TWENTY BOY SUMMER-Sarah Ockler

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

(from Goodreads)

"Don't worry, Anna. I'll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it."
"Okay."
"Promise me? Promise you won't say anything?"
"Don't worry." I laughed. "It's our secret, right?"
According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in ZanzibarBay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there's a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there's something she hasn't told Frankie—-she's already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie's older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.
Beautifully written and emotionally honest, this is a debut novel that explores what it truly means to love someone and what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every single moment this world has to offer.


It seems as if everything I am reading lately has been 5 star books. I am usually very hard to please, so these ratings must be true...

Twenty Boy Summer is about 3 teenagers, Frankie, Anna and Matt. Frankie and Matt are siblings and Anna is the best friend who lives next door. They have spent their whole lives together, inseparable. Until Anna's 15th birthday when things change for 2 of them and a secret is kept from one of them. Then less then a month later, Matt dies.

After Matt dies everything is confused and everyone is just trying to cope. To figure out how to go on living without him there with them. Then, Frankies parents decide that they will go back to their vacation home this summer (the one they go to every year, except for the year Matt died) and try to go on. This turns out to be both a good thing and a bad thing in itself. And this year will be the first year that Anna joins them.

Twenty Boy Summer got its title because Frankie decides to do exactly that. She convinces Anna that they need to meet a boy a day and their goal is to try and help Anna give up her virginity since Frankie has already given up hers. But once again, the story is so much more then that.

If the story was mainly about that I wouldn't have liked it, but that was only part of the story. During their time on vacation, Anna and Frankie discover a lot of things about themselves and each other. And they do the typical teenage things; sneak out, meet boys, go to parties....

This book is about loss, friendship, love, forgiveness, acceptance and so much more. I had put this book off for so long and almost put it up on goodreads to swap before even reading it because I didn't think it would be a book for me. I don't like romance, chick-lit, mushy books. Everything I thought this book was. I am really glad that I gave this book a chance before dismissing it.

This is definitely a book to be read. And Sarah Ockler has a new book that just come out called, "Fixing Delilah" that I also heard was really good.

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