Main Character: Julia
Love Interest:
Series: None that I know of.
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads
Julia and Eliza are best friends, spending the summer together. Julia’s mother is serving in the National Guard and Julia spends all of her time trying not to think about what could happen. So the girls lose themselves in their summer, hanging out at the resort where Eliza’s father works. But when they meet a new boy, neither one of them is prepared for what it does to their friendship.Nora Raleigh Baskin delivers a poignant look at the way a first crush can come between best friends and the importance of hanging on to the time you have as a kid before rushing into growing up.
What a delightful treat this book turned out to be. I almost didn’t read this book because the beginning of the book didn’t catch my attention and hold it as fast as I would have wanted but I’m glad that I stuck with this book because it turned out to be a good read.
This is one of those coming of age books that you’ll come to love over the course of the story. It’s about growing up, family and the effects the war has on those that are left behind. I really felt for Julia and came to love her so much while reading this book. Seeing her with Eliza, seeing her grow up from the live in her own world tween to the girl she was at the end made for some interesting reading. I thought Baskin did a wonderful job of telling this story through the eyes of a pre-teen. Baskin stayed true to Julia’s voice and made her so real to me and I enjoyed it all.
It couldn’t have been easy growing up the way that Julia grew up, with her Mom serving in the military and having those constant worries and I sympathized with everything that Julia went through. She grew up quite a bit in that one summer and my heart totally went out to her.
This is one of those books where you’ll just have to read it to get what I’m talking about but I can say that it was an enjoyable read, one that I will definitely have my daughter read because it’s something that I think she’d enjoy. Watching Julia start noticing boys made me smile and reminisce back to my first crush, his name was Timothy and we went to the same elementary school.
Overall, this was an enjoyable coming of age story that I would definitely recommend. I think Baskin captured Julia perfectly and people who read this book will connect with Julia because they’ll remember being her age and having the same worries and children of parents serving in the war will empathize with Julia because they’ll know exactly what she’s going through. It’s a great story, one that I enjoyed quite a bit.
..and that’s your scoop!
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com
