Summer Camp – Goodys.Blog

Total Star Rating: 4 Stars

This was something that everyone can enjoy; a simple feel good story! I enjoyed this title, which was the story of two friends reuniting and discovering that sometimes it’s worth testing those bonds and moving into a deeper and more romantic territory. I know the subject matter isn’t for everyone: an LGBTQ+ love story (M/M specifically), and it being revolved around sports (Hockey specifically), but anyone who can enjoy a love story with two great characters that have such great chemistry and obviously just belong together, this is a title to look into!

The two MC’s complemented each other quite well, in my opinion, and were easy to get behind and support, and were overall just a delight to read! I especially enjoyed the self discovery that one character went through in order to accept himself and how things happen in the story. It wasn’t as angsty as other books have been, which is different, but not an all that bad choice. It still felt genuine and natural with the turnout still being oh so satisfying.

This is only part 1 of a duology, but I still felt that it stood as a standalone with how things turned out in the end. There were still some things left up in the air and had a few easter eggs of what was to come, but the ending is heartwarming nonetheless!

What It’s About:

Our mouths fit together so perfectly. Everytime we kiss, I fall even more in love with him, and it has nothing to do with sex or lust. It’s him. His closeness and his scent and the way he soothes me.

– Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy, “Him”

This story stars two college hockey players, Jamie Canning and Ryan Wesley. They’re total opposites; Jamie’s the golden boy from California with laid back, lazy good looks while Ryan’s demeanor is tattoos, piercings, and smart-ass remarks that tries to hide his disdain for his east coast aristocratic background. They met at a sleepaway hockey camp when they were 13, and had become friends over the years until the summer they turned 18. The final night of camp, something happened, and they became cut off from each other. Alcohol and a stupid bet got involved, and then eventually confusion and regret.

Years later as they’re about to graduate college, Ryan and Jamie run into each other again at the Frozen Four finals in college Hockey, and all the memories and anxiety come rushing back to the surface as they come face to face once again. Ryan is now out and proud, at least to his teammates and coaching staff (his parents know too, but thats a different story), and always regretted how far things went that last night at camp years ago with Jamie. He honestly never thought he’d get the chance to try and make amends, but he does, but the lingering feelings he had for his straight friend come back stronger than ever.

Jamie has always been frustrated at the situation at that final night years prior, mainly for never getting a response or any sort of answers. Fate ends up giving them a second chance, and they wind up being coaches and roommates at the very same camp where they met, years later for the summer after graduation.

It will be there that they reconnect, and Jamie gets some answers, but new ones rise up along the way, including one about the kind of person he is…

What I Liked:

It’s A Sports M/M Romance! It’s becoming a favorite romance-genre niche of mine, but I’ve figured it’s because jocks are my personal preference in a potential lover. This story is definitely one of the best ones I’d read within this specific genre, but even someone who’s not into sports can enjoy it; it never gets too wordy on the mechanics of hockey, so no worries there!

The Hot Sex Scenes! For fans of smut (like myself, no shame…) there’s plenty of steamy scenes between the MC’s to fog up the windows, hand against the glass and slides down and all that… I can only shrug and laugh at this one honestly! While hot, it was also fun to read Ryan and Jamie’s connection and see how vulnerable they get with each other as they peel away layers and become their true selves with each other and develop deeper feelings.

The MC’s Are Both Incredibly Likeable! Both Jamie and Ryan are great main characters to follow as you read their story. The story switched back and forth between their point of views, and it worked fairly well; it was easy to distinguish between their two voices, they have some great qualities to make them great MC’s for the story to revolve around.

Ryan’s Unrequited Love Story-Arc! What I mean by this is that Ryan has known he’s gay for a long time, and he also knew he was in love with Jamie since when they first met, even when Jamie still considered himself straight. Part of Ryan always thought it’d never work out; that he was absolutely pathetic for being in love with his straight friend who’d never return those feelings. I loved it later when they start to be together and Ryan would step back and remember all those sad thoughts, but then gaze at Jamie when he thought he wouldn’t notice, wondering how he got so lucky after all. It was such sweet and tender moments in the story, it gave the hopeless romantic in me the major feels!

There’s Plenty of Humor! Just what I expected with Elle Kennedy, but there were plenty of hilarious moments in the story! I won’t give too much away, but some of it does involve coming out to parents and siblings through a Facebook group chat, a condom-couch, and two jocks trying to hook up in the back of a (really) small car!

Loved you every summer since I was thirteen years old. Love you even more now.”

– Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy, “Him”

What I Didn’t Like:

The Dialogue Can Be Juvenile…Elle Kennedy is so great with hilarious and witty dialogue between her MC’s in her romance titles, and this one doesn’t fall below that expectation, but I can say at some points in the story that it gets a little eye-roll worthy…BUT try to remember that while these guys are gay, they are also 22 year old athletes/jocks and have grown up around that locker room talk between the bro’s and the guys and all that; jocks are just kind of like that! I can attest to it; it wasn’t far off from what I’ve heard in a high school locker room while prepping for Football Games under those Friday night lights. The two authors get it pretty spot on and really, it doesn’t really mean anything; it’s pretty innocent. Luckily, things get much better when it’s just the two of them.

There’s One Homophobic Character…So maybe a trigger warning, but there is a part of the story where the two MC’s have to deal with an older homophobic minor character. I kind of saw it coming; the setting for most of the story is a small lake-town (the kind midwesterners go visit whenever they spend a weekend at the cabin), so storyline-wise it was bound to happen, especially amongst a bunch of men playing a sport where homosexuality is still a sensitive subject depending who you talk to. It’s still such a bummer that similar situations still happen like that in real life, that two men who have feelings for each other can’t even hold hands for fear of judgment or persecution from other people’s ignorance and inability towards acceptance…Hopefully we’ll evolve past that someday… Luckily, I can happily add that not all the adults/coaches/parents/PR agents are like that in the story, and I give Coach Pat a huge shoutout!

Conclusion:

A definite feel good, low angst, New Adult M/M sports romance that anyone who’s looking for some more LGBTQ+ titles can enjoy! Like other titles I’ve read by Elle Kennedy, it’s filled with witty banter, funny and relatable characters, steamy love scenes, and heartwarming fluff on top of it all. It was harder than I thought it would be to get my hands on this book, but it was worth the battle; it’s a definite shelf-keeper for me!

Thanks For Reading!

— Nick Goodsell

Publish Date: July 3rd 2018
Number of Pages: 371 Pages
Publisher: Dutton Books
Genre(s): Mystery/Thriller

Total Star Rating: 3.75 Stars

Who else went to sleepaway camp when they were younger? Imagine it for yourself: the old, weathered, paint-chipped wooden buildings throughout the area, the tiny bunk bed cabins, the massive fire pit that overlooked the lake in the woods , the latrines for the communal showers that everyone fought over before the water went cold, the cobwebs in just about every corner of any given space, the massive mosquitos, the early morning roll calls that ended up in the cafeteria with the long tables with benches, and that hot, older camp counselor that all the girls (and me) had a crush on? His name was probably Trevor, Jake, Luke or Josh? God, I love nostalgia.

This book was a great reminder of my younger summer years spent at a camp with everything included above; it brought back the amazing weeks that I truly didn’t appreciate when I was younger. I still remember dreading it on the long bus ride to Amery, WI, but was sad to go by the end of the week.

I am happy to say that no one ever went mysteriously missing or possibly brutally murdered in any of my trips, thank god…but that does bring me more into the book and what it’s about.

With the setting of a seemingly innocent summer camp grounds, Riley Sager managed to cast a shadow upon it and give it an eery edge as he wrote this story. His prose caused a certain level of unease and anxiousness as the mystery developed and more questions stirred along the way; whether the author reveals yet another secret that the camp kept hidden, or with the flashback scenes provided to gain some sort of perspective on it all. It read like a creepy as hell ghost story told around a campfire, causing goosebumps and absolutely no sleep to anyone who listened in.

What It’s About?

15 years prior to the current day events in this story, Emma Davis goes to Camp Nightingale for the first time ever. The camp was an elite, all girls site that catered to only the wealthy and privileged. Emma is not thrilled at all to gather around the campfire and sing some songs, as she’s a couple years younger than the majority of the other campers. She meets her cabin-mates Vivian, Allison, and Natalie. Vivian, who is Regina George level HBIC, takes a liking to Emma and takes her under her wing, to which Emma is thrilled with . Who wouldn’t want the prettiest, most popular girl at camp to befriend her?

The night of the Fourth of July, Emma is woken up in her cabin to witness the three girls sneaking out; Vivian even doing the Pretty Little Liars-esque pointer finger to her lips motion with a mischievous wink as she closes the door behind her.

Emma had no idea that she would never see any of them ever again.

It became the mystery of the summer; three rich girls disappear without a trace, lost in the woods or taken by the lake. The police get involved, volunteer search parties are formed, but no one is able to find any trace of them except for a hoodie found on the opposite side of the lake. With no luck towards their whereabouts, the camp is closed down, and everyone is sent home with their lingering fears and questions that would never be answered…

15 years later…Emma Davis has become an up and coming artist that is making her name amongst the New York art scene with the gallery opening of her large canvas paintings that were inspired by that summer; girls in white dresses lost in the woods, being buried behind dark, elongated and warped branches that were as black as a midnight sky. It had been her way of grieving her loss, but she never expected to come face to face with Camp Nightingale’s owner, Francesca Harris-White, to show up at her gallery and invite her back to the reopening of the camp, but this time as a counselor. She too wants to be able to move forward, and maybe all this time later having one last summer away would help them get a sense of closure on the terrors that still haunt them. Reluctant at first, Emma can’t help but be drawn by the answers that she seeks, so she agrees to return.

She sets foot back on the campgrounds, and all the memories of that summer 15 years ago comes rushing back, including Francesca’s oldest son, Theo. Theo, the counselor that all the girls, including Emma, had a crush on, but also the man who Emma accused the disappearances on and had listed as a prime suspect. That’s not even the weirdest thing though; Emma discovers a hidden security camera looking in on her cabin one night, watching whoever comes and goes. From then on, strange things begin to happen to her, and she believes that someone, or some supernatural force, is threatening her and stopping her from digging any further…

What I liked:

The Writing Style! Like I said earlier, I really connected with the author’s prose and how he told the story. He wrote in such a way that puts you at unease, adding more and more tension into the story as it escalated, expertly building the anticipation like a horror movie; viewers anxiously waiting for something to pop out at them, all the while dread builds in the pit of their stomachs. It was chilling to see a place as innocent as a summer campground become dark, ominous, and sinister as more secrets are dug up, revealing more going on behind closed doors than you ever thought imaginable.
The Switch from Present to Past! Normally, I’m not a fan of flashback scenes because of how they usually can disrupt the pace of the story. It may just be me, but I do know for sure that they’re not my cup of tea. This story is an exception, because the scenes are at least consistent, and gives you an answer to the question that the previous chapter from current day presents you. They also gave you just enough information to help you make your own connections , like pieces of a puzzle, but not make it super obvious, thus allowing you to find everything out with the main character.
No One Can Be Trusted! The author created a great cast of characters in the sense that they all are incredibly questionable when you meet them throughout the story. Some are more warm and welcoming than others, but you get the sense that everyone is keeping secrets, and you don’t know who’s as innocent as you initially thought, and wonder how much everyone actually knows.
The Ending! HOLY SHIT…the last chapter, or actually, the very last three pages just add such an over the top, shocking reveal that was equally heart-pounding as it was unexpected and made me hope for a sequel that will never happen, but could seriously become a whole new thriller on its own. I didn’t see it coming at all; I had to reread it several times in order to absorb what happened as the shock slowly wore off.

What I Didn’t Like:

Lesser Developed Characters…While they certainly add to the many mysteries that sprout up like weeds in the story, the characters fall flat in terms of feeling fleshed out and well developed. I wish the author put more time into them, but you could possibly overlook this with the overwhelming thrills that the plot gives to the overall story.
Untrustworthy Narrator…Emma, of course, is the narrator of the story, but it became frustrating at times because she withheld valuable information until the very last moment, and also just seeming judgemental of the other female characters when she described them, only focusing on the negative aspects. It’s obvious that she still suspects Theo may have had something to do with the girls disappearance, it also becomes apparent that the other characters may in fact actually suspect her, and with you getting an inside look into her mind and how it operates, you yourself even wonder at some points…

Conclusion:

This book is a chilling thriller that is perfect for anyone wanting to find a fun summer read. It can transport you back in time and remind yourself of the camp you went to when you were younger, or paint a vivid and realistic picture of what it was like for those that didn’t share that experience. The story may not be for everyone who considers themselves a mystery/thriller fan, but the author does a great job of driving the story forward with his prose, making it a fast, easy read that may make you stay safe inside as things go bump in the night.