How My Summer Went Up in Flames by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski

Rosie’s always been impulsive. She didn’t intend to set her cheating ex-boyfriend’s car on fire. And she never thought her attempts to make amends could be considered stalking. So when she’s served with a temporary restraining order on the first day of summer vacation, she’s heartbroken—and furious.
To put distance between Rosie and her ex, Rosie’s parents send her on a cross-country road trip with responsible, reliable neighbor Matty and his two friends. Forget freedom of the road, Rosie wants to hitchhike home and win back her ex. But her determination starts to dwindle with each passing mile. Because Rosie’s spark of anger? It may have just ignited a romance with someone new…

I admit it, the cover is what first drew me to How My Summer Went Up in Flames. It’s an adorable cover, and mixed with the title- made the book seem super appealing. However, the story was appealing as well. Though the beginning was a bit slow, I couldn’t help but get sucked in to Rosie’s story. It wasn’t completely relatable, but it was entertaining.

It was difficult to read about Rosie sometimes. She was too set in her ways, and at times I found her annoying. However, by the end of the book I really liked her. The relationships she made with the secondary characters helped her morph her attitude about life into something more manageable. The secondary characters were impeccably written. Their character development didn’t suffer because they were secondary characters- which is one thing in particular that stood out to me while reading. Part of me was concerned at the beginning of the book, because I thought that there was going to be a love triangle. Though there was an essence of one, it was easy to figure out which boy Rosie would end up with, so the triangle didn’t really distract from the story.

Though it isn’t one of my favorites, I did enjoy How My Summer Went Up in Flames. It was a quick, adorable novel. Jennifer Salvato Doktorski wrote a really interesting story, that is perfect to read on a hot (or cold) summer’s day.

FTC- Received from publisher.

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