Review: How my summer went up in flames by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski

Title: How my summer went up in flames
Author: Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
Contemporary YA
Expected publication: May 7th 2013 by Simon Pulse
Goodreads // Amazon
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What I loved about How My Summer Went Up In Flames, is that it was more about growing up and learning how to be a good friend than a cute summery love story. Don’t get me wrong, though. I love romance, and this book has plenty of swoon, but it doesn’t focus on that.

The spotlight is on Rosie after she accidentally set her ex’s car on fire. That makes me both laugh, and worry about Rosie’s mental health; and the same thing happened to her parents, who decide to send her on a road trip with her neighbor Matty, who is the epitome of good behavior.

I must admit that at first I was a bit worried about Rosie, she seemed to be completely clueless to the gravity of her situation. Her mindset was all about her jerk of an exboyfriend and I wanted to slap some sense into her. But she was also witty and smart so I knew she would eventually come back to planet earth. She had an amazing crew behind her who gave her great support and managed to knock her down of her high cloud. From Matty, the awesome neighbor who is kind of geeky but has a great heart, to Rosie’s parents who were just the right amount of tough to handle a girl like her.

So, the road trip part of the book was very cool. Matty and Rosie join brothers, Spencer and Logan. It was a bit hard to watch the new romance ignite, because I was torn with whom I wanted Rosie to be, but to be honest that wasn’t a main part of the book, because most of all, Rosie needed some alone time, and I’m glad the author handled things the way she did.

And before I finish, I just would like to mention how funny this book is. I literally laughed out loud at a lot of things everyone said, expecially Rosie. The writing style and the wit reminded me of something Meg Cabot would write so that’s a huge win in my book. And that scene were Rosie gives their first kiss ever to one of the boys (won’t say who) was absolutely adorable.

 

I loved this scene. Their car runs out of gas and Logan and Matty have to walk miles in the heat to find a gas station while Rosie and Spencer stay in the car and Spencer teaches Rosie how to play the guitar.