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readsandthoughts

Reads and Thoughts

Ola! I'm one of those crazy girls who is overly addictive to books and reading. I'm weird around books and tends to read them abnormally fast. And I'm a hopeful romantic who is a firm believer of Happily Ever Afters.
The Summer My Life Began - Shannon Greenland "Sooner or later you're going to figure out your life is your life. You can't please everybody. Now's the time for you to make a change before you're too far into the whole law thing."

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Elizabeth Margaret-better known as Em-is living out the plan her parents have laid her since she can remember. But everything they wanted for her was not what she really wanted at all, studying at Harvard and a striving career as a lawyer is nothing compared to her desire to become a famous chef to which her parents greatly disapprove. When she gets the opportunity to get away from it all and spend a month with an aunt she never meant at the Outer banks, she immediately grabs it. She's relieved for the chance to escape and take a break from all the pressure and at least enjoy one summer. She had no idea that one summer on an island could easily turn her life upside down.

While there, Em pursues her secret dream of being a chef, and she also learns that her family has kept some significant secrets from her, too. And then there’s Cade, the laid-back local surfer boy who seems to be everything Em isn't. Naturally, she can’t resist him, and as their romance blossoms, Em feels she is living on her own terms for the first time.

The summer My Life Began is a good summer read. It has a good summery feel to it and has a wonderful story about family, being true to yourself and self-discovery.

Elizabeth or Em is one of those characters that I adored because of the passion and ambition she has. Though has a lot of pressure carried on her shoulder, she manage to take it all and still graduate valedictorian. Em's parents and grandmother are very strict and I think they didn’t treat her that fair at all and I despise them for that. While on the process of reading it, I really wanted Em to start standing up for her own and just voice out what she really wanted. But at the end of it all, she manages to take it all out and awaken the sleeping soft heart of them. The other supporting characters such as Cade,Frederick, Domino, Gwenny and Tilly are such awesome one. They manage to influence one another in a very good way. Oh, and the romance between Em and Cade. EEPPP! It was so sweet.

I really couldn't help but love the setting of this story. The description of the Bed & Breakfast, the island and the town was very precise. It seriously makes me fall in love with the place with its warm summer day atmosphere.

I could say I liked this book but I cannot set aside the fact that it is way too predictable and because of that you would have the tendency to put it down easily. But towards the end, the story gets a lot better though because the sudden twist on their family secret really surprised me and I really didn't expect it.

Overall, it was an okay read and a good read for the summer, but it was definitely not one of those books that are so spectacular that you would remember for a long time. I enjoyed it and if you really wanted to read a book that would leave you smiling and wanting to take a drive down to the beach this is definitely the one.

Thanks to Penguin Publishing & Net Galley for providing an advanced copy for review.