The Summer Of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells

The Summer Of Skinny Dipping

"Sometimes I still wake up shivering in the early hours of the morning, drowning in dreams of being out there in the ocean that summer, of looking up at the moon and feeling as invisible and free as a fish. But I'm jumping ahead, and to tell the story right I have to go back to the very beginning. To a place called Indigo Beach. To a boy with pale skin that glowed against the dark waves. To the start of something neither of us could have predicted, and which would mark us forever, making everything that came after and before seem like it belonged to another life.
My name is Mia Gordon: I was sixteen years old, and I remember everything...."

After getting dumped by her boyfriend, Mia is looking forward to spending a relaxing summer in the Hamptons with her glamorous cousins. But when she arrives she find her cousins distant, moody, and caught up with a fast crowd. Mia finds herself lonelier than ever, until she meets her next-door-neighbor, Simon Ross. And from the very first time he encourages her to go skinny dipping, she's caught in a current impossible to resist.

Timeless in feel, The Summer of Skinny-Dipping is a poignant, literary coming-of-age romance that will live on long after summer has ended.

The Summer Of Skinny Dipping is such a good beach read. At first, I found it hard to connect with Mia's wanting to fit in but then I looked closely and remember that this character is being honest, I'm the same way. After I got over that fact, I was able to thoroughly enjoy the novel.

And Simon <3 I imagined him Heath Ledger-type with the ruffled artistic kind of look but I'm going to leave my imagining up to you, kay? 'Kay.

What I was most surprised/impacted/omigosh-i-can't-believe-this was the end. I mean, wow. What an ending! It's so unexpected and fast paced, I couldn't get a hold of myself.

Amanda Howells was able to create two unique characters in a sea or contemporary YA fiction. Overall, it was a great story.

In one sentence:
"The best summer read you won't forget."

Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Writing: 4
Cover: 4
Overall Feeling: 4
Average: 4

ARC copy provided by publisher