Title: Meet Me at Midnight

By: Jessica Pennington

Series: NO

Pages: 336 

Published: April 7th, 2020

By: Tor Teen

Genre: YA | Romance | Contemporary

Buy it: Book Depository

 

 

 

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They have a love-hate relationship with summer.

Sidney and Asher should have clicked. Two star swimmers forced to spend their summers on a lake together sounds like the perfect match. But it’s the same every year—in between cookouts and boat rides and family-imposed bonfires, Sidney and Asher spend the dog days of summer finding the ultimate ways to prank each other. And now, after their senior year, they’re determined to make it the most epic summer yet.

But their plans are thrown in sudden jeopardy when their feud causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake houses. Once in their new accommodations, Sidney expects the prank war to continue as usual. But then she gets a note—Meet me at midnight. And Asher has a proposition for her: join forces for one last summer of epic pranks, against a shared enemy—the woman who kicked them out.

Their truce should make things simpler, but six years of tormenting one another isn’t so easy to ignore. Kind of like the undeniable attraction growing between them.

| Goodreads |

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I want to thank Tor Teen & NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

My feelings for this book are a little messy, and it’s hard to explain but I’ll try my best. On the one hand, I enjoyed many aspects, especially the familiar one, and I liked the setting A LOT, I also think that most of the book is entertaining and keeps you wanting to continue reading. But on the other hand, the characters are quite immature, the whole “enemies” situation felt forced, as well as some dialogues and I feel that in the end only one of the characters has a marked growth & I think that although it didn’t seem heavy to read it, could have been a little shorter than it was and transmit the same message going straight to the point.

This book is an enemies-to-lovers romance that follows Asher and Sidney whose families are friends and since they’re little, they’ve always spent summers in the same place, they have a relationship that consists of challenging and joking each other all the time. Until one day a joke goes wrong and both families must spend the summer in the same house. Due to what has happened, Asher and Sydney decide to join forces against a common enemy, and from here unexpected feelings begin to arise between them.

I started super excited reading this book because I wanted to read something heavy on romance, which is rare for me, so it was a special moment, and sadly didn’t fully meet my expectations. The whole first part, maybe even a little more than half, is quite good, it’s a simple romance plot, with silly but entertaining dialogues, where there are small discussions and a lot of drama, but it’s quite entertaining and it progresses very fast, which I appreciate. We know a lot about the characters, their pasts and their present lives in that first part, and I always enjoy meeting new characters, is fun for me, so all that first part, maybe despite some over-the-top moments, was pretty good, create depth and plant a lot of intrigues to know what will happen, not to mention that it’s fun. But the second half is messy, I began to feel tired of the romantic relationship of the characters, when something was just happening between them was fun, but then it gets boring for me, it’s all because I think Asher gives a lot of himself and Sidney is a mess of emotions and doubts and teenager stuff and I felt super uncomfortable at times. I also felt that the “sarcastic” jokes and discussions were starting to get too much, and honestly and it’s super ugly to say it, but I got really bored as it started being repetitive.

There are romantic scenes that are very beautiful and especially when everything begins to take shape and the characters begin to relate, it’s beautiful to read because despite having known each other for years, they’ve never established a deeper relationship. But then it’s very frustrating, especially due to the difference in personalities that exists between them. Asher is a lovely person, I love this boy, he’s sweet, considerate and very attentive, to the point that I think he gives too much of himself, which makes me want to hug him. On the other hand, Sidney is a very dramatic girl and I understand that she’s just a teenager, so I’m not going to judge her too hard, but it was very stressful to follow her voice because she’s too much, I even feel a little sorry for her because she has a lot of trauma and issues with herself, but I would have liked this to be explored from another side, you know? and not from romance. It’s a shame because there are beautiful scenes, but the romance deteriorates a lot towards the ending, especially since I couldn’t stand the characters anymore and their relationship became “meh” for me. I’m aware, though, that it’s very difficult for me to like a romance and that I feel the chemistry between characters, so this is super personal, I think that if you read it maybe you’ll be able to connect more with them and with their stories.

I love the setting, I adore when everything is established in a beach house, it’s really beautiful, especially at night.

I enjoyed the writing style, it’s the first time that I read something from the author, so I have no comparison with another of her works, but I really liked it, her style flows very well, especially I think it’s perfect for softer and quick to read contemporary stories. I would read something more by her because I’m curious to know another type of facet, perhaps with another type of plot that’s not exclusively romantic and with other types of characters, without a doubt, I think I could enjoy it more.

So I don’t have much more to say, it’s a polarizing book regarding my own feelings and thoughts, one half I loved and the other is forgettable. I couldn’t enjoy as I would have liked the ending, I don’t think it’s bad, though, but I was already a little tired by that point and didn’t connect. Still, I think I would recommend it if romance is something you like, if you like enemy-to-love relationships and a bit of drama, in a beautiful summer setting. I adored Asher, so if you want a good main male character, which is SUPER important, he’s perfect and deserves better.

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3/5

 

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