Cruel Summer by Alyson Noel

“This was supposed to be my best summer yet, the one I’ve been working toward since practically forever.  Now I’m being banished from everything I know and love, and it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Having recently discarded her dorky image--and the best friend that went with it--Colby Cavendish is looking forward to a long hot season of parties, beach BBQ’s, and hopefully, more hook-ups with Levi Bonham, the hottest guy in school. But her world comes crashing down when her parents send her away to spend the summer in Greece with her crazy aunt Tally.

Stranded on a boring island with no malls, no cell phone reception, and an aunt who talks to her plants, Colby worries that her new friends have forgotten all about her. But when she meets Yannis, a cute Greek local, everything changes.  She experiences something deeper and more intense than a summer fling, and it forces her to see herself, and the life she left behind, in a whole new way(Summary taken from goodreads).

Normally, I would have never given Cruel Summer a second glance, but since I really enjoy the way Alyson Noel writes and have only read her Immortal series, I figured I’d break out and give it a try. Unfortunately, I found myself rather disappointed. The writing style did not please me and the overall plot was a bit all over the place.

            First of all, I hated Colby. At first, she was tolerable, because it was understandable what she was going through. Her parents were splitting up and as they made this big decision they decided, hey! Why don’t we just ship you off to Greece for the summer! Therefore, it’s understandable that she would be upset. That be said, she complained constantly! It’s reasonable to be mad for a little while, but she was in Greece! How many opportunities are you going to get to go there? Might as well enjoy it while you can, don’t you think? Then there was Yannis, who I didn’t mind, but I felt as though he really wasn’t in the book that much. Not enough to have a huge impact on me. So for that, I was rather disappointed.

            Overall, I didn’t really like the way it was written. I still love Miss Noel’s writing style, but just not in this book. It would switch between emails, her journal, letters she was writing to her parents, and her blog. Normally in books, I don’t mind if the perspective switches from one character to another, but this just bothered me. It was probably because I disliked her so much, so the fact that everything was coming from her didn’t help. Overall, the book was okay. Nothing really stuck out and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but it wasn’t too bad.