Review: A Midsummer's Nightmare

A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger
Release Date: June 5, 2012
Publisher: Poppy
Age Group: YA
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Own
Interest: Contemporary
Challenge: 2012 Goodreads  Reading Challenge, 2012 YA Contemporary Challenge
Buy the Book: Amazon

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorced dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great. Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

From the very first page, A Midsummer's Nightmare is every bit as addicting as a bag of potatoe chips, or episodes of Jersey Shore. In fact, I think Whitley would fit right in, in the Shore House! Although you can totally understand why she behaves she does, after you've read the book!

Whitley's life pretty much sucks. I mean, seriously, if I were this girl, I think I'd have run away or joined the witness protection program! Whitley's parents divorced when she was younger, and she's left with her mother who has a bad attitude about men and her ex. Whitley spends her summer's with her father, drinking and hangout out at the beach, where he treats her more like a wing man than his daughter. But this summer is unlike any other! It's about to change the rest of her life, and it might be more than Whitley can handle!

Before setting off for her last summer with her dad before college, Whitley hooks up with a guy, and has a one-night stand. To her shock, when she arrives at her dad's to spend the summer, she finds out he has not only moved to the suburbs but is engadged to be married to a woman she didn't even know existed! To make matter's worse, Whitley's one night stand just so happens to be her future step brother! Could her summer get ANY worse?

Whitley was such a complex character. For much of the book she has such a bad attitude and is full of anger and teenage angst. At times I wanted to roll my eyes and groan, but later I learned why she acted the way she did. Yes, she curses way too much, she parties way too hard, gets hammered way too often, and does a lot of things with random guys that she will later regret. Yep, she totally would fit in at the Shore House! You can't help but love her, and totally sympathize with her, as she deals with her family troubles, and more serious ones such as cyber bullying.

Whitley was a really strong character that honestly, put up with a lot more crap than I would have! She was strong, and although she didn't always make the best decisions, or behave the way she should have, she handles them as best she can! I loved the supporting character's even more than I loved Whitley. I loved her future stepbrother Nathan, his annoyingly perky and lovable sister Bailey. And especially Harrison, her first ever best friend and fashion guru!

All in all this was an incredible book that was impossible to put down! It's a well written contemporary that also dealt with some serious issues. It was amazing and I can't wait to check out this author's other work.