Twenty Boy Summer (2014 book 1)

1 Summer, 20 boys, go!

 

Well, it really wasn’t like that. Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, focuses on 16yr old Anna Reily and her two best friends Matt and Frankie, and the loaded emotional turmoil that surrounds them.

Let me give you a little back ground…

Matt and Frankie are brother and sister. Anna is best friends with both of them; she refers to Matt as her “best friend that’s a boy” and Frankie is your standard girl bestie. Frankie doesn’t know that Anna has a crush on Matt and that he too reciprocates her feelings. Matt and Anna begin a relationship in which Anna promises Matt that she will keep their relationship a secret until he finds to the right time to tell her. Unfortunately, that never happens because Matt dies suddenly of a heart complication and Anna, the faithful friend continues to keep the secret from Frankie. After Matt dies, Frankie transforms into an ultra girly boy hungry teen and Anna sort of remains the same but gets a little weird when she continuously obsesses over Matt.

The beginning of the book is really slow but I’ve summarized the “need to know” so that I can better summarize the rest of the book.

A year after Matt’s tragic death, Anna serves as his replacement on Frankie’s family’s annual vacation to California. The anticipation of the trip and Frankie’s new persona of sexually experienced, prompts her to create the “goal” for them to meet 20 boys over the summer. The premise is to push Anna into the idea of losing her virginity.

The family vacation is when raw emotions between Anna and Frankie surface. Frankie discovers Anna’s journal and discovers that Anna has she’s been keeping her relationship with Matt a secret. Frankie feels betrayed by Anna and naturally, Anna feels betrayed by Frankie having read her private thoughts.

When it’s all said and done, neither of the girls reach their 20 boy goal. However, they do meet two dreamy California beach boys and begin their respective summer flings. Anna actually does lose her virginity while on vacation and it is revealed that Frankie is not at all as “experienced” as she claimed. The story is filled with other little adventures here and there but the real meat of the matter is grief, emotional betrayal, loss and healing.

My over all impression is that the book is just okay. The first half of the book is slow and I was not provoked to feel any sort of connection to any of the characters. I didn’t even have an emotional response the Anna’s missed love when Matt died. I felt sorry for no one but I enjoyed the little bits of drama scattered in.