Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods – Review

Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods
Published by Crown Books for Young Readers on 5/10/16
Genres: Young Adult, Romance
Pages: 352
Source: Won It!
My content rating: YA (Some talk of sex, but nothing shown)
My rating:

Fans of Jennifer E. Smith and Jenny Han will fall in love with this heartfelt and humor-laced debut following one girl’s race to find the guy of her cosmic dreams.

When zodiac-obsessed teen Wilamena Carlisle discovers a planetary alignment that won’t repeat for a decade, she’s forced to tackle her greatest astrological fear: The Fifth House—relationships and love.

But when Wil falls for a sensitive guitar player hailing from the wrong side of the astrology chart, she must decide whether a cosmically doomed love is worth rejecting her dead mother’s legacy and the very system she’s faithfully followed through a lifetime of unfailing belief.

A quick note from Nicole for those of you who are regulars around here – this is my mom’s (Gay’s) first solo review (okay, fine, I interjected a few things here and there – but, for the most part, it’s hers!). Hopefully you’ll be seeing lots more of these!

To put it simply, this is a story of a girl looking for her astrological soulmate, and she’s on a deadline.

Wil promised her mother before she died that she would only fall in love with her astrological soulmate, so she’s on a search for him. She’s been following the stars her whole life and truly believes this path is her destiny. However, when she finds two guys, one is a perfect match according to the stars and the other is far from her match. But she’s so drawn to the “wrong” guy, it’s hard for her to resist. Thus the love triangle.

The Characters:

Wil – She has her head in the stars but is this kind of old fashioned, quirky girl with unique sense of humor. I loved Wil. She had a hard life, but never pitied herself.

Grams – She has raised Wil ever since her mom died. She and Wil are very close and love each other very much. They have a great relationship, even though Wil has been hiding her interest in astrology from Grams since she doesn’t believe in it.

Irina – She’s a great character. She’s a Russian spitfire and often tries to “talk sense” into Wil, but she’s also totally supportive of Will in finding her perfect match.

Grant – He meets Wil when he tries to “save her life” (when he thinks she’s going to jump off a tower). Of course she was just up there enjoying the view. Grant is a musician, and he is kind and considerate and mysterious. He’s totally not the right Zodiac sign for Wil, but from the start she’s drawn to him.

Seth – The perfect match, or so Wil believes. Seth is sweet and caring, and you want to love him and Wil together. He seems perfect for her.

The triangle begins.

What Fed My Addiction:

• I loved Wil’s sense of humor and quirkiness.
• I loved her relationship with Irina. They are two very different people but they have a strong bond and a great friendship, always there for each other, even when they didn’t agree with what the other was doing. (Nicole’s note – Totally agree with you about Irina. She was such a fun character and she was a great balance for Wil.)
• I loved Wil’s relationship with her Grams. It’s nice to read a book with good family relationships.
• I really don’t know much about astrology, but that didn’t seem to matter in this story, which I was glad to find out.

What Left Me Wanting More:

• I’m not a huge fan of love triangles and, without giving anything away, the relationship between Grant and Seth made the love triangle even more painful. It did, however, make for an interesting story. (Note from Nicole: Yep! I felt so sorry for Seth throughout this book because you just knew things weren’t going to end well for him. Poor guy!!)
• There was a revelation about one of Wil’s family members that was brought up in the story and then just dropped, never to be heard about again. I would have liked a little more information on this character. (Note from Nicole: You’re so right! I kind of forgot about it, but the more I think about it, it is really weird that this storyline was completely dropped.)

 I give this book 4/5 stars.

About Darcy Woods:

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