Adventure Summer

3.5 ★ - (liked it) ~ Note: I received an advanced reader copy from the author and I was not required to leave a positive review. All views expressed are my own. ~ I jumped at the chance for this ARC seeing that it was a romcom (a genre I'd like to read more of) and clean and summer-y. Sure enough, I really liked the beginning! But I had hoped to love this book in its entirety and unfortunately by the second half it wasn't really my cup of tea. Despite reading a wide range of genres I don't usually read romcoms and I'm in highschool (thus maybe not the target audience), so do take this with a grain of salt. In terms of how clean it is: cleaner than most Hollywood romcom movies but it sort of toed the line in some aspects and wasn't as clean as other books with romance that I've read. The beginning was so sweet and fluffy! Camping, s'mores, boogie-boarding, bubbles, pool days, concerts, big family escapades, late night conversations under the stars... so much of it was nostalgic and I loved it! The Disney references were a little repetitive in the beginning and disappear altogether by the ending, but I didn't mind much. (especially considering how prominent that was in my childhood lol) And I connected with Ariel in some ways which was a fun surprise! Of course, not every book needs to be explicitly Christian but I'd hoped, since the author is one, that there'd be mentions of faith or praying, especially when things weren't going too well for Ariel but there wasn't. So if you may be assuming the same, just want to let you know! The second half of the book ended up being friend drama and a lot of sexual tension. Too much kissing and noticing for my taste... less loving the person for who they are on the inside, as in the beginning of the book, and leaning more towards loving them for their body which was a bit awkward. I get that going from childhood friends to lovers, perspectives change, but I didn't expect it to be so centered on physical attraction. And as for the friend drama, I really didn't care for Lena... she was snobby, and even though I forgave her when Ariel did I was annoyed with her pretty much the entire book. Despite everything though, I thought Ariel's relationship with Conor was very cute and the closeness between him and her family was sweet :) So all in all, it's a good story! More so towards the beginning maybe... I really wish the mini-adventures had continued. Some readers will probably enjoy this more than I did, I'd recommend taking a look at the CWs beforehand though as I wasn't expecting it to be quite so steamy and it was rather uncomfortable at times. But again, I'm probably not the target audience being a highschooler who occasionally watches romcoms but doesn't usually read them lol. CWs, or things that caught my attention: Mentions and/or descriptions of cuddling, arguing, passive-aggression, jealousy, sharing a bed with someone of the opposite gender (2x), mentions of a mother leaving her children, alcohol (getting slightly drunk), hangovers, friend drama, discussing Enneagram types, breakups, noticing, sexual tension, kissing (ranging from pecks to making out, I counted about thirty), mention of wedding night (future-bride is embarrassed), mention of making love after marriage (a conversation where advice is given by the bride's married friend and the groom, who is present, asks to change the subject. Which I honestly agreed with, it felt unnecessary 😅), lingerie (setting up a lingerie party, mentions thongs and bras... little girls are present) 6/7/24