Review: Summer Reading by Jenn McKinlay

 

Summer Reading by Jenn McKinlay

Publication Date: May 16th 2023 by Berkley

Pages: 438

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Sam quit her job after being passed over for a promotion as head chef she suspects is due to her dyslexia.  Now she’s spending the summer at Martha’s Vineyard to watch her younger half-brother, Tyler, while her parents are off on a European vacation. The timing couldn’t be more perfect. She can figure out what her next move will be while getting to know her younger brother.

On the ferry ride out she has an unfortunate accident with Ben, who she finds out is the library director. A man she’ll be seeing daily thanks to the Tyler’s robotics program taking place at the library where Ben works. There are sparks of attraction, but Sam wonders how a relationship would ever work when she has such issues with reading and Ben’s so very bookish. They end up thrown together over and over, and Sam offers to help Ben with his search for his father, and while Ben helps Sam write a cookbook with all the recipes her beloved grandmother shared with her.

Summer Reading was an easy romance to settle into and enjoy. I didn’t realize the hurdles some with dyslexia have to navigate and I appreciated learning about it through Sam’s story. My heart went out to her and the insecurities she struggled with because of it. I loved how Ben helped her realize how talented and smart she was and how wonderfully she coped with her disability. He was a sweetheart and a bookish hottie! Hard to resist!

Besides that, Sam was a spunky extrovert and a lot of fun! I enjoyed seeing her get to know her younger brother more, bond bring him out of some of his teenage angst. I really liked Em, Sam’s best friend, and enjoyed seeing them reconnect. Em’s story is next, and it sounds like a good one! Set in Ireland at a bookstore, I’m so there!

4 Stars

Book Description:

When a woman who'd rather do anything than read meets a swoon-worthy bookworm, sparks fly, making for one hot-summer fling in New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay's new rom-com.

For Samantha Gale, a summer on Martha's Vineyard at her family's tiny cottage was supposed to be about resurrecting her career as a chef, until she's tasked with chaperoning her half-brother, Tyler. The teenage brainiac is spending his summer at the local library in a robotics competition, and there's no place Sam, who's dyslexic, likes less than the library. And because the universe hates her, the library's interim director turns out to be the hot-reader guy whose book she accidentally destroyed on the ferry ride to the island.

Bennett Reynolds is on a quest to find his father, whose identity he's never known. He's taken the temporary job on the island to research the summer his mother spent there when she got pregnant with him. Ben tells himself he isn't interested in a relationship right now. Yet as soon as Sam knocks his book into the ocean, he can't stop thinking about her.

An irresistible attraction blossoms when Ben inspires Sam to create the cookbook she's always dreamed about and she jumps all in on helping him find his father, and soon they realize their summer fling may heat up into a happily ever after.