Book Review: The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White

Image
The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White is the story about Phoebe Manigault returning home to Mt. Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, to help her sister with their ailing mother. When past memories resurface, Phoebe is thrown back into some childhood turmoil. I requested an Advanced Readers Copy ARC of The Last Carolina Summer from NetGalley, and I was ecstatic when the provided me with a copy for free in exchange for my honest review. So, a big thank you goes out to them! When I began reading this story, I just happened to be vacationing in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. I loved hearing about the different places, including streets and a bridge called the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which I had to cross to get into Mt. Pleasant as well as Isle of Palms. It's always nice to be able to visualize the places and author writes about. With that being said, I'm not a fan of traveling over bridges, and one of the scenes of The Last Carolina Summer mentions a car going off ...

Book Review: Trash (Trash, #1) by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld



Trash (Trash, #1) by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld follows the lifes of interns on a hip television show called Trash, and it's a bit like the Jerry Springer show but different. In the first installment, it follows the life of Chelsea, who is the daughter of a serial killer, and she is terrified that the other five interns will find out her secret.

When this was originally published, I absolutely loved this book and couldn't read it fast enough. Rereading it as an adult, one of the things that stuck out to me as a bit unrealistic was that one of the other interns turned out to be one of Chelsea's best friends from middle school, and Chelsea didn't recognize her friend because of her weight loss. It might have been different if it had been longer than four years since they had last seen each other.

Another thing I thought was a bit unrealistic was Chelsea's crush on one of the other interns and how she dealt with their relationship when they first starting dating. She was very clingy and acted like they were in a serious relationship even though they hadn't even technically been on a date yet. As a teenager reading this section, I really didn't give it a second thought, but reading it as an adult, it really is an unhealthy view on dating.

With that being said, it is an engaging and entertaining read that still held my attention as an adult. It made me want to know where the characters are today. Something I find interesting is that the author always seems to tie in the city of Nashville to all of her books in some way. I guess that had to do with the author living in Nashville, TN at the time she wrote these books. Another tidbit I found interesting is that Cherie Bennett's husband, Jeff Gottesfeld, co-authored this book.

One other thing I noticed about the covers of all the books in this series is that the photos for the the covers must have been shot all in one day and without any alternate outfits for the models to wear. I get the photo shoot taking place all in one day because it would be more cost effective that way, but I don't get why the models wouldn't have on different outfits on the other covers in the series. In my opinion, it would have made the covers more interesting had they been in different outfits on each book in the series.

I would definitely recommend this book to kids aged eleven through eighteen. But parents may want to read the book before letting their kids read it who are on the younger side due to some more mature themes. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Follow Us On Social Media

https://www.facebook.com/runningbibliophile/https://www.instagram.com/therunningbibliophile/https://www.pinterest.com/therunningbibliophile/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Dare by Natasha Preston

Book Review: Dirty Thirty (Stephanie Plum, #30) by Janet Evanovich

Book Review: The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia