The Summer Before Forever by Melissa Chambers: Book Tour: Review

Title: The Summer Before Forever
Author: Melissa Chambers
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Published Date:  August 22nd, 2016
Genre: YA, Contemporary 
Format: Kindle

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

See Other Stops On The Tour: Here

Goodreads Summary: 

Some boys break your heart. Others teach you how to heal it.

Chloe Stone’s life is a hot mess. Determined to stop being so freaking skittish, she packs up her quasi-famous best friend and heads to Florida. The goal? Complete the summer bucket list to end all bucket lists. The problem? Her hot soon-to-be stepbrother, Landon Jacobs.

Landon’s mom will throttle him if he even looks at his future stepsister the wrong way. Problem is, Chloe is everything he didn’t know he wanted, and that’s…inconvenient. Watching her tear it up on a karaoke stage, stand up to his asshole friend, and rock her first string bikini destroys his sanity.

But there’s more than their future family on the line. Landon is hiding something—something he knows will change how she feels about him—and she’s hiding something from him, too. And when the secrets come out, there’s a good chance neither will look at the other the same way again…

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 My Review:

"So it turns out Cynthia isn't terrible. She seems sweet and thoughtful. That's one positive. Now, if I can just avoid total weirdness of living with my father who I can't seem to carry a decent conversation with and the fact that my new brother is a complete hot-fest, this summer might just be bearable."

When Chloe and her best friend go down to Florida to spend the summer with Chloe’s dad, his new fiancée and her son Landon she had no idea what to expect. With poor communication between Chloe and her dad, she isn’t really sure what to expect with this summer. But she is really glad to have left her hometown behind for the summer and is determined to let the past stay in the past.

"But this task is in a category all on its own. This task has the potential to open up a gate in the walls my father and I have so concretely erected between us for the past seventeen years. This task may widen the narrow lens my father and I use to view each other. I'm not sure either of us is ready for that."

Overall I did enjoy reading this story. I loved how easy it was to read and how I kept wanting to know what was going to happen with the characters. I also liked how Landon’s secret was dealt with and explained. It was nice to see a different form of a disability in someone who seemed to have it all.

"He'll start making everything about you," she says."He'll focus on your dreams, not his own. He'll move heaven and earth for you because that's the kind of amazing guy he is. He's not someone who can adapt into your life. He needs someone who can adapt into his."

The main issue I had with things was how the secret that Chloe was dealing with wasn’t really handled in the best way when it came to starting a new relationship with someone. Yes they took things extremely slow at first, but after they had been together for a few weeks it just started to go really fast it seemed to me. I get that they thought they only had a limited amount of time where they could be together, but I’m just not sure that her being comfortable enough with someone would happen that fast, no matter how much she liked them.

"I need that right now. A guy I can trust, who's got my back. I have this ridiculous fantasies of this guy who immediately takes me under his protective wing as he kick boxes Trevor in the ball for what he tried to make me do.. for what he swears we will do someday."

  I also don’t really think that Chloe building her confidence around this person was the best idea, because I’m afraid if anything would happen to them then it would go back to being nothing. I hope I’m wrong and she keeps being this strong and confident person.

"You've changed so much this summer, in a good way.. You're confident and strong. You know what you want, and you know what you can handle."

I also really liked Chloe’s relationship with her best friend, yes she could be a bit much at times, but I feel like that worked well with how quite Chloe was. Plus she helped get her out of her comfort zone with the help of a list.

"Focus on the list.
1. Go up and talk to a boy at a party.
2. Wear a bikini to the beach
3. Take a self-defense class.
4. Sing karaoke.
5. Send a plate of food back at a restaurant.
6. Express your true feelings to someone.
7. Have a real conversation with your dad.
8. Say no to something you would otherwise say yes to out of convenience of non-confrontation.
9. Stand up to someone.
10. Kiss a boy you like."

Spoiler

One thing I’m still not sure on how I feel about is the stepbrother romance thing. On one hand I was completely okay with it, but on the other I still feel like it probably shouldn’t be happening. Plus I don’t see the parents being as okay with it as they seem to be so far. I did like how this is older YA so some stuff was involved but it wasn’t fully NA situations. I will read the next book in this series to see what happens for them next!

"I rework my image of him in my head. So my boyfriend's not perfect. This is actually good news. It means I don't have to be perfect. This is fantastic. I want to bust through this door and run in there, but I force myself to take a minute to think about how he might be feeling right now."

Thank you to YAReads and Entangled Teen for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review