Review: Beach Blondes by Katherine Applegate - Juhina

Author: Katherine Applegate

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: May 6th, 2008

Genre(s): Young Adult (Romance)

Source: paperback

Pages: 720

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis (via goodreads): 

 Summer Smith is in for the best summer of her life. Between the cold weather and her boyfriendless existence in Minnesota, Summer is ready for sun, sand, and boys in the Florida Keys. And by the end of the first day, she has more than enough to keep her busy: Adam, the senator's son, has looks, power, and all the money in the world. Diver, the mystery man, is mellow, intriguing, and definitely unique. And Seth, the perfect guy...only he has a girlfriend. But with new friends, cute guys, and miles of hot white sand, Summer's in for more trouble than she thinks

So this book was… long. I was pining for this book since the beginning of summer; it was the perfect summer read! Then I started reading it.. and the story never seemed to end. I feel like when I was 200 pages in, that nothing REALLY happened.. I guess that’s the point of why it’s a summer read right? It’s still summer here, weather goes up to 35 celsius (HOT!) so its not the season, but I think its about what represents summer. In summer we have all the time in the world to do ANYTHING, while now, I'm scrambling to juggle my studies, going out, sleeping, reading, and updating our blog! So very stressful, takes the joy out of a summer read.
Now let’s get down to the actual reviewing.  

While this book was long, I did find it entertaining, atleast in some stories (with a book this long there had to be more side stories). It is told from almost 3 people’s POVs, Summer, Marquez, and Diana. At first I found summer naïve, Marquez great, and Diana just plain old depressing. But as the story progressed and Summer started falling for every guy alive (really?) and Marquez with her ex-boyfriend trouble (again enjoyable), and Diana finally getting out of her funk and standing up for herself (you go girl!) I started looking forward to Diana’s chapters the most. I truly admired her resilience to finally stand up for herself, no matter how big and rich the opponent is.

Summer honestly dragged the story, its first deciding who she loves out of all these guys, then keeping him at an arm’s length because she’s afraid of getting hurt (summer fling and all), then it’s about her family issue (I don’t want to post spoilers). I just feel like her story dragged a bit.

All in all, I think I read this book at the wrong time so my review might have been different if say, I read it during my summer break, but I’m glad I finally got to read it and get it out of my system, no more pining!. The next book in this series is “Tan Lines”. I probably wouldn’t buy it, but if I could borrow it or find it online for a cheap price I might get it and save it for next summer. We always want those summer books at some point.