The Girl’s Guide to Summer by Sarah Mlynowski

Yesssss. I am loving all the summery travel stories that 2017 has thrown at us. I went from accepting that I’ll never get to go on holiday to constantly thinking about my next trip, even taking my first solo holiday this year. In The Girl’s Guide to Summer (titled I See London, I See France in the US), 19-year-old best friends Sydney and Leela are off on a once-in-a-lifetime European adventure, visiting England, France, Italy, Switzerland, just to name a few.

I live in Europe, but I’ve never been on an interrailing adventure. I’ve never even considered it. In The Girl’s Guide... the two friends have it all planned out… until spontaneity takes hold and the girls jump from train to train, heading to another country when the moment takes them. (Come to think of it, it seems like the perfect road trip for someone who gets car sick…). I particularly loved experiencing London through Sydney and Leela’s eyes (and may have shouted at them a few times when they forgot to get travel money and didn’t check when they could check into a hostel. *headdesk*). I also enjoyed reading about the places I’ve never been to.

With such freedom – and only a few weeks – comes exhaustion and drama. I constantly feared for Leena and Sydney’s friendship! Ex-boyfriends, new boyfriends, tense friendships… The Girl’s Guide to Summer has it all.

The Girl’s Guide to Summer is a super fun contemporary read for travellers and wannabe travellers!

A post shared by Stacey (@prettybooks) on Jun 27, 2017 at 5:52am PDT

Sunkissed by Jenny McLachlan

In May, I took the plunge and flew off on my first solo trip to Stockholm, Sweden. I adored this beautiful, watery country so much that I couldn’t wait to pick up Jenny McLachlan’s summery read, set on the fictional island of Stråla in Sweden’s archipelago. It is simultaneously Kat’s worst nightmare and my absolute dream. Best. Punishment. Ever. But I admit that no hot showers, no wifi, and no friends would be a shock to the system – and it certainly is for Kat!

And then Kat meets Leo. Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a “girl meets boy and everything is right in the world” kind of story – Kat’s just happy to meet someone her own age. She’s stranded on the most boring island ever for the entire summer, missing her friends back home and her creature comforts. She’s little superficial, immature and petulant… but I couldn’t help but fall in love with her in Sunkissed. Kat meets a whole host of quirky characters so different to everyone back home, from her carefree aunt Frida to a confident young girl called Nanna. Leo also plays his part in showing Kat that she can do more – and enjoy more – than she thought she could…

Jenny McLachlan’s novels are so breezy and fun – I’ll be picking up Love Bomb and Stargazing for Beginners as soon as I can.

A post shared by Stacey (@prettybooks) on Aug 26, 2017 at 1:18pm PDT

Piglettes by Clémentine Beauvais

Aaaand the last of my summer road trip reads is Piglettes. I loved the Sesame Seade series, a hilarious and smart middle grade mystery trilogy from Clémentine Beauvais. Piglettes shows us (as if we didn’t already know) that Clém has a unique voice in fiction. This is her first YA novel, translated into English (by herself, I might add) from her 2015 French novel, Les Petites Reines.

Piglettes takes us on an unlikely adventure with three witty, quirky and smart protagonists, like the ones featured in her younger fiction. But now Clém’s used her writing powers to create a YA read that you won’t feel like you’ve read before.

Mireille, Astrid and Hakima have been voted the three ugliest girls in their school. Awful, right? If it were me, I’d hide under my duvet forever, but these new friends band together and take matters into their own hands. From bullies and bicycles to periods and politicians, you never know what to expect next in Piglettes. The girls set off (slowly) on their bikes to Paris with a plan to crash a garden party at the Elysee Palace on 14th July. This bonkers adventure attracts interest from the French press and a wave of support on social media, leaving you cheering for the Piglettes.

Piglettes is a light-hearted, funny romp through France with a serious edge: girls, you should do what you think is right, even if everyone is telling you that you can’t. I couldn’t get enough of the below line, which I read over and over…

“I don’t understand why you insist on calling yourselves Three Little Piglettes,” Mum groans. “It’s a horrible name.”

“We’ll make it beautiful, you’ll see. Or better, we’ll make it powerful.”

A post shared by Stacey (@prettybooks) on Jul 7, 2017 at 2:56am PDT

Freshers by Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison

Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison are two of my favourite YA authors and are among the funniest, loveliest people in UKYA. With Freshers, Lucy and Tom show that you can write YA about 18-year-olds and you can set in university, and it is not this mythical New Adult category. University stories are rare in UKYA – and I’d love to see more!

Freshers, narrated by Luke and Phoebe, captures the first year of university excellently. Both Luke and Phoebe’s experiences as first years are quite different to mine – let’s just say that university wasn’t exactly the best three years of my life – but it was great to read about (particularly the Quidditch society!), and I know it’ll be similar to lots of teenagers’ experiences. I loved the friendship dynamics and wish I’d made those sorts of intense, close friendships during my first few months away from home. I was a little sceptical about Luke (as I told Tom at one of his events), but grew to love him – and Phoebe was just brilliant. They’re two of the most realistic teenage characters I’ve come across (as we’ve all come to expect from Lucy and Tom!).

Freshers was as hilarious as you might expect from our duo, yet it covers serious topics that are vital to talk about at university, from sexual harassment on campus and one-night stands to ‘laddish’ behaviour and homesickness. I wish I had Freshers to read at university. It’s one of my favourite books of the year so far!

“He’s tall and fit and he knows about grammar and Quidditch and murder. He’s literally the perfect man.”

A post shared by Stacey (@prettybooks) on Jun 22, 2017 at 1:39am PDT

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

I love reading YA novels set in Italy (one of the countries I must go back to soon). I recently read One Italian Summer and it was so fun picking up another one, this time set in beautiful Florence.

Lina is suffering from terrible grief, forced to move from America to Italy because her mother passed away. She’s off to live with a father she’s never met in a country she’s never been to. Once she gets there, Lina’s not convinced she can stay in Florence (as pretty as it is). Her best friend is at home, she barely knows her father, and what even is prosciutto, gelato and a Margherita pizza (Americans, really?!). Once she starts to explore, she meets Italian-American Ren and is introduced to a whole host of Italian friends who love her straight away, and maybe, just maybe, she can start to call this place home.

Love & Gelato is Lina’s story, but it’s also her mother’s. I really enjoyed reading her mother’s diary, from when she was studying in Florence in her 20s, until she left after becoming pregnant with Lina. I did guess the plot twist quite early on, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying each characters’ journey, from the sweet romance between Lina and Ren – although I mostly loved how they became best friends – to Lina’s father, Howard, who is also super lovely. Howard made Lina feel welcome, from thoughtfully redecorating her bedroom to taking her out to his favourite pizza place.

A sweet story about love, family and secrets, Love & Gelato has made me want to jump on a plane to Tuscany…

A post shared by Stacey (@prettybooks) on Jun 14, 2017 at 4:53am PDT

And Then We Ran by Katy Cannon

And Then We Ran wasn’t quite the summer road trip story I expected. It’s set in rainy, wintry Pembrokeshire, in the south west of Wales.

Megan and Elliot feel suffocated by their small beach town. Megan’s sister died not so long ago and Elliot’s given up on his future. Together, they embark on an adventure to take control of their lives – a road trip to Scotland’s Gretna Green to get married (of course), with plans to move to London and follow their dreams.

Megan and Elliot are flawed and flaky teenagers, and that made them fun to read about. Megan wasn’t exactly prepared for her big adventure – she’s spontaneous and decides to move to the capital to be a photographer, even though she doesn’t know what a career in photography involves. Meanwhile, Elliot is too busy being a Bad Boyfriend to work out exactly what he wants to do. But who, as a teenager, knew exactly what they’d be doing in their 20s?

I can understand how frustrating Megan’s parents were for her – constantly pressuring her to go to university, refusing to accept that their daughter might be happier taking another path. I’m lucky – my family never pushed me to do anything I didn’t want to do, but Megan has to constantly push back. Even so, I know what it’s like to feel compelled to run away and start a new life – I nearly did a gap year in Australia for this reason! – and so, then, And Then We Ran starts to make sense.

A post shared by Stacey (@prettybooks) on Feb 9, 2017 at 12:48pm PST