The Summer of Me and You by Rae Hachton

The Summer of Me and You by Rae Hachton
Series: N/A
Source: Blog Tour
Publisher: Teen Pulse
Publication Date: September 19, 2013

This is the summer of first love. The summer of magic. The Summer of Me and You. 

Kaleb has loved Kayleigh ever since first grade, even if he's never admitted it to anyone. Not even himself. But this summer, that's about to change.

Kaleb's had a troubled past, and Kayleigh's life has always been perfect. He'd love nothing more than to be the guy who ruins it all, and make her fall for him against her mother's wishes.

Kayleigh is a complete nerd. Or at least that's how she feels. She just knows that a guy like Kaleb would never really want to be with a girl like her. So she's going to avoid him at all costs.

But then why do they always end up hanging out together?

When a secret that both their parents kept from them comes out, it will define the true meaning of love.

But when this summer ends, will Kaleb and Kayleigh have to say goodbye, or is this just the beginning of many more summers to come?

WARNING: Before you read this review, please note the fact that there is nothing (and I mean nothing) about this book that I thought was good or awesome or worth my time. I've been going through a bit of a reading slump lately, and...it's making me way more critical. So I will tell you straight up exactly what I thought, and it probably won't be nice, and as I don't want to offend anyone...if you don't wanna see it, just don't read it please. There will be profanity involved, which I never do.

Anywho, now that I've warned you of that, we can get started; because I believe you may be here for the snark. First issue on the agenda-- the odd sentence structure and the constant feeling of not being immersed in the story. I just couldn't get into it from the very beginning. There was no rhyme or reason or anything for me to go off of. Not only that, but a few chapters in, some facts were changed. And that confused the bejeezus out of me-- I was like this for a while:

But then this madness and awkwardness and craziness persisted-- and I started cussing like a squirrel on crack who ain't ever seen a nut. It was terrible. I'm not normally a violent person but...violence. Violence was involved in my twisted imagination.

You really don't even wanna go there with me. But. I gotta better explain this for you-- Kaleb and Kayleigh made me wanna beat their heads together. Repeatedly. They just were so clueless-- a lot of the things that they didn't get were completely obvious to me from the very beginning. And a lot of things about them just didn't add up-- supposedly they've both had crushes on each other forever or whatever, yet they don't even hang out together. They watch each other from afar and avoid each other. Please explain this logic to me, I think it's missing something. Like common sense. But before I get too ahead of myself, let's start with Kaleb.

Kaleb is your typical bad boy-- "Oh, she would never want me" or "I have no chance with her she's too good for me" and the like. To get things straight with y'all, I'm  not a fan of stereotypes, and Kaleb just has stereotype written all over him. In love with the unattainable, "good" girl, has no car, job, or hope for the future and thinks he's going somewhere, as well as being a nicotine "pack a day" type inhaler. Need I say more? The only time I felt like Kaleb had any development at all was when he was holding his niece and talking to Kayleigh at the same time-- as soon as he put down his niece, the possible character that we working toward went away. Gone, kaput, you thought he was gonna be okay? Nope. To add more depth to the character, I shall show you a quote.

(When talking about sex and whether or not it will hurt Kayleigh) "A little," I said. "But not a lot."

*coughs to clear throat* EXCUSE ME? YOU'RE A BOY. YOU DON'T KNOW IF IT WILL HURT OR NOT. YOU CAN'T EVEN PRESUME TO TELL HER SOMETHING LIKE THAT. COME CLOSER SO I MAY CHEWETH YOUR ASS OUT.

As you can see, I'm under the distinct opinion that Kaleb is a total ass. And to make matters worse, since we have dual points of view, it's possible to see the home life of Kaleb and Kayleigh-- and I really wanna beat some respect into Kaleb. He treats his momma like absolute shit. Don't forget buddy, she brought you into this world and she can damn sure take you out. He has absolutely no right to treat her like that, or to create messes for her to clean up. And yet he does-- all throughout the book. And I really, really...where's my baseball bat?

Anyway, let's move on to Kayleigh. Sometimes, well, I just have problems with characters from the very beginning. That was not the case with Kayleigh. At first, I thought that I might even turn out to like her. A slightly nerdy girl who's maybe a bit too timid, but I still thought I might like her. But then, well...I didn't. Mostly because that although she's supposedly "smart" she is constantly doing stupid things. And she hangs out with Kaleb, (and falls in love with him) even though I have already revealed that he's an ass. At one point in the story, I honestly feared for Kayleigh's well-being, because I thought that Kaleb was getting too violent.

But still, she stuck around him. And I feel like that's why we didn't connect. The second reason that we didn't connect is honestly kind of stupid, but...she and Kaleb had sex, remember that quote that made me mad up there? Well...there was penetration (and movement!), because he said he'd pull out (no condom, you dumbass!!), but then she freaked out and ran away after that...but the point is, after "penetration" Kayleigh runs home and starts questioning herself...see quote below.

And oh my God, was I still a virgin, or no? Because we hadn't really done it, we almost did. Right?

No, honey...you did it. There's no two ways about it, and it shocks me that you would even presume to think that you didn't have sex with him when you did. I AM SO AGGRAVATED. Like, would you think that you hadn't had sex if there was penetration (and movement!) involved? Just because you got him to stop and ran away before either of you...*bleep* means nothing. That was still sex, and you had it, and that makes you not a virgin. This is a simple fact. I realize that you are just confused, but...damn girl. Seriously, correct me if I'm wrong.

And then... *dunt dun da* they ignore each other. They ignore the fact that it happened. Let's get this straight-- I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. I'M MAD AT YOU, AND YOU. I DON'T WANT TO EVER SEE YOU AGAIN. *big dramatic blowup*

Excuse me while I go cry into my cornflakes. As you can see, there was just no way that I could love this one. And to make matters worse, throughout the book (having figured out the reason that the moms hate each other early on) I had to wonder about something and the six months between them and....ERGH. Until the end, when that was resolved and started to look better. It was all drama and convenience, to tell you the truth.

I won't even go into the many stereotypes and the sad point when I realized that there was no way this book could ever redeem itself in my eyes. I didn't like or ever get to know the characters, the romance was so subpar, and...this just wasn't for me. And I've never written such a ranting review in my life. O.O