A review by jenblei
California Summer by Anita Hughes

3.0

I've really enjoyed the other books I've read by Anita Hughes, so I was very much looking forward to this one. I still loved the settings, food, clothes, atmosphere etc- she certainly knows how to write beach books.

But I found the main character very unsympathetic, and really a bit stupid. I understand the pain of a breakup (don't we all), but wow, she really bounces back quickly!

For the first part of the book she's bouncing around what seems like every hour or two between being heartbroken and having a major crush on Josh. All of a sudden she's madly in love with him, although she's still half-expecting to get back together with Ben at the party. Okay. And then when she decides that she is completely in love with Josh, she continually runs away every time things don't go perfectly. God forbid they ever miss a message from each other or look for two seconds longer than normal at another person, because they'll be divorced before either of them can turn around.

Sometimes it seems like a given in romance novels that the leads have the emotional maturity of 12 year olds, and in that respect, it is an excellent book.