The Quick Cut: A teen girl home from boarding school for the summer gets sent to work at a team building center against her will. Drama ensues as she learns to stand up for herself.
A Real Review: Life comes with unexpected complications that send us on new paths. Sometimes these new directions are happy and lead to exciting opportunities. Other times it leads to consequences for bad behavior. For Ashlyn, her summer is sent in unexpected directions as her father goes to jail for tax evasion and her mother is sent away for depression. Ashlyn made a bad decision a year ago that got her sent away to boarding school by her folks. She's done everything she can to get back on the right path and get to stay home for school for her senior year. That plan is upended when she gets home for the summer and her father has not only set her up with a summer job away from home - but also her senior year at boarding school fully paid for. Will she find a way to get back home like she wants? Or find happiness in the unexpected journey she's on instead? This is one of those young adult contemporary novels without a strong romantic element. Is there a little flirting? For sure. However, the story itself focuses on Ashlyn and the journey she is taking to learn to stand up for herself. Considering she doesn't feel truly loved by her father, that's something she needs to learn to do so she can express that to him. Ashlyn is going through plenty in her life. Her father is being sent to prison for tax evasion and her mom is a shell of who she used to be. While dad is going to jail, mom is going to recovery and Ashlyn is sent away for the summer. All she wants to do is come back home and her father seems dedicated to keeping her as far away as possible. While Ashlyn has made mistakes, she doesn't deserve to get shipped away forever. The central plot of the story here is about knowing your worth and being willing to speak up when you aren't getting that back. Ashlyn has gotten beaten down by life and stopped voicing her needs. Seeing her learn to do that again (along with the needs of others) inspires you as the reader to do the same. Everyone is better off when you do what you need to in order to be happy in your life. A cute contemporary story with an important life lesson. My rating: 4.25 out of 5