Anna is turning 15 and has an amazing life.  She lives next door to her two best friends, Frankie, who is the same age as Anna, and  Frankie’s older brother Matt.  Matt is 17 and Anna’s best-friend-who-is-a-boy.  As she blows out her birthday candles she makes her wish…  the same wish she has made since Frankie and her were ten and Matt was twelve.  Anna wishes Matt loved her the way she loves him.

This year, Anna’s wish comes true and Matt finally kisses her, and shares that he too has feelings for her.  BLISS!   Matt asks Anna to let him tell Frankie as they are all so close.   And Anna, filled with warm butterflies and a swelling heart agrees to keep it a secret until Matt tells Frankie.

When tragedy strikes, Anna is left holding on to the secret that never had a chance to be told as well as a fragile version of her best friend Frankie.

A year passes…. and Anna is invited to go to California, with Frankie and her family, to spend a few weeks where Frankie’s family vacationed every year.   The exception being, that this year will be the first without Matt.  As summer starts to move its way across the sky, Anna finds herself torn between old ghosts, and new possibilities, the best friend she once knew, and the stranger Frankie seems to have become…

♥         ♥         ♥         ♥         ♥         ♥         ♥         ♥

I seem to be on a YA kick.  I know partially it is the time of the year…. it’s summer and summer calls me to  light, summery feeling reads, and this book was a perfect fit.  It was beyond what I thought it would be and when I finished it I knew it was totally “gush worthy.”

There are so many things I liked about this book.  Anna, Frankie, Matt – all likable well-developed characters that I had no trouble at all picturing as real flesh and blood teens.  I liked Anna a lot.  She was a wonderful girl who did her best to hold on to Frankie as Frankie tried to move on from her brother’s death, having no idea the pain and the secret that Anna was clinging to.

And for Anna – how do you move on from the ghost of a …… she wasn’t even sure what Matt was to her.  Boyfriend?

Author Sarah Ockler writes a compelling read that made me feel all the highly intense emotions of the characters.  When love is so fresh and new you actually can feel it in the air like electricity…. and when pain hits like a flash of white light – it is so powerful it takes your breath away and leaves you grasping at whispers of memories….

“Anna, what’s the number one coolest thing you’ve ever seen in your life?”

‘What’s yours?”

“It’s always been the ocean but I’m thinking about changing my answer.”

Twenty Boy Summer made my heart ache.  I would have never guessed that this was a debut authors book.  Beautifully written, sweet and touching – it will remind you of teenage years, warm beaches, best friends, and first love…  at least it did for me.  ♥

*Note:  Twenty Boy Summer does have some sexual content

My Amazon Rating

Book Journey’s reading map has been updated to include Twenty Boy Summer

If you are in the area to visit Anna and Frankie at Zanzibar Bay you should stop for coffee (or smoothies) at Zanzibar Cafe

290 pages

Cover Story:  Love it – instantly curious about the red piece!  (And later, loved how the red piece played into the story!

I purchased this book in New York at the Author Carnival Event

Welcome to Witt’s End, a resort in Northern Minnesota.  This isn’t your average resort, at least it’s not like the resorts I have stayed in Minnesota.   Nope.  This particular resort is a last stop for those who have passed from this world, but have yet to enter the next.  Sixty four year old Sadie and her twin sister Jane are the owners and conduit (Sadie) to the hereafter at the resort.

With a cast of wildly flamboyant characters, including Sadie herself, Beth Solheim writes a humorous and outrageous book.  The first draw for me of course was the fact that this is a Minnesota read.  Beth’s book is so unusual and funny I just sat down and enjoyed myself from start to finish.

In the midst of this cozy mystery there is a lawsuit and a murder to solve.  Never a dull moment when you check in to Witt’s End.  Is “gufah” is a word – I can use it to describe this book – I think that is the laugh that came out of me several times unexpectedly as I turned through the pa.

You can check out the very funny Beth Soleheim at her website here.

My Amazon Rating

Book Journey had updated the 2010 reading map to include At Witt’s End

Cover Story:  I like it – quirky and mysterious….. would you check into this resort?  😉

I received this book for review from author, Beth Solheim

Right here, in my own home state of Minnesota, I open the pages to meet James Becker, recently retired government official, who has made his way back to his home town of Red Wing, Minnesota with his wife Beth.  While James “Beck” may be ready for retirement – he soon finds out retirement is not ready for him.  In short time he finds himself helping out a friend and Chief Sheriff Deputy on a crime of a missing woman.

Seems Katherine Whitson, a Minneapolis computer whiz, has disappeared under mysterious circumstances and Beck offers his help to see what he can find out.  What follows within the pages of this book is a masterful read of intelligence, intrigue, and enough humor mixed in to keep things Minnesota nice, and this Minnesotan laughing out loud.

I have to admit this book was not a hard sell for me to review.  First of all it is set in my home state and I do love to be able to picture the areas described, the roads traveled, and the sites seen.  Secondly, I do love a good mystery and it didn’t take me very many pages to realize that was exactly what I held in my hands.

John Betcher has created a character I found to be fully rounded – a retired Government Agent, a good guy, incredibly wise and good at what he does and fully in love with his wife.

Ok – stating that he is fully in love with his wife might seem like an odd statement, but I have to mention this because this is one of the thee in the book that really impressed me.  So often our detective/ crime fighter characters are either single, divorced, or married but you never actually get to see the wife as a fully developed character.  In John Betcher’s book, not only is Beth fully present – she is fully active in this book.  Beth is smart and completely in love with her husband and I loved how they had each others back.  Maybe this is just me seeing this, but I felt having such a wonderfully functioning couple was – well… refreshing.

I was impressed all the way around with the writing, the plot, the whole story.  As I finished the last pages I closed the book very satisfied that all the loose ends had been tied and hopeful that I could follow the roads that Beck travels again…

(Oh – and I was not disappointed to discover that Beck, does make an appearance in John Betcher’s newest release:  The 19th Element )

Amazon Rating

Book Journey has updated the 2010 read map to include The Missing Element

When in Red Wing Minnesota, stop in at Best Of Times Book Store for a wonderful experience and a complimentary cup of coffee!

288  Pages

Cover Story:  This is a cover that would not cause me to pick up this book.  I hate to say that, because it is truly a wonderful read – but this cover does not sell the book for me.  I had to hear about the book from other sources, and still wondered about it once I seen this very plain cover.  I am here to tell you friends – do not judge this one by its cover – this is a wonderful read!

I received my copy of this book for review from Author John Betcher