Jessica Pennington

They have a love-hate relationship with summer. Sidney and Asher should have clicked. Two star swimmers forced to spend their summers on a lake together sounds like the perfect match. But it’s the same every year—in between cookouts and boat rides and family-imposed bonfires, Sidney and Asher spend the dog days of summer finding the ultimate ways to prank each other. And now, after their senior year, they’re determined to make it the most epic yet. But their plans are thrown in sudden jeopardy when their feud causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake houses. Once in their new accommodations, Sidney expects the prank war to continue as usual. But then she gets a note—Meet me at midnight. And Asher has a proposition for her: join forces for one last summer of epic pranks, against a shared enemy—the woman who kicked them out. Their truce should make things simpler, but six years of tormenting one another isn’t so easy to ignore. Kind of like the undeniable attraction growing between them.

Meet Me at Midnight

Jennifer Gosnell

Loved the middle part of this story. The back-and-forths, the witty banter, the forced proximity, the enemies to lovers. As a fellow anxiety-prone person, I related to Sidney… but also found her painful at times. The story really steam around the 80% mark and it was a slog to make it to the end, for what was otherwise a great read!

Sofie

A cute fluffy summer story. However, after (view spoiler)[ the break-up, I felt it dragged a bit. The story would have been better (for me) if it had been confined to the lakehouse/summer, and not continued into the school year. 

Also, what was the point of that first "drunken" kiss? Sidney thinks Asher doesn't remember and Asher doesn't bring it up in his POV chapters, so readers are obviously meant to assume he DOESN'T remember, but then he mentions like, halfway through the book that he does. What was the point of this fake-out? They never ended up having a conversation about it. Felt like a loose end. (hide spoiler)]

A very quick read! You may have noticed, but enemies to lovers might be my favourite literary trope.

Candyce Kirk

Meet Me at Midnight is the perfect summer read and makes me wish I was sitting at the lake on a nice sunny day right now. The world is a crazy place at the moment and a book like this is the perfect escape. Jessica Pennington wrote such a fun enemies to lovers story and left me wanting more.

Our main characters Sidney and Asher have been spending the summer together for quite a few years, because their families vacation together at the same lake houses for quite some time. These summers have been filled with pranks and not leaving each other alone. I have to say these pranks made me laugh: Kool-aid in the shower, lemonade on bed sheets and so many other things. Let's say these two put thought in teasing each other. That is until the pranking goes too far.

Once the families are forced to live together, things change and a truce is called. Sidney and Asher slowly start working together, even if it takes time. I think this was my favorite part of the book. Both of their characters start to change and feelings start to develop. Maybe they don't have to be enemies? It was refreshing that there was already a lot of history and that glimpses in the past showed us more of these characters.

Asher and Sidney were an interesting duo. This summer was full of change, because they were headed off to college. What would happen after this year? It was fun to see both characters slowly deveop and open up. Even if Sidney really got on my nerves quite often. She really runs from her emotions and while part of me understands her, at times it rubbed me the wrong way, haha. Sidney's character is consistent throughout the book, so that's why it didn't have any affect on my rating.

Asher was my favorite character from the start. Even if he seemed a bit full of himself, there was so much more. To me he was a perfect book boyfriend. Asher was sweet, sensitive and pretty romantic. I loved how much he tried fighting for love no matter how hard he got pushed away. For Asher this summer was more than just pranking. It was also time for him to stand up to his father and say what he wants. 

All in all, Meet Me at Midnight was such a fast and fun read! I definitely see myself re-reading this in the future! Maybe on the beach with the sun shining!

laura

* I got this book for review from the publisher for my honest thoughts*

I did really enjoy the setting and the concept of this read. I thought this explored a realtionship that I have not often seen in YA literature. I really enjoyed the love to hate elements of the story. I really liked the setting that we saw in previous books in this series. I struggled a bit with the pacing of this book and the tension was not as "intense" or captivating as I wanted it to be. But it was super fun read and I would def read more by the author in the future.

Alice

Lovisa

Alicia Haws

⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 STARS

This was such a fun YA Contemporary Romance! This is the story of Sidney and Asher--two teens who are forced to spend every summer together with their parents on a lake. Sid and Asher spend their summer days finding new ways to prank and ultimately out-do the other. This summer, however, their plans are thrown in jeopardy when one of their pranks causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake house rentals. Once they get into their new rental, Asher proposes a truce, and to join forces to prank the woman who kicked them out. They think that the truce will make the summer easier, but have to face the music--six years of pranks, and the reason behind why it all started, are really hard to ignore.

I really thought this was such a well done book. There were parts that had me laughing out loud, and other parts that were more serious. I really loved the "enemies" to lovers vibe of this book, and the banter between Sidney and Asher was very well written. Sometimes YA can seem TOO YA, in that the dialogue is cheesy, or everything is insta-love, but 
  'Meet Me at Midnight'
 was neither of those things. I enjoyed the level of maturity that eventually showed through in these characters, and how Pennington truly made you love and relate to them. They were so well written and came off the page like they were real. I also really enjoyed the flashbacks that were trickled throughout the story, and how they lead up to why they "hate" each other in the first place.

Overall I think if you like Contemporary Romance, you would enjoy this story. I was very impressed, and will definitely be checking out Pennington's other works. 


  **Much thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the advanced e-copy of the book in exchange only for my honest thoughts and review.



  


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Kaele Perkins 

This was the perfectly cute summer book I needed. I loved the main characters (I related to Sydney) Asher was great. Love the pranking plotline, it was all around a fun book!

Epsita

I enjoyed reading this book. It was entertaining and sweet and I loved the execution of the enemies-to-lovers trope.

Aubrey Erskine

For the full review visit my blog:
 http://shelflifechronicles.com/2020/0...

Sidney and Asher have been pranking each other all summer every summer since the end of their first summer together. Usually the pranks are good-nature and there are rules to make sure neither of them takes it too far and no one gets hurt. This summer is different though, both are headed off to college after and neither plans on coming back to the lake for the whole season next year. Things start off like every other summer; mild pranks, hanging with friends and parties. Sidney meets a cute new boy in town and even scores a date with him only to come home from it to a disgusting prank from Asher. In a fit of rage she retaliates a little too hard and ends up getting both families kicked out of their cabins. Now both families are staying under one roof, but instead of continuing to prank each other, Asher and Sidney team up to revenge prank the owner of the cabins who kicked them out.

This review is so hard to write because I don't want to spoil anything. It is an enemies to lovers trope which I love but it didn't go down the way I expected it to. There was so much witty banter, sass and sexual tension that kept me on my toes. It's the perfect spring break/summer read, but fair warning you won't want to put it down once you start it.

Shannon Jade

Read my full review on the Shannon A. Jade Books blog!

My Meet Me at Midnight Top 3:
- Enemies to lovers
- Summer romance
- Pranks galore

Belle Ellrich

*I RECEIVED A PHYSICAL GALLEY IN RETURN FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY OPINION*

And yet again, Jessica Pennington has released to us a contemporary we didn't realize we were missing.

As someone who is a big fan of Jess's books, I can confidently say that the first time I tried reading this, I was relieved that it wasn't the book and it was me. I hadn't been in the mood or ready to read MMAM, so I put it down.

However, picking it up a few days ago after prepping myself for a nice contemporary definitely helped get me into the mood for Jess's third book.

Meet Me at Midnight is a book we all wish we could've lived through at some point in our lives. This book follows after two characters--Sidney and Asher--who have been consistently pranking each other for four years and have built a serious rivalry.


Something I found immediately after starting the book was the tension between the two characters. When reading and finding something like this, it really sets up for some awesome character development, and Jess did not disappoint. Throughout the book, this animosity was addressed and came to a halting point where the true underlying scenes and emotions came unhidden and exposed.

One thing I always like seeing from Jess's books is how she continues the scenery of a place we all know and love. She makes small mentions to her previous main characters in her other books but keeps the story focused on these two.

However, there were a few things that stuck out to me that I'm a little iffy over.

This book is really long for being 340 pages. I felt like I was reading two books in one, and it made me feel bored during the "in-between" chapters. Another thing that bugged me was the random POV switches throughout the chapters. It kind of threw me for a loop and made it a little harder to follow along with the dialogue and story. It also became a bit choppy in places because of that.

Overall, though, I really did enjoy this book. Jess always manages to pull me out of whatever slump I'm in, and I love having that experience from her books. For that, I rate MMAM 4 stars.

Teens waging a war of practical jokes declare peace when they fall for one another in this charming YA romantic comedy from Jessica Pennington. They have a love-hate relationship with summer. Sidney and Asher should have clicked. Two star swimmers forced to spend their summers on a lake together sounds like the perfect match. But it’s the same every year—in between cookouts and boat rides and family-imposed bonfires, Sidney and Asher spend the dog days of summer finding the ultimate ways to prank each other. And now, after their senior year, they’re determined to make it the most epic yet. But their plans are thrown in sudden jeopardy when their feud causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake houses. Once in their new accommodations, Sidney expects the prank war to continue as usual. But then she gets a note—Meet me at midnight. And Asher has a proposition for her: join forces for one last summer of epic pranks, against a shared enemy—the woman who kicked them out. Their truce should make things simpler, but six years of tormenting one another isn’t so easy to ignore. Kind of like the undeniable attraction growing between them. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Meet Me at Midnight

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