOO MANY books choose from or just likes the idea of completing challenges during a read-a-thon, you can totally take part in the challenges. If you want to participate in the read-a-thon but  already know the books you want to read and don’t really fancy the challenges then you can do that too. Like I always say, “You, Do You!”

Since I like the challenges in read-a-thons because they help me narrow down which books I could read, I will be trying to complete as many challenges as possible. The challenges for this read-a-thon are:

1. Read 7 books
2. Read a middle grade book
3. Read a fantasy
4. Read a book with blue on the cover
5. Re-read a book
6. Read a book that makes R-A-M-A using the title/author
7. Read an e-book or an audiobook

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It would be AMAZING if I could read 7 books in a week but given the fact that I have many “adult” things to do this week aka find a job for the summer, I know that that probably won’t happen. Anyway… here are the challenges I am hoping to complete:

(Also, many of these books will be library books because I am a HUGE fan of the library and can’t help myself from not checking books out even when I have a never-ending TBR pile)

1. Read 7 books (maybe) *7th book – The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
2. Read a middle grade book: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
3. Read a fantasy: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
4. Read a book with blue on the cover: All Fall Down by Ally Carter
5. Re-read a book: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
6. Read a book that makes R-A-M-A using the title/author: Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young
7. Read an e-book or an audiobook: Confessions of a Virgin Sex Columnist! by Kay Marie

I am super excited to start this read-a-thon and I hope that I can complete as many challenges as I can. I will be updating my progress each day as well as some thoughts on the books I am reading on here so STAY TUNED!!

My summer officially started a week ago, and knowing that I have two and a half months before I start my first semester as a grad student has caused me to do some major thinking about my life as well as make a LOT of to do lists.

One thing I know is that I want to get some serious reading done this summer. I have read 20 books so far this year and though that is a decent amount I am still struck with the feeling that I could be reading so much more (especially when I make multiple trips to Barnes & Nobles adding more and more books to my ever expanding TBR list).

So…. I set 2 goals for myself this summer in regards to books and reading/reviewing said books.

1. Start a book blog (which obviously has happened since this is my first blog post lol)
2. Read 30 books

Now I don’t know if I am going to make a reading challenge for myself in connection to this. Of course, at the beginning of the year I did make a video on my Youtube channel about the reading challenges I hope to accomplish this year, and surprisingly I have not made much progress.

P.S. I have a Youtube channel. It is in its infancy and I am currently on a very long hiatus while I figure out my next steps for it but it you want to check it out there is a link to it in the sidebar 🙂