Fifteenth Summer

by Michelle Dalton

[Rowena]

Michelle Dalton has written another charming summer novel that had me grinning like a crazy person.

Chelsea's fifteen years old and her grandmother just died. Her parents plan a summer trip to her grandmother's house in Michigan (she lives in L.A.) and the summer is spent dealing with her grief, her families grief and just trying to move on from a death in the family that rocked their world.

Chelsea is a huge reader so when she finds a new bookstore in town, she's more than a little thrilled because her ebook reader went kaputz when she took it with her in the bathroom when she showered. Water and electronics don't mix and Chelsea learns that the hard way. Not being able to take her books with her on the long road trip, Chels is bummed that she might be spending her entire summer reading the same old books at the town library but when she sees Dog Eared (the bookstore), things are starting to look up.

Especially since inside the bookstore, she sees a really cute boy that she'd really liked to get to know better.

This book follows Chelsea and her sisters fall in love, get their hearts broken and deal with the loss of their grandmother. I thought Dalton did a great job with fleshing out each and every single character in this book. Even though this book was primarily told from Chelsea's POV, I still had a very vivid picture of each character in this story and I really liked the whole lot of people in Chelsea's life. They were each flawed and they were each different but they were all what made Chelsea's life full.

The romance between Chelsea and her love interest was too cute for words. I really enjoyed getting to know the both of them and really loved their shared love of books. There were times when I felt that both Chelsea and her love interest were a little on the young side but for the most part, they were adorable. This was a very entertaining book, one with a too cute summer romance that was everything a summer romance should have. I think fans of Stephanie Perkins, Lauren Barnholdt and Jennifer Echols will enjoy this story. I'm so glad that I read it.